Anti-Racism

Hey, my name is Jamal and welcome to the podcast. If I picked a catchy, informative, and clever title then you will already have a sense of what this podcast is about and hopefully a general idea of how we will explore the topic. In the case that I didn’t, this podcast is going to address some of the realities of anti-Black racism with the hope that listening to this will help you address anti-Blackness as it exists in your everyday life. Now before jumping in and getting any deeper in the topic let me take a second to introduce myself. 

My Kikuyu grandma would always say, pole pole kijana. It was a reminder to go slowly, and not get so caught up with where you’re going that you never stop to realize where you are. My grandma’s advice tended to always come in these indirect packages. Through small sayings and stories previously unknown realities would reveal themselves, but only if you were patient enough to hear them blossom. Me and my brothers would joke about how there was no such thing as a short visit or conversation with our grandma. If she was going to tell you something it was going to be through a story. More often than not you would get so caught up in the story that when she finally circled back to your original question you were reminded that you had even asked it. These experiences with her really embodied the saying that it’s about the journey and not the destination. As I have gotten older I have come to value this approach to sharing and learning more and more. 

Unfortunately, my grandma’s explorative approach to learning will oftentimes contradict the highly extractive approach to learning that we see in public education systems and for-profit educational institutions around the world. Within this growing context learning has less and less to do with sharing diverse perspectives, imagining better realities, and challenging our own assumptions and understanding of the world, and more to do with extracting the pieces of information we feel we can profit from.  

When knowledge and learning become tied to profits, the desire for knowledge gets replaced with a desire for profitable knowledge. In this context we are constantly trying to get the so-called point. In other words we are trying desperately to locate and identify a few key pieces of information that will serve our current needs. This approach to learning is reflective of the capitalist approach to land and resources, extractionary.

This is why the older I get the more grateful I am for the way of teaching and sharing I experienced with my grandma. It allowed me to be present in the current moment of learning. It allowed me to listen and learn without the stress of wondering what the final outcome will look like and how it can benefit me. It allowed me to experience the now without expectations of the future. 

Through this lens it’s hard to ignore how little academia today values patience, free exploration, and connections for the sake of deepening our understanding in ways that cannot be monetized or profited from. 

Capitalism’s profitization of knowledge through academia has skewed our fundamental understandings surrounding the creation, defining and sharing of knowledge.This is why i think it is so important to teach students how to be present in their current moments of learning and less on what may be onan upcoming test. 

I share this little anecdote with you because I want to use it to set the tone for the rest of the podcast. Today academia is more often than not treated as a means to an end and that end is … you guessed it, some sort of individual profit. This oftentimes leads to work that is not deemed profitable not receiving funding or shortcuts being taken in the name of generating higher profit. 

Now the point of this podcast is not to discuss the shortcomings of contemporary academia and issues that have arisen due to profit seeking structures. The point of this podcast is to address anti-black racism and provide the perspective of a young Black activist . But I bring up this point and spend this time on it because the mixture of profits and academia has impacted how activism is taught in academic spaces. There is an insatiable hunger for a “solution” because a solution can be sold. Someone is constantly asking but what’s the answer, what do I need to do, when can we know we have solved it.

As you will see in this podcast these are not questions I pay too much mind to and I am extremely weary of those that try to sell you a single solution to addressing marginalization, and within that racism, and within that anti-Black racism. Similarly to how anti-Black racism is a general term for a variety of frameworks, systems, actions, opinions and implicit and explicit forms of interacting; Black is a general term for a complex and diverse group of people with many intersecting identities, realities, concerns and desires. When dealing with so much complexity I encourage us all to be weary of “catch all” type solutions. Generalized solutions oftentimes are by nature exclusionary and run the heightened risk of not only failing to represent 

certain black identities but more often than not further marginalize them.

(STOP)

So right before we jump into the body of the podcast I want to say one more thing, DO NOT TAKE NOTES. Taking notes for a class would contradict the entire first segment. If you have been assigned this podcast for a class and the teacher expected notes, quote me at this point and tell them you were told not to. If you are worried about missing definitions I have created a short infographic with some key definitions. So now let’s jump in.

(Transition)

The goal of this podcast is not to prove anti-black Racism exists, that is not to say that understanding exactly how anti-Blackness manifests itself all around you is not an important step in addressing it . Rather it is to acknowledge the fact that some people (Whisper: non-black people) get so caught up with proving it exists they never take the next step, and situate themselves within the structures of anti-Black racism as they exist all around us. 

