Christianne Paras is an Ilocona, originally from the Locos Region of the Philippines. She currently resides as an uninvited guest, an immigrant settler, Kwikwetlem people of British Columbia, Canada. With over 20 years of experience in the restorative justice field, she is an accomplished facilitator with expertise in a variety of practice models including victim-offender dialogue, family group conferencing and peacemaking circles. She is currently the executive director of Restorative Justice Association of British Columbia and the co-founder of ROOTS: Reclaiming Our Own Truths and Stories, an organization dedicated to anti-racism work and restorative justice in community space. She is a published researched and author, and has been involved in wide-variety of research projects on topics such as safety in senior living, spaces online gambling, race, criminal justice system, and restorative justice. Most recently, she is one of the authors of the newly published award-winning book, “Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities”. 

 

In this episode Dr. Gaye Lang and Christianne Paras discuss:

• The romanticization of “The American Dream” 
• Discrimination even in restorative justice groups
• “Token” or technical inclusivity versus genuine restorative justice 
• The difficulty of “fitting in” and the truth about equitability 

 

Key Takeaways: 

• You could convey the discrimination you feel as politely and as concisely as you can and still be misunderstood. But you still have to try, even if it sucks that you have to initiate restoration even as the harmed party. 
• Don’t let people tell you that it’s your fault when they’re being discriminatory. It’s possible that your seeking of restorative justice can be weaponized against you but let your voice out nonetheless. 
• It takes humility to admit that one has done wrong, and genuine care to promise to do something about it. Most people, don’t have these two things. Instead, what they have is a desire to be “right” and their aversion to being called out for their mistakes. 
• The greatest challenge to equitability is the refusal of those who are in the dominant culture on top to give way for it. 

 

“What it felt like if I could summarize is, ‘yes, come to the table, Christianne, here’s a space for you.’ And once I sat down at the table, it was like ‘okay, Christianne, now we want you to be quiet and not be seen’. That’s how it felt and the reaction for when you do call things out is not in the spirit of restoration.” - Christianne Paras

 

Order the book, “Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities”: https://www.amazon.com/Colorizing-Restorative-Justice-Voicing-Realities-ebook/dp/B08DWLW8H7 

 

Connect with Christianne Paras:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reclaimingourstories/ 

Website: https://rjabc.ca/ | 

Email: [email protected] 

 

Connect with Dr. Gaye Lang:

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KEY WORDS: 

Diversity, inclusion, equity, tolerance, racism, bias, implicit bias, and explicit bias.  

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

 

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