Join us for a series of events on Black Activism in Education and Community as we showcase examples of how Black communities have responded to racism in Vancouver and in Canada.
Recent and ongoing incidents in Vancouver and Canada illustrate that anti-Black racism is very much a local reality. Black communities that include activists, artists and academics have a long history of working to create new narratives, analyses and immersive experiences that shift this reality.
This event highlights the thinking and efforts of Black communities, and aims to expand the public conversation and prompt non-Black communities to act in effective solidarity to dismantle anti-Black racism.
Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. will be initiating the conversation on efforts on the part of colleges, universities and communities across Canada to assert Black presence and work towards systemic change.
The event is jointly hosted by the UBC Black Caucus, Centre for Culture, Identity and Education, and the Equity & Inclusion Office. Register for the first event of the Black Activism in Education and Community series with Shelby McPhee.
Free, but registration is required. Light dinner and refreshments provided.
Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University and current Co-President of the Black Canadian Studies Association. She is at the forefront of the conversation on Black activism in universities and communities in Canada.
As defined by Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (2019-2022):
Prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping and discrimination that is directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement. Anti-Black racism is deeply entrenched in Canadian institutions, policies and practices, such that anti-Black racism is either functionally normalized or rendered invisible to the larger white society. Anti-Black racism is manifested in the legacy of the current social, economic, and political marginalization of African Canadians in society such as the lack of opportunities, lower socio-economic status, higher unemployment, significant poverty rates and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.