Inverting Racism, the Victimizers Become the Victims

"[The report fails to address antisemitism at a time when there is a] significant rise of antisemitic and anti-Israeli incidents and hostility in our public schools, and throughout the community."

"It also adopts the narrative of 'anti-Palestinian racism,' which seeks to erase core aspects of Jewish identity and history, and redefine what constitutes antisemitism."

"It should prioritize addressing antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israeli Canadians, while avoiding the unnecessary politicization of our students, staff, and faculty due to imported international conflicts."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)

 

"Why are staff and the trustees hiding behind these walls, refusing to hear from the Jewish community? Why are they hiding?"

"Why are the personal stories of hate and racism experienced by Jewish students and teachers in the TDSB incompatible with the TDSB’s combating hate and racism strategy? I have personally lost confidence in the leadership of the TDSB."

Carly Cohen, concerned TDSB parent

Hundreds of people rallied outside of the Toronto District School Board during a Program and School Services Committee meeting that was voting on adopting the term 'anti-Palestinian racism' within the school board. (CBC)

"It seems apparent that the desire to include a definition on anti-Palestinian racism [and this urgently] is a virtue signalling move meant to further polarize and divide Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish and/or Arab students given that there is no indication that anti-Palestinian racism has occurred as a form of discrimination within the TDSB."

Jess Burke, director of diversity, inclusion and training, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

 

"The only definition of anti-Palestinian racism that I’ve seen, and it’s one that is frequently cited amongst advocates, says denying the Nakba or trying to silence or exclude Palestinian narratives is a form of anti-Palestinian racism."

"Adopting this definition of anti-Palestinian racism also means you’re going to have to adopt Nakba Day [denying the legitimacy of the State of Israel] because any resistance to the idea that it should be taught in schools is racist; is a form of anti-Palestinian racism. So they are linked in that way."

"Antisemitism has been a huge problem at the TDSB. Their own data says that last fall incidents of antisemitism tripled."

Aaron Kucharczuk, parent of 3 TDSB students, founding member of the Jewish Educators and Families Association

Occupants of a pro-Palestinian encampment on the main campus of the University of Toronto are pictured on May 24, 2024. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

It is a curious social phenomenon that has manifested in the past eight months, actually in the aftermath of a sadistically psychopathic group atrocity of truly savage dimensions committed by Palestinians in Gaza and primarily by the organization of Hamas governing Gaza -- an event horrific in the revelations of an ideology whose sole purpose is the destruction of a nation. Clearly stated in its charter that its reason for existence is the destruction of a reconstructed nation on its ancestral homeland and with it the Jews who call it their home and refuge, their haven from a world without that has proven time and again bare tolerance for a Jewish presence.

 

It took a genocide to finally persuade desperate Jewish leaders that Jews would be forever at the mercy of those who all too frequently showed no mercy toward the diaspora, worldwide Jewry forced into exile by a two-hundred-year occupation by the powerful Roman Empire. Assembled once again on the land of their heritage, those who shared the land were enraged at the formal resurrection invited by the United Nations apportioning the land equally between Jews and Arabs in an area the Romans had named their province of Palestine, then solely a Judean enclave.

 

This is a history well documented both by current historians and those historical coevals of the era. The Arab contingent of actual colonialists from Egypt took to calling themselves the authentic Palestinians, a declaration with no grounding in reality. Their leaders pledged to engage the nascent Jewish state in war. It was a conflict that was to be repeated and repeated by Arab nations' militaries and the reason for repeating was that each military confrontation failed. Those calling themselves Palestinians then relied on their own confrontations in guerrilla warfare, an asymmetric conflict targeting civilians. Which led to Israel being forced to defend itself by militarily policing the areas adjacent its borders, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

This is what 'Palestinians' refer to as the 'occupation', which they vow to 'resist'. Occupation that is self-defence, resistance that is code for terrorism against Israeli civilians. And although it is the Palestinians who threaten Jews and Israelis, they name themselves the victims and the State of Israel, their victimizer. Even as actual events are ample proof of the Palestinians' elaborate pretense at deprivation of their human rights, their appeal to the international community has resonated, leading, incredibly, to Israel's reputation suffering under Palestinian slander.

Claiming the rebirth of Israel as a recognized sovereign nation by the United Nations, propelled to that status under their 1947 Partition Plan which the Palestinians rejected for themselves, they now present the 1948 international recognition of Israel -- a sovereign state --  as a catastrophe for Palestinians who fled the area to become refugees. The resulting designation of mourning their loss, calling it the Nakba attempts to portray Israel's existence as illegitimate, and Jews as colonialists despite their ancestral heritage status' authenticity.

