Inspired by labour action taken by WNBA and NBA players in protest of police violence and anti-Black racism 鈥� action that took place following the shooting in Wisconsin of Jacob Blake 鈥斅� American scholar Anthea Butler at the University of Pennsylvania sparked a nationwide movement around a 鈥淪cholar Strike.鈥� The idea was for academics to choose to take part in labour action, teach-ins and social justice advocacy around these important issues.
That movement came to Canada this week under the umbrella of Scholar Strike Canada. Activities took place on September 9 and 10 to align with the start of the academic year in many universities and the close proximity to Labour Day.
Members of the Dal community took part in the Scholar Strike in different ways. Some were . Others took time to attend an in-person event, held on the Studley Quad, titled 鈥淏e Heard: Black and Indigenous Voices鈥� that offered a space for any Dal students, staff or faculty who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or a person of colour to speak or perform.
There was also a virtual teach-in for Black lives hosted by Dal鈥檚 James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies OmiSoore Dryden and Halifax poet, scholar and activist El Jones that included scholars from 国民彩票 as well as peer institutions across Nova Scotia.
You can view archived video of both events, in full, via Facebook:
Below are just some of the insights shared by Dal community members during these Scholar Strike events:
Deep Saini, President
"Racism will wane when we all stop accepting it as part of our culture, when we call it out when we see it, and when we confront it when we see it. That's where my focus will be for the term of my presidency. How can we shift the culture of this institution and, through that, hopefully the culture of our society?"
OmiSoore Dryden, James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies
聽鈥淎s professors, is it important to discuss the uprisings in our classes without reservation, to distill between racist stereotypes, to understand that watching Black women and men die on screen becomes the present-day visual of lynching postcards. Black students are deeply affected and harmed by these images, as are your Black colleagues.鈥�
Theresa Rajack-Talley, Vice-Provost, Equity and Inclusion
"When you see these atrocities, these atrocities are not statistics and they are not data in a book. It's about human beings, people like us, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, babies. If those atrocities continue, this whole Black Lives Matter movement, this whole upheaval across North America and Canada, the killing of innocent Black people and Indigenous people 鈥� these are not statistics. When we say call their names, it's important because we have to remind ourselves and we have to remind other people that these are human beings. And it's not just those who are killed, it's the families and communities that are affected by it."