by marcus singleton
“Graduate school can be a solitary, isolating experience for many students, but add on top of that the feeling of being the only Black student in your department or faculty, and that experience can become more insulating.” These are the words that begin an outstanding CBC article entitled Black academic experiences in Canadian universities, focus of webinar series. The webinar series the CBC article is referring to is a five-part series called The Good and the Bad of Black Grad, created by Dr. Evelyn Asiedu, a post-doctoral fellow for Environment and Climate Change Canada. Asiedu’s series is a platform for Black academics to share their experiences as Black graduate students attending Canadian universities.
According to the CBC article, Asiedu was inspired to create The Good and the Bad of Black Grad web series after writing a letter to her friends expressing her feelings about the murder of George Floyd and her frustrations about how Black people are treated in Canada. The letter to Dr. Asiedu’s friends eventually became an article that was published in the Macleans magazine, which sparked a lot of conversation about anti-Black racism within the academy that many academics and students face on the campus of Canadian universities.
In Dr. Asiedu’s 2020 Maclean article, she called for universities in Canada to collect race-based data, which is a form of data collection that is practiced more in the US than in Canada. According to the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, for example, “collecting and interpreting race-based data helps identify and address unfair differences and inequities in healthcare.” I would add that this applies to education as well since Black people occupy academic spaces that are predominately white and exclusive toward the melanated body.
Race-based data is also “used in planning and funding government programs that provide funds or services for specific groups”(census.gov/acs/why-we-ask-each-question). Raced-based data from research focusing on the Black graduate experience in Canada can uncover the anti-Blackness that exists in PWIs and create a platform for the voices and experiences of Black graduate students. According to Dr. Asiedu:
We, as Canadians, pride ourselves on being multicultural and diverse, and I think that that is true of our country. But the challenge is that if we don’t have the facts and the numbers to assess that and back it up, then how do we know how the people in our communities are doing, or where they are, and how to build communities?
Race-based data will not only bring light to the anti-Black racism within PWIs in Canada, but it can also help us (1) know how the people in our communities are doing, (2) where they are, and (3) show us how to build communities. This is research in action and research needed to help support Black graduate students achieve the impossible.
Dr. Asiedu’s The Good and the Bad of Black Grad web series should be used in spaces Black graduate students create to engage and unpack this conversation around Black graduate students “being the only one” so we, as Black graduate students, can create community across provinces and universities, and so we don’t have to feel isolated in our departments or faculties even when we are the only ones there. During an interview on CBS Radio Active, Asiedu said, “We’re hoping that in creating this community and inviting people in that, we’ll be able to move the conversation forward in terms of anti-Black racism, but specifically for equity and inclusion of Black people in higher education.”
I would argue that NBGN—through the promotion and work of Black Studies—shares the same mission and vision as Dr. Asiedu, and we want to see more Black people in higher education across Canada. We have to create that space and opportunities to engage in these conversations about the Black graduate experience in Canada, and it should be a dialogue that creates more community and synergy amongst Black graduate students across Canada.
No Black academic or graduate student should ever feel isolated and unsupported, with active networks such as the National Black Graduate Network (NBGN), the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA), and other groups with the mission to support Black academics and graduate students. It is just a matter of us working together in collaboration and solidarity to imagine and create another world within Canadian universities, one in which it is possible for Black Studies and Black intellects to thrive. If you are that Black academic or graduate student, I would encourage you to become a member of this network immediately. Let’s build, plan, and move as a collective, not just in words but in action.
In peace & solidarity.
