Educators attending an anti-racism conference were told by a Toronto District School Board employee to view “whiteness” as a destructive force controlling what people wear to what they eat and they were urged to “decolonize their minds” to interrupt “white dominant culture.”
The seminar, led by a TDSB bureaucrat paid over $173,000 a year, additionally taught educators that describing a parent as “angry” was a racist code word for black caregivers.
Throughout her presentation, TDSB coordinator for parent and community engagement, Michelle Munroe, who earns $173,784, relied on sweeping generalizations that cast “whiteness,” or Western cultural norms, as inherently harmful to black and racial minority parents while providing only personal anecdotes as evidence to back her claims.
Munroe led a featured session at the conference on how “whiteness” governed relationships between school staff and racial minority families. The presentation was titled Decoding Whiteness: Power and Privilege in Parent/Caregiver Engagement.
Munroe’s seminar asked participants to reflect on the concept of “whiteness” and its perceived impact on parent engagement. Attendees were given sheets of paper and instructed to note their feelings about the term “whiteness” on one side. On the reverse, they were asked to identify how those feelings might influence or relate to parent engagement.
Participants offered terms such as “domination,” “oppression,” “control,” “fear,” “ignorance,” “expansionist,” and “colonizers.” More common terms like “power” and “privilege” also appeared. None of the contributions framed “whiteness” in positive terms. Several attendees concluded that “whiteness” makes school environments and parent engagement “inaccessible” for racial minorities.
Following the exercise, Munroe expanded on the idea that whiteness shapes not only school policy but also everyday life. She posed the question, “What would it look like to have a non-colonized mind?” and told attendees that “whiteness permeates everything we do, everywhere we go, what we think, what we eat, how we dress.”
The April conference brought together activist educators and community members committed to “dismantling anti-black racism” and creating “inclusive learning environments,” according to the event brochure. Munroe’s sessions drew a dozen participants, including elementary and secondary teachers, a college professor, a vice-principal, a certified public accountant, and a DEI consultant.
During her session, Munroe told attendees that the education system requires anti-black racism, indigenous, and 2SLGBTQIA+ curriculum because it has “maintained a very white structure.” A decolonized education system, she explained, would already include these perspectives without needing separate initiatives. She framed curriculum reform as corrective rather than additive, noting that current efforts reflect the exclusionary foundation of existing education models.
Munroe discussed what she described as coded language used by educators to describe black parents. Phrases like “angry parent” or saying a parent made them feel “uncomfortable” were, in her view, euphemisms that identify black parents. She recalled a principal calling her for help with an “angry parent” and said, “I know what that means. That’s an angry black woman. Code words. That’s code.”
During the session, Munroe was careful to explain that “whiteness” refers to systems and structures rather than individual skin colour. However, this distinction was not always reflected in audience responses. One teacher described her experience with her child’s school by saying, “the white principal is worse than the [BIPOC] vice-principal.” Munroe responded by reminding the room that racial minorities can also have a “colonized mind,” reinforcing that “whiteness” is a mindset shaped by the dominant white culture.
During the keynote speech led by American critical race theory scholar Tim Wise, one audience member recounted a conversation with students who asked her, “What is it that whites believe about us that has caused them to be so pissed off?” She continued, “They’ve been pissed off for a long time,” attributing the perceived anger of white people to “the loss of their slaves after emancipation.” The comment was well received by the approximately 80 – 100 audience members, 95% of whom were black.
Although facilitators like Munroe and Wise emphasized structural analysis, the audience frequently referenced “whiteness” as synonymous with white people, blurring the conceptual boundary between people and systems.
The TDSB has declined to comment, stating that the matter should be addressed to the union. The Elementary Teachers of Toronto have not responded to True North’s request for comment.
Editor’s note: At the time of the conference, which was open to the public, Melanie Bennet was not affiliated with True North and attended in a personal capacity.