Racism at the YMCA of Greater Toronto

thanks Le Tйlйspectateur

Our group decided to bring to everyone’s attention that a number of people who have been subject to racism at the YMCA of Greater Toronto – Central (down town Toronto) requested a meeting with the YMCA board of directors to discuss how the policies of YMCA promote racism and stress the need for adequate anti-racist policies and proper complaint investigation process at the YMCA. A set of policies which would be readily available to all staff, members, volunteers and service users to inform them of their rights and to hold staff accountable for their actions or lack of actions about complaints of racism and violation of human rights.

The Chair of the board responded in writing that the board can’t meet with them because staffs deal with these issues. Senior staffs refuse to investigate complaints of racism adequately and also refuse to develop adequate anti-racist and human rights policies. They mandate those who bring forward complaints of racism to get involved in mediation with the perpetrator of racism or their membership would be terminated. In cases that individuals insisted on adequate investigation of racism instead of mediation, the Y terminated their membership.

They don’t seem to understand (or don’t care) that racism is not a conflict; it is act of bullying and contempt by one or a group of people against another individual or group of people. Mediation is not going to solve racism it only further victimise the targets of racism. They completely remove the responsibility of dealing with racism at their facilities and put on the shoulders of targets of racism to negotiate with bigots and racists.

What now? Who is responsible for human rights at the YMCA of Greater Toronto? Board says it is not their responsibility and doesn’t want to review the policies (or lack there of) and conduct of staff and staff clearly don’t care and continue with their racist practices.

Who is responsible for the YMCA? They are using charity and publci fund, these resoruces would be much better spend in organizations with clear accountability measures to the community and funders.

Thanks Le Tйlйspectateur for your input and for spreading the word. Please send emails to the Y and funders. The more people send messages to them the more helpful it would be to get an answer from them.

This is a long post but neccessary.

I think the reason that this letter took so long was because of all the discussion over some of the points you raised. At the end it was decided there is no need to share specific cases and we can get our point across by brining quotes from different studies and showing the need for policy and accountability for the process. Here are some thoughts behind the decision:
I think use of quotes by widely accepted researchers which were taken from the Human Rights commission documents demonstrates that lack of policy and actions by the Y results in racism

The CEO and chair of the Y are (should be) aware of many cases in their organization and so far they haven’t done anything about it. They are non-responsive and at the best case when they have responded they have referred back the complaints to the individuals in the centre of the problem. They are not willing to deal with racism in at their organization. Perhaps this way they can publicly explain why they think they don’t need to investigate complaints of racism and why they don’t share their “policies’ with the community and/or why they don’t have a policy. Perhaps they can publicly state that they are satisfied that there is no racism at their organization.

The organization refuses to share its policy with its members and the community and in some occasions which they have shared after a long battle by the community members they have send a clear message to the community that this is not any of their business. The “policy” that was shared is not a policy it is a set of statements. An organization that refuses to share its human rights “policy” with the community (in specific people of colour and Aboriginal peoples) has a lot to hide and/or is trying to send a message to the community (specifically people of colour and Aboriginal peoples). The message is “how dare you questioning us and we do as we are pleased and you should accept what we throw at you (edited for spelling), who do you think you are?”

Y is publicly and charity funded organization and has responsibilities toward the public. When a case goes to the Human rights Tribunal the first thing that the Tribunal wants to know is about that organizations policies and whether they have a policy. Lack of policy by itself shows the organizations’ attitude and approach towards discrimination and racism.

Sharing specific cases would only put those targets of racism and harassment in more risk for further victimization by the Y and others. Because of YMCA’s bullying most people opt to remain silent. We can’t let organizations to bully people into silence.

As far as reaction of few people on this board is concerned I wouldn’t worry about that at all. Just read few others of their postings on other threads and you would know what they are all about.

YMCA needs to investigate complaints of racism in order to deal with problems. They don’t have any written investigation process and if they do they are not sharing it with the public. Even if they do it can’t be a sufficient policy because their action is very arrogant and dismissive of victims of racism. Dismissing complaints of racism and bullying those who bring forward complaints is not an answer to racism. Their denial about existence of racism by itself shows their intent. This letter is giving the Y, CEO and chair more than they give to the community. They don't share their policy and investigation process with the community or they don't have one which is a utter disregard toward people of colour and Aboriginal peoples.

Human Right commission’s guide specifically states that first step towards combating racism is to acknowledge its existence. Furthermore the commission states that racism is a big problem in Ontario and Canada. If the Y and few people on this thread think that there is no racism at the Y then our problem is even bigger.

The same way that some points about conducts of the Y has been shared on this board there will be some more as appropriate and as decided by the individuals involved.

[ 20 May 2008: Message edited by: Seddig ]

Seddig, I admire your struggle to engage this institution. I wish I could get involved, perhaps you could PM or email me? It sound like a positive way to make change.

