How to prepare for a semester of unlearning

This September, university students will be entering their online and limited in-person classrooms under different circumstances due to COVID-19. However, the changes to our post-secondary lives aren’t limited to educational delivery; various social changes that affect our university experience are taking place too. Students aren’t just stocking up on masks to prepare for the fall, they’re also adding Ibram X. Kendi, Robyn Maynard, and Angela Davis to their bookshelves. Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of a political awakening, with protests taking place in major American cities and across Canada, all centered around anti-police violence and anti-Black racism. We have seen movements like these before, with protests occurring after viral videos of police murders have swept across the internet. However, this particular moment in time feels different, as people are critically reconsidering their relationship to systems that are seemingly permanent and unmovable. Serious conversations are taking place about what defunding the police and abolishing the prison-industrial complex would look like. We’re seeing politicians pay attention and corporations being taken to task. All of this will greatly affect the environment in which we are learning, and engaging with this new moment will require an unlearning of sorts on the part of students.

The term “unlearning” is a verb that means to “discard (something learned, especially a bad habit or false or outdated information) from one’s memory.” For example, unlearning can look like confronting historical myths regarding Canada’s relationship to slavery and colonialism. So much of oppression is rooted in telling a certain alternative story about people, places, and time. We are taught a history that completely eradicates our participation in systemic violence, which thereby absolves our governments, past and present, and, on some level, us as citizens from wrongdoing. At this moment, new kinds of stories are being told. We must unlearn the old ones so that we may know these new stories. When faced with new contexts, the task of unlearning can seem heavy, especially while being a university student. The idea of having to unlearn, while simultaneously consuming so much new information for our classes and programs, is a lot. However, there can be productive ways of noticing and positively engaging with this change woven into your time at school. Committing to actively unlearning misguided narratives translates into a better experience for every student on campus (including you!) because when you know better, you can do better.

Freshman students will remember being told that they are being “prepared for the outside world” when gearing up for university. This “outside world” creeps onto campus in a way that the insulated environment of high school doesn’t allow for. Social issues and world events might more deeply affect your university classroom discussions and activities. Your English professor might add more Black authors to your course reading list. You may come across student groups and organizations participating in events with the Black Student Association and hosting equity and anti-racist events. The University of Toronto has — and will likely continue to — send out emails discussing equity and anti-racism initiatives. Just as you’ve seen corporations post black squares on Instagram and send out “Hey, we hear you! Here’s what we’re doing…” emails, your interactions with various facets of the University of Toronto will be no different.

So, what exactly is any student, let alone a freshman, to do with this information? Firstly, it is important to acknowledge the discomfort that can come with unlearning. You may not have considered your relationship to police in your community, or have even heard the words “abolition,” “redlining,” or “prison-industrial complex” until recently. Bumping into these issues both online in your private lives and at university can be a bit overwhelming. If you find yourself becoming exhausted, take the time to imagine what racialized students’ experiences are, and how they must remain in a constant state of political consciousness for their survival. All of us will be adjusting to this new political awakening and our relationship to it, but for Black and Indigenous students, the political is their life.

Secondly, know that you don’t have to do this alone! It’s a bit of a cliché, but the reason we have events like orientation for new students is because new experiences can be less intimidating when done with other people. As a freshman, you’re probably already being encouraged to join student groups and clubs. In this current climate, joining book clubs and associations with other students that are focused on some of the more complex topics surrounding social justice can help with your process of unlearning. The ability to process these issues is like a muscle that needs constant working out; discussing complicated subjects is a part of unlearning, and being in a group can encourage you and keep you motivated, help you gain other perspectives, and allow you to be held accountable by your peers on your journey of unlearning.

Thirdly, understand that there’s no arrival point in becoming more socially conscious. When you’re learning in school, there’s an exam to test your knowledge and a credit at the end to show that you’ve been successful. When you’re unlearning—working towards understanding the complex roots behind our modern justice system or combing through our city’s budget to see how much money we spend on police as opposed to things like housing—there is no testing your knowledge. There is no credit to be received, because becoming a more informed and empathic citizen is its own reward. This can be frustrating, but at the same time it can be comforting. This means that we can always be continuously growing and unlearning for our own benefit.

The work of unlearning begins with you, and subsequently affects the world around you. You’ll become an engaged member of our campus community, an informed voter in elections, and an ally to those who need one. As new as all this might feel, you are actually about to embark on an age-old post-secondary tradition. So, welcome! From environmental justice to anti-war movements to the fight for civil rights for Black men and women, university campuses have always been a space for political dialogues and social transformation —thanks to its students.