The Politics of Refusing to Die - A Reflective Narrative Inquiry About Black and Indigenous Survival Despite Continued Neo-Colonial Violence In the Academy

• In Event: Dreamweaving Our Radical Elsewhere: Black and Indigenous Women in Educational Leadership on Healing and Purpose

Abstract

Objectives or purposes:
In the post-George Floyd era of EDI and Inclusive Excellence hiring of Black and Indigenous scholars into the Canadian academy we see the right (wing) and white lash expressed through a doubling down on the myth of meritocracy. This reflective paper will pull examples from the last decade of lived experience in the Canadian academy in elucidating the ways in which tokenism begat fetishism and performative EDI, which has culminated in a resurgence of the meritocracy myth, one deeply grounded in a white supremacist rejection of ideas about inclusion. This paper will explore what it has been like to exist and survive in the academic space both before, during, and after key events such as the Calls for Truth and Reconciliation, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, and both the building up and dismantling of performative corporate EDI policies. The paper will explore the political act of refusing to give up, In this, Wilson will pull examples from her own lived experience of anti-Black sexism, Black and Indigenous fetishism, and white supremacist cultural logic in the academy.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
This paper will draw on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality as bedrocks in socio-legal studies and Black and women of colour activism. This paper will also draw influence from the Black radical tradition and Anti-Colonial Theory as a current of thought across transnational Indigenous social movements and struggles.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry:
This paper will engage reflective praxis, ethnography, and narrative inquiry in elucidating examples of lived experience that speak back to the key theoretical underpinnings.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
At a time where we are collectively witnessing the doubling down of white supremacist logic in the dismantling of not only recently established EDI policies and departments, but long-held Affirmative Action and Equity policies, we are at a social juncture in being confronted with the questions: who is the post-secondary education space meant to include? How are Black and Indigenous scholars who have been historically excluded from the post-secondary space surviving and are they thriving? How do we as Black and Indigenous scholars build possible futures in these often violent spaces, and is “inclusion” worth the personal and professional price we pay?

Author

• Ciann L. WIlson, Wilfrid Laurier University