marcus singleton
For my generation, the formal classroom was never the space for deep critique precisely because it was not a place of love. The classroom was—and still is—a performative space, where faculty and students compete with each other. Through study [reading] groups, we created our own intellectual communities held together by principle and love. . .the political study group was our lifeblood—both on and off campus.
— Robin D.G. Kelley
Where do we go, what do we say, what do we do. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to run and there’s nothin’ new. Where do we go for inspiration? It’s like pain is our only inspiration—are the words of Talib Kweli and Res that was vibrating out of my JBL Clip 4 wireless speaker as I was walking up Bloor Street from another Black Studies Cohort meeting at OISE. The afterthoughts of our meeting were weighing heavy on my mind as I was thinking about our discussion about the possibility of the pro-Palestine encampment on the U of T campus being destroyed and students and faculty members being physically removed by police that actually became a reality on university campuses in Calgary and Edmonton and at many universities in the U.S.
As I was listening to the words of this song my ruminating mind brought me back to a Robin D.G. Kelley article, Black Study, Black Struggle I read as a master’s student at OISE. In this article Kelley expresses the importance of Black study and study groups and why it is necessary for us as Black graduate students to not put our faith and trust completely in an institution that was not created and designed to love us, teach us, and arm/ empower us with the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of how we should position/ situate and present ourselves to the world through the work we do around Black studies. Kelley reminds us that Black study and resistance must begin with loving everyone. Loving ourselves as Black brothers and sisters of the African diaspora, loving our Palestinian brothers and sisters, loving our Indigenous brothers and sisters, and even loving those who choose to oppress us. Paulo Freire reminds us that liberation is not only for the liberation of the oppressed, but it is for the liberation of the oppressor as well.
Kelley goes on to express that “to love this way requires relentless struggle, deep study, and critique.” He goes on to express that we can only achieve liberation by getting to the “historical, political, social, cultural, ideological, material, economic root…[and] going to the root illuminates what is hidden from us, largely because most structures of oppression and all of their various entanglements are not visible and not felt.” This is the reason why we need Black reading/ study groups—so we can bring what is hidden from us into the light through deep study, critique and critical dialogue among people of the Black/African diaspora.
In 2009, I went to South Africa to learn more about social justice. The elders I learned from told us that our lives are like living breathing chapters of a larger story, and until we bring our chapters in conversation with each other we will never know the whole story. This is another reason why Black reading/ study groups are necessary —so that we can bring our stories in critical conversation as we read and study more about what it means to be Black in a society that is anti-Black.
For the past six weeks (April 19th to May 24th) I have been meeting as part of a Black reading group every Friday at 12pm for an hour on Zoom. We have been discussing Dr. Abdul Alkalimat’s book The History of Black Studies in preparation for the African and Black Diaspora Studies conference at McMaster University on Friday, May 31st where Dr. Alkalimat will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Abdul Alkalimat is a civil rights activist, and a founder of Black Studies in the U.S. Dr. Rhonda George facilitated this amazing reading group and lead us in critical discussions on what can Black Studies look like in Canada. We examined and unpacked Black Studies through the lens of Intellectual History, Social Movement, and Academic Discipline. Even though Alkalimat’s book is written in the US context, Dr. George kept us on track to constantly think about Black studies from the Canadian context and perspective. We even talked about what Black Studies can look like as Black Canadians begin to move away from the US context and begin building and presenting their own historical context and narratives.
Black Canadians have so much to offer the world and it is time for the world to take notice and learn from the experiences of Black of people who live in Canada—dispelling the myth that there is no Black presence in this country. It’s time for Black Studies in Canada to move from behind the shadows of the US context and stand on its own because the historical context of Black people in Canada is strong.
What I loved most about this Black reading group was that we were able to have critical conversations in the spirit of love and resistance. I felt loved and cared for in that space and I felt like every person’s voice was valued and heard. We were not competing; we were building with each other in love and solidarity. In Black Study, Black Struggle, Kelley expressed that the formal classroom in his generation never gave space for deep critique because those formal spaces of learning were not places of love. As Black graduate students and graduate students of Black Studies, love for each other, love for the work we do, and love for the communities we come from should always be the foundation and root of why we do what we do in these formal spaces of learning where love for us and our communities is not evident or present.
The experience I was able to have with the history of Black studies reading group gave me answers to the questions Talib and Res ask in the song Where do we go. Reading and study groups are where we need to turn, go, and run to—to transform our pain into inspiration. We transform our pain into inspiration by doing what Kelley encourages us to do in Black Study, Black struggle; we arm ourselves by reading the works of Black scholars from the past and in the present, and building (talking) with each other about what we’ve learned individually within the group. Building a collective conscious should inspire and motivate us to apply what we’ve learned toward the advancement of Black Studies in Canada and beyond. Black reading/ Study groups also transform us into what Walter Rodney called guerilla or revolutionary intellectuals who can produce knowledge for action that can eliminate or offset systems of oppression that are the root of our struggle and pain. This is why the work I desire to do is rooted in youth participatory action research and Black emancipatory action research because the research we do as Black graduate students and graduate students of Black Studies should inspire action for change in our communities locally and transnationally.
In conclusion, Black reading/ study groups are so important for Black graduate students in Canada. It creates space for us to take autonomy of our learning and where we would like to direct our time and energy to advance our work around Black Studies. This is a call to action for Black graduate students in Canada to continue to learn together as a collective practice, despite us being spread out across multiple universities throughout the provinces of Canada. There is so much we can achieve by moving together.
