Black Lives Matter

By / / Editorial

It should not take Black death to acknowledge Black life. Black Lives Matter is not a new movement: its official formation was pioneered by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in 2013 after the police-shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The global resurgence of the movement in the past week has made it clear that the entire world is shifting how we view our current structures and systems. It is now clear—if it wasn’t before—that it’s not only America that has a problem with racism, and that this problem extends down into the core of the University of Toronto. As student leaders, we know The Strand operates on land acquired through settler-colonialism. It has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. We are grateful to be guests working on Turtle Island, and we do not take our positions for granted. Yet we also know that U of T upholds the pillars of white supremacy and capitalism in many of its practices, courses, student groups, and campus policing.

It can no longer be denied: Canada has a race problem. Our universities have a race problem. A recent book compiled by a collection of scholars entitled The Equity Myth: Radicalization and Indigeneity concludes “that racialized and Indigenous scholars are hired less often (especially in the social sciences and arts and humanities), are least likely to be considered and granted promotions and tenure, are overworked and underpaid in comparison to white colleagues, and their work is less-valued, particularly if such work focuses on race and Indigeneity.” As presented in this article, “The Equity Myth contends that Canadian universities believe that experiences of racism and racial diversity alike are ‘located in the bodies of individuals rather than constitutive of institutions’ (12).” Accordingly, in keeping with the claims (but not the substance) of diversity, administrators treat instances of racial discrimination as anomalies caused by individual actions rather than as a structural part of the Canadian neoliberal university system. This stance, culminating here in its modern post-secondary form, is merely a continuation of the centuries-long intersection of Canadian moral exceptionalism and disavowal of racism juxtaposed with the lived reality of racialized and Indigenous Canadians. In other words, systemic racism within Canada’s academic institutions and beyond is real, and it is chronic.

Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Canadian Black and Indigenous woman, was killed by Toronto police on May 27 because her family sought help from mental health services. Chantel Moore, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in British Columbia, was also killed when New Brunswick police were called for a “wellness check” last Thursday. She leaves behind a five-year-old daughter. These are not the only examples of the murder of Black and Indigenous peoples within Canada at the hands of the police. This list, compiled by Toronto writer and activist Desmond Cole, memorializes many more Black, Indigenous and other people of colour who have been needlessly killed by the Canadian police. Senseless deaths must end.

Time and time again, campus police have racially profiled students across Canada, resulting in trauma and injustice that should have no place at school, an environment where everyone should feel safe. The police have always been violent: as an institution first created to protect white elites’ property and capture and kill Black and Indigenous peoples, policing is a form of unnecessary punishment through threat that serves to uphold the same kinds of violence today. As we see in the case of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Chantel Moore, and D’Andre Campbell, those who are suffering with mental health challenges are also at a higher risk for police harm. It is not enough to say that we want reform. We must work together to ensure the defunding of Toronto police in order to keep Black and Indigenous bodies safe and create a culture of care. “Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada” by Sandy Hudson is a good article to start with if you’re unfamiliar with why defunding the polices needs to happen. On a smaller scale, we must pressure our authority figures to do more.

Both the University of Toronto and Victoria College have made statements over the past weeks in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, but have made little effort to demonstrate any tangible changes that they are making to their administration. Simply acknowledging that there is a problem is nowhere near enough. Nothing about these statements addresses correctingthe problem which The Equity Myth so aptly points out: racism within the University is a systemic problem, which works only to further the interests of white elitism and the neoliberal agenda of Canada as a whole. We question the University’s next steps: will they remove cops from campus? Will they work to ensure that syllabi acknowledge systemic racism and work to deconstruct it? Will they make anti-racism training and courses mandatory for all student leaders and students as a whole? If we don’t start asking these questions, the lives we must protect will continue to be harmed.

As Victoria College’s newspaper, it is our responsibility to acknowledge our paper’s own history of oversights and shortcomings when it comes to the material we cover. For instance, last year and in previous years, The Strand failed to cover Black History/Futures Month, and as such the Black community at U of T was neglected by our oversight. We did not cover Wet’suwet’en as much as it needed to be covered, and there are no Black and Indigenous people on our current masthead, nor did we receive any applications from these demographics. This is troubling, and we commit to doing more about this in the near future. We are actively planning to outreach to more BIPOC writers this coming semester and will be reaching out to various BIPOC-led groups at U of T to ensure that these connections are made. As student editors, our goals for this year were initially to promote equity and inclusion within our masthead and our writing staff; this goal is now even more urgent to us as we plan for the upcoming fall semester. We have the responsibility to tell BIPOC stories, and we want to be a platform that prioritizes these voices. It is no longer okay to be passive about this. It is essential to subvert the oppressive structures of the University together.

As members of the student body, we have provided you with some resources that we have engaged with in the past weeks. We truly hope you spend time educating and re-educating yourselves along with us, especially if you are a non-Black person, because Black people should not be responsible for educating us on why racism is bad. We love The Strand, and our readers, but the structures we work under need to change.

With that, we would like to say Happy Pride Month everyone! Pride Month is a movement pioneered by Black queer and trans people. In celebration of this, we recommend watching the Marsha P. Johnson and Slyvia Rivera documentary Happy Birthday Marsha. We cannot celebrate Pride without engaging in anti-racist practices. There is much work to be done, but as we have seen this week with the disbanding of the Minneapolis police force, steps toward change are here and are possible. We wish you love, in all its beautiful forms.

Here is a list of places to donate in support of BIPOC at this time:

How to take action:

  • Send an email to the Victoria College administration using this template to call for action following #BlackOutTuesday
  • In a recent email, Victoria College president, William Robins, asked the “Victoria community to send suggestions about actions to take and modes of consultation to [email protected]”. We urge you to take this step, either by modifying the template above, or sending in your own suggestions. Don’t feel like you have to hold back your criticism or suggestions for the administration. They need to hear the truth, and they need to understand that racism is an ongoing issue, not just a one-time problem.
  • Send an email to your elected officials about defunding the Toronto police using this template
  • Sign this petition to implement a Mandatory U of T Anti-Racism course

Reading List

Social Media accounts to follow

  • @sheabutterfemme on Instagram
  • @theAfroLegalise on Twitter and Instagram
  • @urdoinggreat on Instagram (and TikTok)
  • @aafc.nyc on Instagram
  • @southasians4blacklives on Instagram
  • @bbyanarchists on Instagram

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