Nikayda Harris embarked on her journey to Carleton University two years ago from a small town in Ontario, excited to meet other Black students. She was often one of few Black kids at her school throughout her primary and secondary education. Attending an institution like Carleton which serves over 30,000 students provided her with the opportunity to experience something different, Harris said.
But that experience came with its own challenges.
“The main way that I have been able to build community has been through fighting against the systems of oppression and white supremacy that exist in our institution,” Harris said. “It would be beautiful and lovely if Black students could just sometimes exist.”
Harris said Black students should not be expected to create spaces or find resources for themselves.
She said she hopes Black students who come after her “don’t have to do this work and can hopefully just find community through joy as opposed to oppression and struggle.”
Amid the summer 2020 protests against police brutality, Harris and Fariba Al-Hassan created the Black Student in Public Affairs Association (BSPA) to support Black and other racialized students through mentorship, workshops, scholarships and more. Harris, like Al-Hassan, is in her third year of public affairs and policy management at Carleton. They’re also co-presidents of the association.
When she started leading BSPA, Al-Hassan said she worked non-stop and got “caught up in the vision and the passion.” Halfway through the fall 2021 semester, she said she had to make time in her schedule to care for her wellbeing.
This past year, various Canadian institutions have taken steps to address anti-Blackness within their communities.
In November, Carleton committed to a set of actions to fight anti-Black racism on its campus. These actions stem from the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education, which Carleton signed alongside 50 other Canadian universities and colleges.
The 22-page document outlines concrete actions which, when undertaken, remove structural barriers faced by Black students, staff and faculty members at Canadian universities and colleges. Several of these barriers include lack of representation of BIPOC faculty members and Black-expertise in educational settings, and not enough scholarships for Black students in higher education.
Carleton plans to use the charter to build on its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) action plan and to “implement specific actions that target systemic and structural racism,” Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, wrote in an email to the Charlatan.
Although she built a support network, Al-Hassan said she faced instances of racism at Carleton that made her experience “an ongoing uphill battle.” In class discussions, where she’s often one of few Black students, she said being spoken over and ignored were common.
“I would have my thoughts and opinions dismissed,” Al-Hassan said. “Especially when it comes to things that pertain to Black, Indigenous or people of colour (BIPOC) and marginalized people where people would be like ‘Oh, you’re just speaking out of emotion.’”
Charter commitments
The charter emerged from a national conversation on anti-Black racism in higher education sparked by the summer 2020 protests.
On Oct. 1 and 2 of that year, Canadian post-secondary institutions met to discuss ways to create anti-racist and inclusive environments for Black people in higher education.
Drawing from these meetings, a sub-committee of four professors from different universities drafted the charter. Several universities and colleges, as well as Black political leaders and organizations across Canada, also provided feedback on the document.
Barrington Walker, associate vice-president of equity, diversity and inclusion at Wilfrid Laurier University, said the charter is unprecedented and significant.
“There has never been a concerted effort to address the needs or the aspirations of people of African descent in the post-secondary context. That, to me, is the significance of a document like this,” said Walker, who also helped draft the charter.
The commitments in the charter follow four principles: Black flourishing, inclusive excellence, mutuality and accountability. The principles focus on enabling and supporting Black student leadership and providing anti-Black racism education for all university members, including students, faculty and other staff. These also include offering Black studies programs while integrating Black expertise and knowledge in the current field of studies.
“Seeing Carleton sign the Scarborough Charter gives me hope. It lets me know that on some level we are moving in the right direction towards creating more equitable spaces that promote the growth of all communities,” Harris wrote in an email to the Charlatan.
Al-Hassan added that she’s glad universities are “taking a stand on anti-Black racism and creating more opportunities for Black people to take on leadership and research.”
How the university will follow through with the charter remains unclear.
“I would like to wait and see how exactly Carleton goes about correcting its curriculum and making more space for Black people in classrooms, in faculty and executive leadership before I completely praise this latest venture,” Harris said.
Walker said he sympathizes with students’ skepticism but said the charter gives institutions the tools needed to implement change.