Great Makwa and Le Tйlйspectateu. I will be in touch. You know, this is what this forum is supposed to be all about. People of colour, Aboriginal Peoples and our real allies discuss ways to combat racism. This forum is not suppose to be about seeking approval from those, with feelings of superiority and those who feel they are entitled to tell us when and how we should approach racism.

This is really great. I will be in touch with both of you (through PM) shortly.

I don't know if posting about it here without any response from the YMCA achieves anything at all. Do they even know about these accusations ?

It's not at all clear from what is posted above.

thanks Cuball

In my experience, I learned a general rule: public institutions that are subject of allegations of racism and in the know that such allegations may be well-founded do not reply. They do not volunteer to admit it and have no legal obligation to respond.

For that matter, I worked in two public institution in Ontario and the rule is not to admit to anything (racism or any wrongdoing) unless subpoened in a court of law.

[ 24 May 2008: Message edited by: mahmud ]

This site is not enmasse. At this point, Seddig is merely relating their personal experience and their proposed actions. I see nothing wrong with telling an institution that they need to improve their anti-racism policies and practices, if that is your opinion. I have known people of colour who have worked at the YMCA and have spoken about racism. Seddig and the others who are supporting this action may well be sock-puppet creations, but unless I have IP evidence of my own to support this allegation, which I have not yet determined, I will give Seddig the benefit of the doubt.

Just wanting to point out conclusions others came up with and what my thoughts were on this issue. You may not like it but there it is.
You can call it nasty others have other thoughts on this issue. Have a nice day regardless.

quote:Originally posted by Makwa:
This site is not enmasse. At this point, Seddig is merely relating their personal experience and their proposed actions. I see nothing wrong with telling an institution that they need to improve their anti-racism policies and practices, if that is your opinion. I have known people of colour who have worked at the YMCA and have spoken about racism. Seddig and the others who are supporting this action may well be sock-puppet creations, but unless I have IP evidence of my own to support this allegation, which I have not yet determined, I will give Seddig the benefit of the doubt.

Regardless of wether or not the experiences related are true, I think it is pretty evident that the process for investigating and dealing with racism are clearly a problem. The fact is that it appears that the "why" does not have a sufficiently evolved independent mechanism for establishing if such charges are true or not.

What has been stated here is that there is no specific process, and what process there is basicly refers the complaint back to the person who the complaint is about. This is not sufficient.

No one has stepped forward to show that the YMCA does in fact have an alternate and indpendent process of invetsigating possible racism, this in itself might even be construed as racist, given that we live in a racist society, and considering that the YMCA is a sufficiently large and established organization that should at the very least have some sort of established independent process for dealing with racism.

quote: In that case, I am relieved that you have not engaged me in casual conversation, as that sounds kind of confrontational. If a POC or an FN person mentioned in passing to me that they think institution X is racist, I would simply listen to what they had to say, without automatically questioning their perception or credibility or forcing them to supply detailed particulars.

You don't seem to understand. We're talking about INCIDENTS here. I'm not talking about questioning credibility, I'm talking about asking questions so that I can make a decision for myself.

quote:

Seddig has indicated that she and others have cause to believe that the YMCA has a particular bias regarding racism and accusations of racism, and are lobbying them to develop better anti-racist policies and procedures. She doesn't appear to want to get into specifics on a public board, and I see no reason to insist that she does.

If we are to provide a 'balanced' view such that every instance of racism that is identified by an FN or POS is constantly challenged, then I suggest we simply fold up this forum altogether as a nice idea, but unrealistic.

If you were accused of racism, wouldn't you want the opportunity to respond ? It's only fair.

This thread proves to me that an extremely well worded and formulated letter using all the right pc buzzwords can bypass the logical brain function and get people to emotionally react like parrots especially the called "intelligent" and "academic" and "left wing" posters here. Please provide even a little bit more proof and evidence instead of generalities of what you speak of in the letter or else to me this is a brilliant example and proof itself of manipulating the so called left wing intelligensia. You can just copy the generic body of this letter, personalize it a little and apply it to any and all institutions and government offices in Canada and label them "racists" also. Why just stop at the YMCA why not launch a preemptive attack on all institutions in Canada. Ridiculous really. Yes and nasty also.

quote:Originally posted by lukeskywalker:
You can just copy the generic body of this letter, personalize it a little and apply it to any and all institutions and government offices in Canada and label them "racists" also. Why just stop at the YMCA why not launch a preemptive attack on all institutions in Canada.

Good idea. Sounds about right to me. It's about time that most institutions in Canada take a good look at the institutionalized racism that pervades much of our society. All major business and bureacracies should have an independent anti-racist policy that has measurable results. Thanks for the suggestion. However, do tone down the snarking at 'left wing intellectuals' would you, it lowers the tone of what is otherwise an excellent idea.