Identity Affirming Safe Spaces

By Neil Gonsalves | In this article I highlight perspectives I don’t normally cover so as to platform the counter arguments to my usual content.

Written by Neil Gonsalves for Seeking Veritas on Substack

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

My writing partner and dear friend wrote this sentence to wrap up his article titled ‘Black History Month’ earlier this week;

“Black people have been historically under-represented and face many more systemic barriers. That is why we recognize Black History Month. It is an opportunity for all of us to learn this history and better understand the struggle Black people in Canada face, even now.”

Canadian history is replete with examples of human failings and an unwillingness to recognize the common humanity of our fellow citizens. That black people suffered the impact of ignorance and bigotry is not in dispute.

Africville, the small community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is a reminder of the unequal treatment that was common mid-way through the last century. Africville “existed from the early 1800s to the 1960s”. While the area has since been condemned, the site is now recognized as having historical significance, a memorial and museum now stand where the community once existed. If you are unfamiliar with the story of that community you should definitely looks it up, I think it should be taught in schools so that the egregious errors of the past are not repeated. The intergenerational scars still exist and no matter what progress occurs, the history will never go away - that’s just how history works!

I often write about the shortcomings of many contemporary approaches to remedying the historical wrongs and the strategies commonly being employed today in the name of equity. In this article I’m going to highlight perspectives I don’t normally cover so as to platform the counter arguments to my usual content. I also offer the content without editorial comment.

Core Tenets of Anti-Racist Scholarship-Activism.

1. Racism exists today in both traditional and modern forms

2. All white people benefit from racism regardless of intentions.

3. To not act against racism is to support racism.

4. Racism must be continually identified, analyzed and challenged. No-one is ever done.

5. Resistance is a predictable reaction to anti-racist education and must be explicitly and strategically addressed.

While the list above is not exhaustive, it captures some of the most common arguments I’ve heard. As Ibram X Kendi author of ‘How to be an Anti-Racist’ states;

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” ― Ibram X. Kendi,

Kendi is the founder and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. He was included in Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020. He also supports and praises the efforts of Robin DiAngelo, author of ‘White Fragility’ for her “unapologetic critique” of white people and her apparent indifference to “the feelings of the white people in the room” when she presents her view that white people should not think that because they marched for civil rights in the 1960s, or served diverse communities, or were progressive adherents of liberalism, that they were exempt from being considered racists. In fact she argues that if you're a white person in America, you're a racist, and without a lifetime of conscious effort you always will be.

These views are not uniquely American. Canadian post secondary institutions have also heard the tenets of anti-racism and are working hard to create remedies for past injustices while creating spaces for belonging and inclusion. They are doing this by carving out safe spaces exclusively for people who are black so they can recharge from the trauma caused by being around white people - who don’t admit to carrying their invisible white knapsack.

An associate Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) explained that the type of racism black people experience is different than other marginalized groups. A sentiment echoed by several universities who signed a 2021 document titled the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism. As a direct result of their adoption of the charter several universities have intentionally created “identity affirming safe spaces” exclusively for black folx. (Folx: a modern variation similar to Womxn or Latinx meant to emphasize inclusion of all groups of people in a gender neutral manner)

For black FOLX who need to heal, recharge and build community in spaces free from people of other races there are a growing list of options;

1. The University of Toronto (U of T) was the first Canadian institution to have a racially segregated graduation ceremony that takes place on campus every year.

2. Other Canadian universities that offer segregated black only convocations include, McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University, Simon Fraser University, and Concordia University; McGill University holds a full convocation ceremony but also has a upscale black only event at a high end hotel.

3. Twice a week, the University of Waterloo athletic centre reserves its pool for exclusive use by black people. The program is officially called “Black Folx swim,” a 60-minute black-only pool time. Users can swim lengths, practice diving or sign-up for a lesson. But they — and all the instructors — must be “Black folx.”The Black Folx Swim is the university’s only demographic-specific swim time.

4. The University of British Columbia has opened ‘The Black Student Space’ as an identity-affirming space available only for black undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at the UBC Vancouver campus.

5. Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson, has a Black Student Lounge. The space is intended as a shelter from “the harms of institutional racism.” In multiple public statements, TMU has referred to itself as a hotbed of colonialist institutional oppression, and the lounge is intended as a place where students can “heal” and “recharge” from said oppression, and “promote black flourishing.”

6. The University of Toronto offers a black only frosh week and orientation activities.

7. York University — Canada's second-largest — also has a lounge for black students only.

8. Simon Fraser plans to build a black student centre

By most indicators it appears that the concept of black only spaces is gaining popularity. In America there are already options for segregated housing at American universities. That may become an option available to future students who don’t want to mix with other races in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

About the author: Neil Gonsalves is an Indian-born Canadian immigrant who grew up in Dubai, U.A.E. and moved to Canada in 1995. He is an Ontario college educator, a TEDx speaker, an author and columnist, and an advocate for new immigrant integration and viewpoint diversity.