*record scratch*

I just wanted to take a pause from our regularly scheduled programing to say that, if in this day and age you still need someone to convince you that anti-black racism exists you are being willfully ignorant and you  need to close this podcast, open google and do some research (its free) then go look in the mirror and ask yourself, why did i not already know this; how have my actions, lifestyle and surroundings sheltered me from this reality that Black people cannot escape. And finally recognize that when you are not actively working to dismantle structures, ideas, and manifestations of anti-blackness racism that surround you, you are actively upholding them. Now this is a topic we will further explore when we talk about the 3ps so i don’t want to spend too much time n it here, but last thing i will say to you, if you fall into the aforementioned category or not is, it is not Black people’s responsibility to spoon feed you our trauma so you care or believe is, google is free. And Back to the show

*interlude*

A key step in addressing anti-blackness involves understanding how your positionality, privilege and power (the 3Ps) shape your point of view. It is these factors that will shape how you learn that anti-Blackness exists all around you. This becomes clear when we acknowledge the fact that while some have to be convinced anti-Black racism exists, others learn through experience, and others through proximity. 

Understanding how the 3Ps manifest themselves within you will play a key role in understanding how you can address the issues and the potential bucket of tools you have at your disposal when it comes to confronting, addressing and dismantling anti Black racism in all its forms. 

Deepening your understanding of this topic will equip you with some of the tools you need to address anti-Black Racism within yourself and your environments. However, I will say this again because it is such an important point, approaching these resources with any expectation of finding the so-called solution to anti-Black racism will leave you disappointed. The oppressive forces that enact and reproduce anti-Black racism exist in both informal and formal social structures, they are intertwined with other systems of oppression, meaning that the concept of intersectionality must remain present throughout our discussions. For me the open embrace of intersectional discourses reminds us that systemic issues cannot be solved by any single solution. The key instead is to employ multiple forms of targeted pressure in unison to  dismantle structures of harm and strengthen community foundations. 

I just wanted to pause here for a second, because as I write this point I am feeling overwhelmingly aware of a major elephant in the room that I briefly addressed at the beginning of the podcast. It is something that constantly impacts how I approach my work as an organizer, activist and researcher. 

Story 2

Now let me tell you a bit about my experience participating in an anti-Black institution, while also being harmed by it and trying to dismantle it. 

I am pretty sure that by this point i have mentioned that i am a university student, if i haven’t its probable because i assume you already know this. Personal side note, but something I have recently learned about myself is that time and time again I assume others possess the same knowledge that I do. This comes up all the time whe i just dive into talking about a subject without setting up the properser context and background. I just assume we all have access to the same information and interpret it the same way. We will come back to this idea later when we further define the concept of positionality.

But back to the present. I am a university student, on top of that a Black student, on top of that outspoken. I have found that these three qualities have not always meshed well with the education system. When I was in grade 5 this resulted in an argument with a teacher when he told me and my locker mate (another Somali student) that our locker “smelt like shit”. He then asked us what the smell was and we told him it was uunsi a popular incense that is burned in many Somali homes. His response to this was telling us to bring febreeze to mask the horrible smell. Even as a kid I recognized that the teacher should not be talking to us like that and I had  no problem speaking up to perceived authority figures, when I felt something was wrong.

So the next day when my friend brought febreeze to mask the smell of our culture in fear of punishment I brought my Mom who reminded that teacher, my principal, and vice principal that he had no right to be speaking that way and it is not something that will be tolerated. Seeing this at a young age empowered me to speak my mind and taught me the importance of self-advocacy, fundamentally shaping the person I would grow into. 

As I got older I expanded this self advocacy, to those around me and began to advocate for myself through others and others through myself. 

This resulted in me being faced with multiple decisions daily. Do I address all the countless overt and covert instances of racism I face daily and be viewed as angry, argumentative, and a trouble-maker; or do I ignore them and shrink myself to conform to a space that will never accept me for me. I still grapple with this question today.

Fast Forward to university and I am stopped by campus security and they demand I show them some ID and give them a reason for being on campus. Older now, I am much better at understanding what anti-Blackness looks like in its different forms. I again am not shy to call out this blatant incident of racial profiling and carding. I choose to be outspoken.

I tried to deescalate the situation without sacrificing my right to be on the campus. This doesn’t work and I am handcuffed and left to wait. At that moment I was not trying to fight to end racism or bring awareness to the experiences of Black students, I was simply just trying to get by. Taking out my phone to record was a safety response, Asserting my right to be on campus was a reminder of my value. I did not not choose to be in that situation but I had no choice. 

This was not the case for those that stopped and observed or intervened. They could choose how they wanted to interact with this specific interaction of anti-black racism they were witnessing. They could choose to keep walking, stop and watch, yell things, ask how they can help, record, etc. 

What they were able to do and the response their actions were met with were all based on their positionality, power and privilege. 

Let me explain why.

In this case their positionality can be understood as the idea that a person’s social, historical, political, and cultural contexts shape their self-identity; how one is in relation to others, how one understands and views themselves in relation to the world. In other words a person’s unique identity and upbringing shaped how they interacted with me and everyone else present as well as how they viewed themselves in relation to what was going on. 

