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Back in April Dr. Catungal & RJ Aquino our moderator in today's teach-in, called on the BC government to collect data on race, ethnicity to better understand COVID-19 impacts: https://globalnews.ca/news/6889720/prof-urges-b-c-to-collect-data-on-race-ethnicity-to-better-understand-covid-19-impacts/
#genderplus
#genderplus
Our next speaker, Dr. Faithe Day @Violafaithe90 is the Assistant Director of @COVIDBLK -- finally seeing race-based data on COVID-19 aggregated, but still need 'intersectional' data -- pushing against equating 'sex' with 'gender' & the consequent inaccuracies
Dr. Day is now creating resources for Black community members about health information & data, moving away from motivating community members using data on death and mortality rates that have become incredibly common-place #genderplus
"We talk about the impact of the media, but don't talk enough about data effects–what is the consequence of the daily consumption of death data, especially on the communities they are about?" #genderplus
Dr. June Francis is now joining us to talk more about health data in the Canadian context–"...our essential concern is the lack of race-based data at the most fundamental, & has been a purposeful omission," #genderplus
@DrJuneFrancis1: This is a much more complex issue than the simple collection of data #genderplus
@DrJuneFrancis1 a senior health official claimed recently Canada is colour-blind & doesn't need race-based data–this mentality = lack of research across federal and provincial while academic research remains uninvested #genderplus
Community-driven qualitative data can expose and cause further emotional toil, only to prove that essential services like modular housing were necessary, when that data wasn't being aggregated previously #genderplus @DrJuneFrancis1
@MOHAWKEMOTIONS joins us: began collecting community-reported data available through First Nations band, beginning to record the information that was missing #genderplus
–overtime, quickly learned that community-reported data on COVID-19 cases was nearly twice as much as what federal government was reporting. @Yellowhead_ came out with a brief explaining this discrepancy #genderplus @MOHAWKEMOTIONS
Small indication that funds are being directed to federal information and data-collection, but it is not enough. We do not know how many Indigenous people have been impacted by COVID-19, & this omission only compounds grief & trauma as it continues to impact community #genderplus
Here is the brief from @MOHAWKEMOTIONS & @Yellowhead_ : https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/05/12/colonialism-of-the-curve-indigenous-communities-and-bad-covid-data #genderplus
Introducing Kevonnie Whyte from Black in BC Mutual Aid. Back in March, came up with idea of GoFundMe because off the bat knew that Black people would be disproportionately impacted in BC from COVID-19 https://ca.gofundme.com/f/covid19-black-community-support-vancouver
#genderplus
#genderplus
Organizers of Black in BC COVID fund, due to public outrage of police brutality in North America, received donations that suddenly jumped to over $150,000–this outpouring of support should have been continuous & not a reaction #genderplus
Black in BC Mutual Aid In the process of organizing in-person outreach to fund Black folks in person who may have technological limitations; given back over $60,000 in the community #genderplus
Going forward, the key is to limit the information from those applying for funds. Committed to deleting all recipient's info after shared all the funds. #genderplus
Q&A: Justice demands that the whole process be reimagined, going back to the consensus, to include and recognize white supremacist basis of state data collection. @DrJuneFrancis1 #genderplus
Q&A: First Nations people have been very interested in controlling their own data-collection methods for quite some time, there is a huge push to have accurate information that is controlled by communities @MOHAWKEMOTIONS #genderplus
Q&A: Audience question "Could you speak strategies for justice-centred forms of data curation, especially when health data can be used to entrench ableist and white supremacist approaches to healthcare?"
. @DrJuneFrancis1: Sudden-attention to hundreds of years of violence are at least being put on the spotlight, we in Canada are benefitting from the organization & work of Black organizers in the U.S #genderplus
Strategies for justice-centered forms of data curation: What are we using the data for, by whom, for whom, & what do we do after this data? Must think beyond the numbers-what are the histories & legacies of what that data means? @Violafaithe90 #genderplus
on the issue of qualitative data–especially with the 'awakening' of anti-Black racism in the city, instead of putting energy towards funding data-collection, media shifting towards #traumaporn with no concept of what that does to us as people @DrJuneFrancis1 #genderplus
'insidious how we are reduced to our bodies & trauma' Dr. JP Catungal thanking @DrJuneFrancis1 on pointing out the dangers of Canadian exceptionalism, & the obsession with traumatic stories rather than fundamental change #genderplus
Q&A: communities are being pitted against each other on state health-based data collection, and this is an intentional strategy @DrJuneFrancis1 #genderplus
"When we began to collect data at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, we began with a Google doc..." @MOHAWKEMOTIONS on their brief https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2020/05/12/colonialism-of-the-curve-indigenous-communities-and-bad-covid-data/ #genderplus
Popping-in a question on race in a generic survey isn't 'race-based data' & merely collecting this data will never be enough, especially when thinking about the histories of the institutions collecting this data @DrJuneFrancis1 #genderplus
