Congress 2021 blog edition
By Claire Kroening, University of Alberta human geography alumna and communications professional
Dr. Shirley Anne Tate has analyzed the effects of institutionalized anti-Black racism for more than a decade. In her Big Thinking series lecture entitled “Racism's touch: 'I can't quite put my finger on it'”, she discussed these effects--shame, fear, hate, disgust and contempt--and how they exist in the ‘post-race’ academic world.
Somehow, it seems anti-Black institutional racism has disappeared into thin air. Yet, the intensity of racism’s effects remain--we sense it. It’s just that now, racism is so familiar and so frequent. “Racism permeates the walls of institutions and animates interactions with such intensity that we can sense it effectively, but cannot voice these feelings because of their deniability.” Deniability can be reinforced by university policies and procedures around complaints.
Black touch
Dr. Tate offered personal examples of how people flinch at her touch while moving through her world: “I stand in a crowded elevator, but an invisible corridor forms around me so that my skin is not touched...I put the money for my purchase in the cashier’s hand, and she puts my change on the counter.”
An attendee raised an important point: While there is white disgust in touching Black people, there is also entitlement to touch Black people. They used the example of when someone reaches out an uninvited hand to touch a Black person’s hair because they “just wanted to see what it would feel like.” Dr. Tate, impressed by this observation, explained she reads this crossing of a boundary as a subordinating act reinforcing distance and difference.
From the question period:
Why is it so hard for universities to commit to meaningful anti-racist transformation?
“If societies are racist, we can’t expect universities not to be,” said Dr. Tate. In a post-George Floyd and Black Lives Matter world, there are possibilities for transformation, but it seems to be “one step forward and two steps back.” The responsibility so obviously lies on institutions, yet those who face racism are still the ones leading the work.
Dr. Tate noted we can draw decolonization inspiration from South Africa and Brazil. We can look to the Africanisation of the curriculum and faculties in South African universities and student-led affirmative action policies in Brazil. She stressed that while we can look to the youth for action, all generations are responsible for doing the work.
How can Black faculty, staff and students call out anti-Black racism when others refuse to see it?
Dr. Tate responded, “when we feel racism we have to take the risk of naming it, because not acting is not an option. Our naming and response is decolonial anti-racism work. I call it uprising.”
But how do we find spaces to name racism when it doesn’t feel safe to do so? Dr. Tate reflected, saying people in precarious positions need to be aware of the risk and danger of speaking out. Get creative and begin by speaking out in less risky ways outside of your institution. Saying it outside can make it easier to say inside.
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Dr. Shirley Anne Tate, Zahro Hassan and Prof-Collins Ifeonu of the University of Alberta presented “Racism’s Touch: ‘I Can’t Quite Put My Finger On It’”, organized by the University of Alberta’s Black Graduate Students’ Association, as part of the Big Thinking series hosted by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the University of Alberta.
Big Thinking series events are sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Universities Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.