FLASHBACK: The dangers of hair relaxers

After seven seasons and 65 episodes, we really want to meet our listeners. So we’re going to be taking the podcast on the road, and recording some live episodes across Canada with a live audience. You can expect the same thoughtful conversations with scholars, shining a light on how systemic racism permeates our society.And we’ll be bringing those episodes to our feed in the New Year.Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmeresilientpodcast to learn more about these events, and how to attend.You can also stay in touch by re-listening to past episodes, or by signing up for our biweekly newsletter on news stories that intersect with race and racism.We’ll see you back here in 2025! 

Official reports have been declaring systemic racism in North America’s education system for more than 30 years. What will it take to change?Even before COVID-19, education experts were sounding the alarm about the future of racialized children in our schools. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored — even deepened — the divide.On this episode of Don’t Call me Resilient, we speak with Kulsoom Anwer, a high school teacher who joined us from her classroom in one of Toronto’s most marginalized neighbourhoods. With her is Carl James, professor of education at York University. Together we discuss the injustices and inequalities in the education system and, in the conversation, we also explore some possible ways forward.Every week, we highlight articles that drill down into the topics we discuss in the episode. This week, both articles say that combating racism in schools is not only possible, but also that solutions are in the hands of educators.To make change, teachers must not only question existing power dynamics, but they must also acknowledge and validate the racism that is experienced by Black, Indigenous and racialized youth.For more information and resources, go here: SHOW NOTES A full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this reflective and personal episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, Prof. Cheryl Thompson of Toronto Metropolitan University and author of Beauty in a Box untangles the wending history of hair relaxers for Black women — and the health risks now linked to them.For decades, Black women have been using hair relaxers to help them “fit into” global mainstream workplaces and the European standards of beauty that continue to dominate them. More recently, research has linked these relaxers to cancer and reproductive health issues — and a spate of lawsuits across the United States, and at least one in Canada, have been brought by Black women against the makers of these relaxants.Prof. Thompson and I get into it: including her own relationship to using relaxers as a Black woman, the lawsuits and the wending history and relationship between these relaxants and Black women. We also — for obvious reasons — dip into The Other Black Girl, the novel that is also now a horror-satire streaming series about mind-controlling hair products.For more information and resource, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

If you don’t pay close attention to news about COVID, you might think the pandemic is nearly over. But for the millions of people worldwide suffering from long COVID, that couldn’t be further from the truth.And the number of those experiencing long-term symptoms keeps growing: At least one in five of us infected with the virus go on to develop long COVID.The effects of long COVID are staggering. Researchers say it can lead to: blood clots, heart disease, damage to the blood vessels, neurological issues, cognitive impairment, nerve damage, chronic pain and extreme fatigue.And there is no treatment for long COVID.So why don’t we hear more about long COVID? Why haven’t governments warned people about the risks we face with infection?It might be that this debilitating disease is largely overlooked because of who gets it: Almost 80 per cent of longhaulers are women.And in the United States, where our guest on this episode is from, many of those suffering from the prevailing conditions of COVID are women of colour, with Black and Latinx people most likely to get the illness.Our insightful guest for this conversation on long COVID is Margot Gage Witvliet, assistant professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Margot is a social epidemiologist who studies health disparities, including as they relate to long COVID and has presented her research findings to the United States Health Equity Task Force on COVID-19.Margot is also a Black woman living with long COVID and has created a support and advocacy group for women of colour.For more information and resources, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we continue our conversation about forced famine and its use as a powerful tool to control people, land and resources. Starvation has, for centuries, been a part of the colonizer’s “playbook.”We speak with two scholars to explore two historic examples: the decimation of Indigenous populations in the Plains, North America, which historian David Stannard has called the American Holocaust and in India, the 1943 famine in Bengal. According to a recent BBC story, the Bengal famine of 1943 killed more than three million people. It was one of the worst losses of civilian life on the Allied side in the Second World War. (The United Kingdom lost 450,000 lives during that same war.)Although disease, environmental disasters and famine were features of life before colonialism, decades of research has shown how these occurrences were manipulated by colonial powers to prolong starvation and trigger chronic famine. In other words, starvation has been effectively used by colonial powers to control populations, acquire land and the wealth that comes with that. This colonization was accompanied by an “entitlement approach” and the belief that Indigenous populations are inferior to the lives of the colonizer.According to scholars, prior to the arrival of colonialists, both populations at the heart of today’s episode were thriving with healthy and wealthy communities. And although disease and famine existed before the arrival of Europeans, it cannot be denied colonial powers accelerated and even capitalized on chronic famine and the loss of life due to disease and malnutrition.As the famous economist Amartya Sen has said, famine is a function of repression. It springs from the politics of food distribution rather than a lack of food. Imperial policies such as the Boat Denial Policy and Rice Denial Policy meant that, as curator Natasha Ginwala wrote: “freshly harvested grain was set on fire, or even dumped into the river.”Joining on this episode were two experts on the North American and Bengal famines.James Daschuk is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina. He is the author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life.We also spoke with Janam Mukherjee, an Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. Mukherjee was recently a primary historical advisor on the BBC Radio 4 series “Three Million,” a five-part documentary on the Bengal famine of 1943.For more information and resources about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory; it represents home, your ancestral connection and culture — but also the means to feed yourself and your country.One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of terra nullius – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it.In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty — something they needed to “make bloom.”But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.Our guests on this week’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings, including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master’s degree in history.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

