The Human Condition: A look at Bill 67

By Daniel Schnee on April 6, 2022.

Recently, NDP member Laura Mae Lindo tabled Bill 67 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which contains amendments to various other acts in order to further address racial inequity: the use of race to consciously or unconsciously justify socio-economic inequity.

Though I support Lindo’s intentions, I and many others oppose its wording, and the problems it seems destined to cause. This is because the bill establishes a government bureaucracy in charge of equity education as defined by whomever it hires to be its expert(s). It also allows for the possibility of measuring and investigating acts of racism based on the belief that unequal racial outcomes are inevitably a result of racism.

Imbalances of racial achievement are possible in a meritocracy without the presence of racism: the best of us will rise to the top given equal opportunity. But equity experts can still claim inequity exists where they simply feel it does, or ignore the inequities that benefit them.

For example, Forbes magazine’s equity expert Maia Forbes recently stated that, in light of actor Will Smith’s criminal assault at the Academy Awards, “respectability politics suggest that equity and fair treatment require that black people … conduct themselves in a manner deemed acceptable to whites.”

She implies a correlation, meaning my moral outrage was likely a measurement of my views on racial respectability; that my expectation of Smith to refrain from assault is a form of racism.

Writer Tayo Bero even compared the Smith incident to John Wayne having to be restrained by security at the 45th Academy Awards (though Wayne committed no assault). Wayne was angered by Indigenous activist Sacheen Littlefeather when she spoke as a representative for Marlon Brando, who refused his award to raise awareness of Hollywood’s racist depictions of Native Americans. Bero makes a false equivalence between Wayne and Smith, while completely ignoring Brando’s efforts. Wayne, who held gross racist views, did not assault anyone. Smith did though, of his own volition. The issue should be one of criminal behaviour, not race.

Even renowned equity expert Ibram X. Kendi, when asked to define racism, stated it is “a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequality, that are substantiated by racist ideas.” This is a circular argument that avoids the question; an illogical and unstable foundation for educational policy.

The wording of Bill 67 would allow for race ideology as required thinking, and creates bureaucracy dedicated to finding enough racism to justify its budget and continuing existence. It can also potentially be theologically driven, as equity is rooted in a system of values. Dozens of schools in the United States, for example, have started using and promoting Not My Deal: A Book About Whiteness, wherein a demon-like being offers readers a “whiteness contract” granting them stolen lands, riches and the opportunity to “endlessly mess” with people of colour.

This is religious race essentialism: an evil entity teaching that a skin colour is really a sin colour. Schools are promoting this literature as equity, a way to address structural imbalances through altering the racial hierarchy, not being rid of it.

If Bill 67 passes as it stands then who will watch the watchers; measure the racism among the racism measurers? What an awful mess we will be in… and Ontario’s taxpayers will fund it.

Dr. Daniel Schnee is a cultural anthropologist and jazz drummer.

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