Power, in this case, can be understood as one’s ability to exert influence and control over something, or someone. The importance of power in this context is represented by one’s relative power in relation to others. Relative power in a given context has a major impact on how people can interact with a given scenario and is in part determined by their positionality and the positionality of others present. This is important because a single incident of anti-Black racism is oftentimes the product of multiple layers of anti-Blackness being expressed. For example in this case. There was the administrative level that wrote a policy that allowed for carding, a practice that disproportionately targets Black communities. There was the interpersonal level of the security officers who perceived me as a threat and therefore used the policy at their disposal to address me as such. Understanding what power you have at each of those levels will play a key role in how you use it to affect change.

Privilege, in this case, can be understood as people being granted automatic benefits simply due to status as a member of a certain group. privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Based on this definition we can see that a person’s privilege is an expression of their positionality (how they perceive the world and the world perceives them) and their power (their ability to influence the world around them). In this I was not granted the privilege to be on campus without proving I belonged. I was not granted the privilege as being viewed as a student, or even worse, not being automatically viewed as a threat.

So by reflecting on your own privilege and power you can begin to understand where you enjoy privilege and how you can use that privilege to empower those around you. 

This is why I place so much importance on the 3ps. Understanding them will allow your actions to be transferable across time and space. You can dissect different incidents of anti-Blackness in a way that is respectful of the specific context they took place in. In contrast to a single solution which oftentimes requires a unique set of circumstances to be enacted and can encourage a lack of action, when those circumstances are not met. 

As a listener I encourage you to take a reflective approach to your activism. Constantly reflect on your personality, especially when entering activist spaces. Maybe you should shut up and listen, maybe your opinion is not one that is needed in his context but your privilege is. Maybe your relative power can allow you to make an impact at the administrative level but may not be as useful at the interpersonal level. 

What is important here is not that you act, what is important is that your actions are meaningful, thought out and will not cause further harm to Black people. 

Conclusion

With the 3Ps at the front of our minds let me circle back and elaborate on the issues with the profitization of education by contextualizing the conversation. 

The reality is, this resource is being produced by and used within a for-profit postsecondary institution. One with a long, deep, and ongoing role in the colonial genocide of Indigenous peoples and the production as well as reproduction of white supremacist patriacrhical capitalism (which i know can be a mouthful but the term aims to capture the interlocking nature of these three forms of harm)

I bring up the Univerisities ties to the genocide og indigenoous peoples becuase when addressing Anti-Black racism we must ensure the tools we use and ideas that we uplift are rooted in solidarity with indegenous peoples. 

Audre Lord said it best when she wrote that the masters’ tools will never dismantle the master’s house, a statement that remains true to this day. In her personal essays Lorde contextualizes her intersecting identities as a Black Lesbian mother and speaks to how the white patriachy delegtimizes them. So by contextualizing the white supremacy and patriarchy that are embedded within the foundations of the institutions we operate in, we can see that identities such as Lorde’s would not be welcomed within such spaces.

So what does this mean? Why am I even talking into this microphone right now? Is the work pointless? Well, my answer is no. The point of bringing this up is not to say everything produced by those within the institution is valueless. The point is to remind ourselves that when addressing anti-black racism in Canada institutions such a for-profit post-secondary education, public school systems, the carceral and justice system and so many more, will not be the single source of meaningful change. They are active barriers to liberation. And while they may provide some with platforms, spaces, and resources to create the tools needed for liberations, in my eyes, this will never justify the platforms, spaces and resources they provide to those that seek to uphold those very same systems. The latter is what they were designed to do, and while reform is a key step to meaningful change, when addressing anti-black racism the ultimate goal must always be the complete abolition of oppressive structures and the creation as well as empowerment of the community.

Despite this many of us, including me, a broke university student that moved out way before he should have, still have to participate in these systems due to the constraints capitalism imposes on our ability to choose. However, being forced to participate in an oppressive system does not rid you of the responsibility to consistently work to deconstruct it within ourselves and around us. As mentioned before, how you go about doing this and what this work takes out of you will be in part determined by your positionality, privilege, and power. 

My goal in creating this podcast has been to empower you to address anti-Black racism in all its forms, in your classrooms, your schools, and your homes. As I said before this podcast will not provide you with the so-called “the answer” because it does not exist in a singular form. As mentioned the key is to employ multiple forms of targeted pressure in unison to dismantle structures of anti-Black racism and strengthen community foundations. I hope that discussing the 3ps and exploring the role they play in how you address anti-Black racism will encourage you to begin disturbing and dismantling structures of harm that surround you. 

Now it’s up to you to decide how you want to interact with the systems of anti-black racism that surround you every day, whether you see them or not.  

And remember, my ideas are also determined by my own 3Ps and do not represent all Black people so stay critical, stay open and continue learning.