Is City of Edmonton’s All White Administration Leadership Team Ready for “Amarjeetdon”?
Close to 106K Edmontonians voted for Mayor Amarjeet Sohi to lead a new direction for Edmonton.
Now, a new “king” is on the Edmonton City throne, supported by a new supportive Council, preaching a new kind of gospel, and you can sure guess as with any change, there’s likely to be panic in the Administration; people doing things because they have to, not because they want to. People not sure what to do, those not ready for change, and for the first time in some people’s careers, not sure if they have the racial credibility to deal with the new direction of the new mayor – let’s just say racial change could be coming to town.
This upcoming change brings tons of questions to the table, knocking directly at the door of Edmonton City Manager:
Is Edmonton City Manager, Andre Corbould’s Administration ready for this change? Does his leadership team have the racial makeup to give credibility to tackle this new direction of racism, discrimination, inclusion, and related stuffs in Edmonton? Like the City of Vancouver, is he going to create a new Deputy City Manager led by a person from the BIPOC communities to take charge of this issue in his leadership team? What can he do in the short, medium, and long term to give his team genuine credibility or some semblance of it in front of their Council bosses and you watching Edmontonians to ensure lasting change? Can the City Manager translate his defence management experiences into building an inclusive City that fosters diversity and inclusion in Edmonton, effectively involving and engaging BIPOC communities and building a stable line of connection, communication, and information sharing, rather through community media networks as well, and not only through the usual mainstream media?
Council met for its inaugural meeting on October 26, 2021. Mayor Sohi and Council immediately dictated the direction for the next four years – “Amarjeerdon,” a motion directing City administration to work with the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee and Edmonton’s BIPOC communities in a collaborative way to develop action items and an anti-racism strategy.
A new “king” has appeared on the throne, with a new anti-racism vision knocking on the Administration’s door for change. Different from the visions of past mayors. City’s Administration is likely panicking, not sure how to deal with this new direction as they were either not ready, taking unaware, too slow for the change coming their way, or just not into it. As you can guess, the Administration goes in the direction of the mayor and Council, a departure that brings new players to the table.
From my observation, when racial change is demanded, one of three things occur:
If the force of the racial change is weaker than the resistance put on by the government in charge, the government will make some few cosmetic changes led by BIPOC members of the government and that is it – call it race-faking.
If the force of change is equal to the the resistance put on by the government in charge, the government dilutes its power, create new positions for a bunch of Uncle Toms from the BIPOC communities in the government, elevate them to positions of power with a strict script to follow, with no will to make meaningful change, asking them to do exactly what they will otherwise do. Under normal circumstances, someone from the BIPOC community will only respond to race issues similarly to a White person only if they are corrupt, threatened, or wrestling for survival. Due to the experiences of people from BIPOC communities, they will always respond to race issues differently from White people – the reason why the first motion put forward by Mayor Sohi who himself has faced racism is to tackle racism and discrimination in Edmonton. Whenever BIPOC people respond to race issues in the same way as White people, you can guess that the government in charge is either renting or buying a Black or Brown face to do its bidding, the reason why this scenario is called race-washing.
If the force of change is stronger than the resistance of the government in charge, the government gives up some of its power to new BIPOC appointees to positions of power in its government, with the independence, the will, and community focus to effect real lasting change – call it a race revolution.
When the Edmonton City Administration responds to Mayor Sohi’s inaugural motion to tackle racism, discrimination, and foster inclusion in the City government, it will be interesting to see if a White City Manager, Andre Corbould, as has been done traditionally will respond, or will break from tradition for any of his all White Deputy City Managers to take to the podium in front of Edmonton to lead a direction on racism with no lived experiences by anyone in their all White Leadership Team. Most importantly, will they fashion race faking, race-washing, or the much needed race revolution in their government?
This City’s Administration has only managed to appoint 0% of over 330K people from Edmonton’s BIPOC communities to its leadership team, in a city where about 40% of the population of over a million are made up of BIPOC people suffering from chronic unemployment, and under employment, with qualified BIPOC people with leadership qualities at the bottom of the City’s hierarchy, some at the periphery of City’s middle management, and others running around driving taxis and Ubers, some cleaning butts in care homes, with many more scrubbing kitchens and washrooms around the city, hoping for a better tomorrow.
Another crucial piece to this motion is how the city government will engage and involve multicultural communities, as most of the people in these communities barely know what City Hall does and what happens there and why they should get involved.
Multicultural publications have been put out from things happening at City Hall or in city structures such that their audiences who do not watch mainstream media are left in the dark. Reaching out and finding valuable partners will be crucial in this “change”.
So the question here is not just if the all White City Administration Leadership Team is ready for “change” but will also extends to you, are you also ready to play in this “change” – Amarjeetdon?