“I’ve been around universities a bit longer, I get it,” he said. “But the days where people can plead ignorance and say they don’t know are over and that is the work the charter is going to do.”
When asked about specific ways Carleton will carry out its charter commitments, Reid wrote that the university “has nothing to add at this time.”
Equity, diversity and inclusion
Although steps have not been specifically outlined by the university, some changes are undoubtedly underway at Carleton. The Student Experience Office has created programs to support racialized students as part of the EDI action plan launched last March.
One of which is the Afro-Caribbean Mentorship Program that provides skill workshops and one-on-one mentoring to African, Caribbean, Black and other racialized students.
Another change is the addition of a minor in critical race studies at Carleton last fall by the Pauline Jewett Institute, which will be renamed the Feminist Institute for Social Transformation.
Dwaine Taylor, Carleton’s equity, diversity and community programs coordinator, said a mandatory human rights module will also be implemented at the university in the next two years.
“That will ensure that every student coming into Carleton has a baseline understanding of human rights, diversity, equity and inclusion, which will overall benefit the whole community and reduce discrimination on campus,” Taylor said.
He also helped define equity, diversity and inclusion. Equity is about giving everyone fair access to opportunities while recognizing that different people face certain privileges and disadvantages.
“Diversity is a result of dismantling those systems of inequity. The more you dismantle those systems, the more diverse the community is,” Taylor said.
He concluded that inclusion involves making people feel welcomed and supported so they can strive to reach their full potential.
EDI in post-secondary education ensures institutions meet the needs of every student, Taylor said.
“There is an increased focus and attention on EDI in both public and private spheres—higher education investing in EDI is a civic responsibility and directly aligned with each institution’s purpose,” he said.
Student leadership and anti-Blackness
Nathaniel Black, a third-year law student at Carleton, served as a student representative on the Board of Governors (BoG) for the 2020-2021 academic year. The board makes financial and infrastructure decisions for the university and appoints key executives such as the school’s president.
As a student representative, Black advocated for anti-racism policy reform, including making the use of the N-word a fireable offence for faculty.
“When we reached a point where the chair of the board refuses to bring motions on things like the banning of the N-word … We have a problem at Carleton University that cannot be overcome through signing a charter,” Black said.
He added that while signing the charter is “a crucial stepping stone,” actions need to follow suit. These actions, according to Black, might include creating more bursaries and scholarships for racialized, low-income, first-generation and international students.
Hiring more racialized faculty members is another action Black would like to see more of at Carleton.
As only the second Black student representative on the BoG, Black said racism rears its head in subtle ways.
“When I was advocating for firing staff who use the N-word, a lot of my board colleagues would say to me, ‘You’re so well-spoken on that,’ or ‘Look at you for representing this issue, but I don’t think we’re going to talk about that,’” he said.
Leila Angod is a childhood and youth studies professor at Carleton whose research centres around how BIPOC youth specifically navigate global citizenships and senses of belonging in Canada. Angod said anti-Blackness in educational institutions shapes how knowledge is produced within and beyond the classroom.
She explained in an email that anti-Blackness is woven into “how the work of the university is carried out, by whom, whose knowledges matter, what it means to know, who can know, whose labour is valued and whose is expendable.”
One way to change these terms is to support Black students in researching not only anti-Blackness but also in creating communities within and outside the university, Angod said.
“At the same time, institutions don’t need more research to know that anti-Blackness exists, that it is intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually harmful,” Angod said. “Black students don’t need to experience the exhaustion of doing this work of insisting on their humanity.”
She called for institutions to engage with the work of Black scholars and activists such as Walter Rodney and Robin D.G Kelley, who have long been addressing anti-Blackness as rooted in the structures that govern these institutions.
While the negative experiences exist, Harris also reflected on the joy and support she found within her community.
“Being with Black people, you can just laugh about certain things that are common to our community and to our experience,” she said. “You can explain a burden you’re facing and they will understand and they won’t gaslight you about it because they know what it’s like and they’ve seen it.”
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
