June 18, 2020
AGSU Statement on Anti-Black Racism
The University of Toronto Anthropology Graduate Student Union (AGSU) stands with Black communities, both in Canada and abroad, in their fight for justice, equality, and freedom from persecution. We acknowledge the hurt and trauma caused by the recent killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Ahmaud Arbery, D’Andre Campbell, and countless others. We recognize that such acts of violence and aggression against members of the Black community are not merely “isolated incidents,” but are inevitable consequences of the longstanding, systemic operation of institutionalized racism and white supremacy within our society. We recognize that these systems are pervasive and that their influence on the very structure of the University of Toronto and anthropology as a discipline have been immeasurable in many ways.
Anthropology has had a central role in establishing and perpetuating the scientific racism that continues to be used to justify the mistreatment, oppression, and violence towards Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour (BIPOC) in Canada. Race does not have biological roots, but is a sociocultural reality with real and harmful consequences to the health and safety of BIPOC. The small proportion of Black students and faculty in the University of Toronto’s Anthropology Department reflects a hegemonic, unreflexive praxis that marginalizes faculty and students of colour. Black anthropologists have raised the issue of racism within both the discipline and the academy for decades, proposing specific action items to address the poor representation of Black scholars (particularly women) in professoriates, graduate student bodies, and required reading lists. Moreover, many Black scholars have and continue to speak out about the hostile environments that they encounter, from microaggressions to unfair hiring practices. The proposed solutions have largely not been implemented, including within this department.
The operation of institutionalized white supremacy and state-sanctioned violence against Black communities cannot be allowed to continue. We acknowledge the complicity of our discipline and department in white supremacy and anti-Black racism, and the necessity of establishing actively anti-racist policies, approaches to our work, and positions within our community.
Commitments and Calls to Action
While the acknowledgement of our discipline’s complicity in racist systems and white supremacy is critical to the public work of mitigating the harm caused to Black communities and individuals, anti-racist praxis and the responsibility to build and honor good relations challenge us to commit to specific action points. As anthropologists, teachers, students, colleagues, and community members, we are called to integrate anti-racist praxis into every aspect of our work. As such, we present here a list of commitments and calls to action that, while addressed to the AGSU and the Department of Anthropology, align with the University-wide calls to action issues jointly by the Black Students’ Association (BSA) and the University of Toronto Student Union (UTSU).
AGSU Course Union Commitments
While white supremacy and anti-Black racism are structures that infuse our entire society, the work that we do here in our department has the potential to ripple out and create meaningful change, just as, in the past and present, it has caused harm.
The AGSU, therefore, commits to:
1. Approaching and deconstructing racism in the classroom while being careful not to reproduce the violence of white supremacy.
2. Creating, possibly in collaboration with the undergrad association, one yearly event that addresses decolonization and anti-racist topics and scholars.
3. Developing a process of de-escalation for dealing with student mental health crises and other charged situations without involving the police.
4. Pushing CUPE 3902 and the department to incorporate an anti-racism framework into teaching assistant training that prepares TAs to recognize anti-Black racism in course materials and lessons and to challenge racist micro- and macro-aggressions in the classroom and the workplace.
5. Creating a list of recommendations and proposals for anthropology course instructors in each of the subfields to ensure that their syllabi are inclusive of Black and Indigenous scholarly thought and honor the contributions of anthropologists who have been left out of the canon due to racism.
6. Facilitating a donation from members of the AGSU, of which the Union commits to donating an initial $150, in support of Black Lives Matter Toronto Chapter and the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC).
7. Supporting and assisting (where appropriate) with the action points set out by the Department of Anthropology and the Diversity and Decolonization Committee.
Department Calls to Action
In recognition of the role of the department in creating a safe, non-violent environment for Black students and faculty, we call upon the Department of Anthropology to commit to these proposed changes:
1. Fees relating to anthropology field courses (e.g., tuition, travel, equipment, insurance) be waived, reduced, or subsidized for low-income Black students. Fully and partially funded fieldwork opportunities at the undergraduate level should be available through the University of Toronto for students across the tri-campus and in all subfields. This is critical for ensuring that Black students are able to access the opportunities necessary to pursue anthropology in graduate studies and beyond.
2. The department must allocate resources for workshops to educate students on, and prepare them for, the disproportionate risks that researchers from underrepresented groups face in the field.
3. The required graduate core courses must explicitly address the role that anthropology (sociocultural, evolutionary, and archaeology) has played in the production of racial and racist thought and violence, and must include the work of Black anthropologists that is so often excluded from “the canon.”
4. The department must adhere to commitment #3 from their statement on anti-Black racism which aims to identify and overcome long-standing barriers to BIPOC scholars in our discipline and institution. We direct them to the Black Student Application Program enacted by the Faculty of Medicine for inspiration.
5. The department should, alone or in partnership with other departments, hire a racialized counselor who can be a resource for undergraduate and graduate students in the department.
6. The department should hold two positions for graduate students of color on the Diversity and Decolonization Committee, and their time should be compensated with an honorarium.
7. In recognition of the fact that this department fails to not only retain but recruit Black students into graduate studies in Anthropology, we call upon the department to overhaul its undergraduate courses, particularly ANT100 and other introductory courses, so that the course materials and topics are no longer alienating, objectifying, or violent towards BIPOC.