Every year thousands of migrants come to work in Canada. From harvesting the food in our stores to caring for the elderly, these workers form a vital part of the economy. Yet despite being critical, they often face harsh conditions, isolation, abuse, injury and even death as a result of immigration policies designed to leave them powerless.Documentary filmmaker and OCAD University professor Min Sook Lee has been documenting the voices of migrant farm workers in Canada for two decades. What she has to say about the treatment of these workers during COVID-19 shatters any remaining myths about “Canada the Good.” How do we treat the workers who put food on our tables?For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we take a look at the ongoing struggle for land rights and some of the women on the front lines of that battle. These women are the land defenders fighting to protect land against invasive development. Both our guests have stood up to armed forces to protect land.Their work is about protecting the environment. But it is much more than that: it is fundamentally about survival and about the right to live openly on what is stolen land.Ellen Gabriel has been resisting land encroachment for 31 years. She was at the centre of the 1990 Kanehsatake resistance, (known as the Oka crisis), a 78-day standoff to protect ancestral Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) land in Québec.It was a moment in history that many say helped wake them up to Indigenous issues.Anne Spice is a professor of geography and history at Toronto Metroppolitan University. Anne, who is Tlingit from Kwanlin Dun First Nation, was recently on the front lines in the defence of Wet'suwet'en land. After she was arrested on Wet'suwet'en territory last year, a viral video showed the RCMP pointing a gun at the land defenders.Anne can be heard shouting, we are unarmed and we are peaceful.These are the moments that capture our collective attention. But Ellen and Anne’s work goes well beyond what the cameras show.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

This week on the podcast, meet some of our amazing producers who work to put out Don't Call Me Resilient. We chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs. We also revisit some of our favourite episodes from the past.And then every two weeks this summer (starting next week), we’ll be sharing some of their picks as full episodes in our "Flashback" Don’t Call Me Resilient feed.To make this summer “Flashback” series, we listened back on our catalogue. In doing so, we realized each one of these conversations has a shelf life beyond its release date. The stories are timeless and explore complex issues in accessible ways, regardless of the news that may have prompted them.There’s a lot to revisit: We’ve produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons! And each one of them covers an urgent topic with insightful guests. By looking at issues through an intersectional lens, our guests help to unpack some of the major issues of our time: the uneven impacts of the climate crisis, the search for missing Indigenous children at Residential School sites, Black health matters, Gaza and policing.Our listeners are active and engagedOur recent listener survey confirmed that our listeners are engaged. You listen and take action, whether it’s sharing an episode or reaching out to a local politician, or in the case of university and public school educators, adding our episodes to your curriculum.Whether you’re a dedicated listener, a dabbler or a newbie, we’re glad to have you as a part of the Don’t Call Me Resilient community.Stay in touch and pitch us your podcast ideasPlease stay in touch: send us questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes at [email protected] — or on Instagram @DontCallMeResilientPodcast.We are thinking ahead to Season 8! If you are a scholar, and are considering sharing your research through podcasting, we’d love to hear from you. To find out more, read the criteria and fill out this pitch form (select Podcast from the drop down menu).

Can you believe we’ve now produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons?Every two weeks over the summer, we will be re-running some of our favourite episodes from past seasons on our podcast feed. Join us next week for a special bonus episode. You’ll get to meet some of our amazing producers who work hard behind the scenes to produce this podcast. We’ll chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs every week. We’ll be revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the past.There's a lot to revisit … so many great topics and guests and conversations.It all starts next week - and then every two weeks after, we’ll be bringing you the best of Don’t Call Me Resilient all summer long.