Racism: Rural vs Urban - A Gen Z Perspective

Racial inequities exist in Canada, and particularly in rural, remote and northern Canada.

I have heard the stories. Just one example is a Black woman entrepreneur in rural Alberta, who told me of the racism she experienced at her local Chamber of Commerce.

She’s the reason I enlisted the help of post secondary students (from the Venture for Canada Intrapreneurship program) from racialized and marginalized communities to create the report: How Inclusive are Canada’s Chambers of Commerce? A Report Card and the Words 2 Action: DEI Mobilization Map that followed.

As a white settler, am I the right person to facilitate a conversation about race?

I again enlisted the help of students from the Venture for Canada program.

This time, I asked the students to help me rethink the podcast. What more could I be doing to bring attention to contentious and uncomfortable topics in rural Canada, like racism?

Yvonne Wang and Uttej Mannava, both Western University students, took on the challenge of planning a podcast episode about racism from a rural vs urban perspective. Yvonne’s studies are currently around health and Uttej is studying data science.

They hosted Kirsten Schmidt from the rural perspective. Kirsten is a research assistant with the Rural Development Network and a student at the University of Alberta. She grew up in rural Alberta.

From the urban perspective, Cedric Richards, a local travel influencer from London, Ontario added his lens to the conversation.(You can follow his awesome newsletter/blog here!)

I listened ‘backstage’ and it was really evident to me, because Yvonne, Uttej and Cedric are all people of colour, there was so much more context, richness and fullness to the conversation.

I am so grateful to all of them for taking this on.

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