 

Apparently hidden from view is another reality, that over two million Arab Palestinians have legitimate Israeli citizenship with all the privileges that come with citizenship. As loyal Israelis they take part in the mechanics of the state as judges, lawmakers, diplomats; rising in the professions such as medicine and academia taking advantage of all opportunities available to distinguish themselves as Arab-Israelis in Israel where they freely exercise their right to freedom of religion. A small number among theme may chafe at the Jewish state but none among them seem prepared to live elsewhere than in Israel, preferring life there than under Palestinian rule.

The Palestinian re-invention of history is what the West in general and the Toronto and District School Board in particular among many others in the West has accepted. One cannot accept the Palestinian narrative without acknowledging that in doing so Israel is being slandered and delegitimized; in other words, playing the game of the Palestinians and by further extension approving the atrocities that took place October 7 in southern Israel when Palestinians embarked on a mission of rape, torture, slaughter and kidnapping Israelis because they are Jews. For their story of liberation against oppression also legitimizes rape, torture and slaughter as an acceptable means to reach their version of freedom.

Rally outside Toronto District School Board, June 18, 2024

Jews may be considered a race, but it's quite a stretch to recognize Palestinians as a 'race', although Arabs are. Palestinians are simply a group within the wider Arab community which has distinguished itself as 'different' by claiming inheritance of ancestral Judean land, by naming themselves for an ancient historical province originally meant to recognize a Judean presence, by claiming Jewish history is their history. The world of Western democracy is in the throes of a 'progressive' liberal ideology that has taken to celebrating the power of the underdog and which boasts its support of equality, diversity and inclusion -- aimed primarily at elevating the status within society of people of colour and Indigenous peoples.

Diversity, equality and inclusion is increasingly denied to Jews, their indigeneity of the land they occupy in the Middle East overlooked in favour of considering them colonialists and the Palestinians' claim of 'first rights' respected broadly. Israelis as white imperialists finds great favour among academics and unions and government authorities at all levels, devoted to the issues of Critical Race Theory. People of the Jewish faith and various ethnicities of Jewish derivation are not homogeneously white, nor is their culture, history and experience monolithic. 

Trustees at the Toronto & District School Board in their wisdom voted in favour of a TDSB staff report recommending amending its anti-hate and racism strategy to include anti-Palestinian racism. Jewish parents of children in the school board along with community members objected. For the fairly simple reason that it is Jewish students, not Muslim students, who are facing constant issues of racism; point-blank antisemitism, from both other students and from some teaching staff. Much of it has been generated by the atmosphere prevalent in Canada of pervasive Israel-bashing and Jew-hate expressed in pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rallies.

A new working group is to be struck, tasked to develop a strategy to combat anti-Palestinian racism in public schools in Toronto. A task force to address a phenomenon that does not exist. Schools in the board's jurisdiction are encouraged to accommodate Palestinian Students Associations as creating "affinity space opportunities for diverse students", amid recommendations that educators attend extra-curricular professional training sessions to more fully comprehend anti-Palestinian racism. 

Formally instituting 'anti-Palestinian racism' runs the risk of claiming protection from such expressions of 'anti-Palestinianism' when Palestinian student groups indulge in antisemitic attacks on fellow students, situations that are now commonly experienced by Jewish students whose complaints fail to move school administrations to take any action whatsoever to restrain the burgeoning episodes of Jewish students being singled out for harassment and isolation. In other words, rather than addressing the problem of growing Jew-hate in their jurisdictions, the TDSB is encouraging by this step, a further increase in venomous attacks against Jewish students.

The protest began at Yonge and Bloor Streets and evolved into a march that went south on Yonge Street, west on College street, south on University Avenue and east on Dundas Street, ending at Yonge-Dundas Square. (Lorenda Reddekopp/CBC)

 

DIE: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity

"To sit here and talk about facts and figures and then walk into the classroom tomorrow and say 'Canada is just as bad as the United States', I think we are doing an incredible disservice to our learners."

School Principal Richard Bilkszto, Toronto & District School Board 

"We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what's really going on for Black people?"

"At least [the U.S.] had a fighting posture against at least the monarchy, here we celebrate the monarchy, the very heart and soul and origins of the colonial structure."

DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson, CEO, KOJO Institute

"[Thanks to the KOJO Institute for] modelling the discomfort administrators may need to experience in order to disrupt [anti-Black racism]."

Toronto & District School Board Superintendent

"Based on the information on file, I am satisfied that the conduct of the speaker ... was abusive, egregious and vexatious, and rises to the level of workplace harassment and bullying."

"[The DEI trainer intended to] cause reputational damage and to] make an example [of the principal."

Worker's Compensation Board

A Toronto District School Board sign is shown in front of a high school in Toronto. Photo by The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn

There seem to be few public schools and academic institutions in North America currently that haven't been invested in workplace diversity, equity and inclusion training; sensitivity awareness by 'white colonialists' to the 'lived reality' and historical colonialism of typical 'white supremacists', a learning issue that has extended to businesses and governments in this age of progressive wokeness. Richard Bilkszto, a principal with the TDSB, is suing the board for its failure to defend him during a hostile DEI training session.

 

Mr. Bilkszto has a 24-year career as a principal behind him. He is quite aware of the responsibilities incumbent upon the teaching profession, relaying to young students the fundamentals of a good education in the primary subjects of exposure; language, geography, history, science and economics. He previously taught at an inner-city school in Buffalo and is well versed in how Black and white students were treated. He took offence at Canada being singled out as the greater harbourer of racism.

For her part, Ms. Ojo-Thompson set out to teach the class she was addressing of education administrators that Canada's status as a monarchy represented a marker of racism. The British monarchy, in fact, outlawed slavery long before the U.S. did, and Canada itself had very few Black people held as slaves. The Underground Railway from the U.S. to Canada was a conduit to safety. It can be assumed that this DEI educator either was ignorant or chose to bypass the historical fact that African tribes were heavily involved as slavers.

She is the chief executive of an enterprise with clients in public institutions with listed clients that include the RCMP, the government of Ontario, the CBC, a number of universities and the federal government itself, enjoying service contracts in the interests of instilling a higher sense of sensitivity in employees to Black victimhood. In this instance, Mr. Bilkszto responded that racism is real with a need to improve the situation but that Canada remains a fairer place than the U.S., belying the trainer's contention otherwise. 

Another training facilitator with KOJO who was present at the session told Mr. Bulkszto "if you want to be an apologist for the U.S. or Canada, this is really not the forum for that". To which Ms. Ojo-Thompson added by instructing the class that "your job in this work as white people is to believe", not to question.

The day following this exchange of opinions, Mr. Bilkszto was berated by his supervisors about his "male white privilege" and "fallout" from the training.

In a follow-up training session, trainer Ojo-Thompson referrered to the principal's comments at the previous session as an example of "resistance" that supports white supremacy, explaining that his reference to "facts" represented an effort to derail the conversation and discredit her words. She encouraged everyone present to push back when they see others being "accosted by white supremacy".

The Toronto School Administrators' Association and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board supported Mr. Bilkszto's claim for workplace harassment leading to sick leave, calling for an investigation into the incident, though no investigation was initiated. However, the worker's compensation board awarded loss of earnings benefits for chronic mental stress.

The Toronto & District School Board itself is now under mental stress, since it decided in turn to issue a statement of claim against the KOJO Institute, alleging the DEI consulting firm was negligent, in breach of contract by humiliating, harassing and defaming their staff principal. Although Mr. Bilkszto, a contract principal, returned to work following six weeks of sick leave, he was not reinstated to the position he held prior to the DEI confrontation.

His work with the school board has been curtailed and another contract for a principal term was revoked. He is now seeking $785,000 in damages. It is clear that the school board, fearing they will be held liable for the hefty damages against them, will sue for a like amount from the DEI consulting firm to cover their liability.

But the court filings for these lawsuits render a birds-eye view of relentless workplace DEI training, that relies on coercion and ridicule to ensure that employees are forced to accept a litany of charges of racialist, ahistorical contentions. Any who fail to appropriately submit to the charges might find themselves being ordered to attend re-education sessions.

KOJO Institute is a leading consultancy that partners with organizations to unlock their potential by navigating the challenges connected to equity, bias, diversity, inclusion anti-oppression and anti-racism.

For over 20 years, KOJO Institute has designed scalable transformation frameworks that cultivate employment equity, cultural change, education and organizational development that drive positive social and business outcomes. Inclusive Change Drives People We deliver innovative solutions that achieve equitable outcomes, improve culture, and produce transformational results. KOJO web page Kike Ojo-Thompson, Founder & CEO