Video:
The video above gives an overview of the resource and an introduction to its key concepts surrounding the Core Themes of our study.
CONTENT WARNING: Depending on your lived experiences and identities, some of the content on this site may be troubling, uncomfortable, challenging, and, at times, triggering. Engage mindfully and intentionally when embarking on your exploration of Learning in Colour, and connect with resources if needed.
Note: The information, resources, and suggestions on this page and within Learning in Colour more broadly are derived from literature, previous projects, and our own research study with Black, Indigenous, and racialized students. This content is not the official position of McMaster University, nor has it been endorsed by its administration.
Context
The purpose of this project and the creation of our website was to extend the critical work around race, racialized students' experiences, and conceptualizing safety in the classroom, within pedagogy, and across campus more broadly. Inspired by work before us, such as the RACE report led and authored by Roche Keane and Dr. Ameil Joseph, as well as the anonymous suggestion box, conceptualized by Glenda Vanderleeuw, our project looked to continue to collect the insights of racialized students' experiences within academia to move into tangible change.
Racialized students have experienced systemic issues within curriculum, microaggressions in the classroom and in the field, conflicting definitions of safety, and lack of attendance to intersectional issues and the nuances of identity. Recognizing these issues to be consistent and cyclical across academic disciplines, our project hoped to validate these experiences and create tangible avenues for change at the peer, instructional, and pedagogical levels. Through obtaining diverse yet collective experiences from students of colour in various disciplines, we located a unified voice across core themes that has dictated the student of colour's school experience.
It is from these core themes that we have developed suggestions, resources, directions, and reflective points for your consideration to aid in co-constructing safer spaces across McMaster University for students of colour.
On This Page:
- The Significance of Unrecognized and Uncompensated Labour
- Experiences of Harm
- Emotional, Social and Physical Health Impacts
- Systemic Issues with Pedagogy and Instruction
The Significance of Unrecognized and Uncompensated Labour
Uncompensated and unrecognized labour is a salient and central theme in racialized students' experiences in the classroom and within pedagogy. Students consistently described the disproportionate onus, implicit expectations, and burden of responsibility of having to educate faculty and their peers on racism, racial tensions, and elements of racial identity. This has taken the form of:
- Informal teaching responsibilities,
- Unpaid consultation roles around course outlines, content, and how to respond to white students' concerns,
- Being asked to occupy committee or peer support positions due to visible identity markers,
- Mediation of and intervention in racist and harmful discourse in the classroom, and
- Addressing microaggressions in the classroom.
Racial identity is a topic that has been treated as “taboo” in the classroom, which creates opportunities for instructors and professors to avoid, gloss over, or, at times, misrepresent its intersectional components and the need for attention in curriculum and in the classroom. This has left students of colour feeling responsible for ensuring that topics of race and racialization are not erased, misconstrued, or misrepresented, thus forcing them into tense, harmful, and awkward positions of educating their peers and faculty. As racialized students have clearly detailed in our study and in those that came before us, the discussion of racial dynamics and racism has consistently involved responsibilities of mediation, facilitation, interpersonal work, feedback, and curriculum development being imposed onto students of colour for free.
Experiences of Harm
The impacts of uncompensated labour, microaggressions, and systemic racism imbued within the academy have come at a cost to students of colour. Interwoven into their responses in our study were the direct experiences of harm that have been produced by centring and protecting whiteness in the classroom. Often taking the form of invalidating and dismissing lived experiences, questioning race/oppression/elements of racial identity, and tokenism (to name a few), students of colour have been positioned to be the receivers of adverse reactions, backlash, emotions, and conversation from both students and faculty.
Students of colour were clear in naming and explaining the catastrophic effects that repeated racist and discriminatory experiences have in their lives. Consistent amongst our findings and in literature is the manifestation of racial trauma, which is a form of PTSD/trauma and emotional reaction that comes from repeated and/or daily discrimination, racism, and marginalization. As students of colour consistently bump up against these experiences in academia, racial trauma begins to develop in a multitude of ways that cascade into numerous areas of wellbeing, including:
Emotional/Mental
- Persistent feelings of anger, defensiveness, unprovoked crying, dissociation, sadness, withdrawal and social isolation, lack of concentration and attention, and self-silencing
- Hyperarousal symptoms, such as avoidance and numbing
- Perceived threat and harm
- Mental health concerns, such as depression, PTSD, mood disorder, low self-esteem and sense of self, and suicidal ideation
Physical
- Psychosomatic complaints: issues with sleep such as oversleeping or interrupted sleep, lethargy and lacking energy, and brain fog
- Frequent migraines and headaches, muscle tensions and spasms, and eye twitching
- Comorbid health issues: increased levels of stress and associated cardiovascular issues
Cultural/Spiritual
- Disconnection from culture in order to assimilate or gain acceptance
- Having culture or spirituality questioned; attack on core sense of self
- Limited opportunities to connect with other members of own culture or spirituality due to lack of representation; limited and stringent culturally reflective supports
- Discomfort in asking for accommodation to attend or engage in cultural and spiritual practices
- Tokenizing culture or spirituality
Financial and Academic
- Lack of attendance and engagement in course content and course at large
- Divestment from schooling and grades, having to repeat classes/years of study
- Bearing financial costs of counselling, supports, repeated courses and years
- Increased efforts in finding literature, scholarly evidence for experiences and assignments
Social
- Distrust, isolation, loneliness, and lack of peer support
- Tainted image: student of colour often positioned as combative, aggressive, or distracting, thus furthering divide between students of colour and faculty/peers
- Distance from school “community”, discomfort in attending school events and activities, difficulties navigating conversation with professors and peers
The unified voice of students of colour was clear in stating that the manifestation of racial trauma and its perverse effects stem from a lack of sufficient and thoughtful attendance and support in all areas of academia. This creates and reproduces unsafe experiences for students of colour that are present in interpersonal relationships with white counterparts in the classroom, in interactions with professors and faculty, in presentation and reception of curriculum, and in subjective knowledge across disciplines in a fashion that is harmful and laborious to all elements of self, purpose, and well-being.
Emotional, Social and Physical Health Impacts
What students of colour have consistently called for is intervention and advocacy in the classroom when interpersonal and systemic issues are identified. The acknowledgement and investment in safer spaces for students of colour should no longer be at their expense and labour; rather, it is the responsibility of instructors, faculty, and administration to intentionally address. Students of colour were direct in detailing anecdotes and experiences where instructors could have proactively intervened in racist discourse and dynamics in the classroom; however, attempts to identify this process were met with claims of ignorance or discomfort in intervening.
What this is indicative of is the centralization of protecting and upholding whiteness in the classroom; choosing to ignore or minimize racialized students' experiences of harm in the classroom is indicative of white preservation as one is consciously or unconsciously choosing to prioritize the protection, learning experience, and emotions of a majoritarian identity over a marginalized identity. The prevalence and persistence of whiteness in the classroom was found to:
- Create nuanced experiences of harm, which have specific long-term implications for students of colour as detailed above,
- Facilitate ongoing microaggressions and racist discourse in the classroom through ideological liberal values of free speech, market, and freedom of expressions,
- Frame experiences of harm as "learning opportunities,"
- Maintain the fallacy of multiculturalism and race neutrality in the classroom, and
- Centre white epistemology and knowledge.
A lack of faculty and instructional support in creating safer spaces and intervening in harmful experiences targeting students of colour is rooted in discussion around “intent versus impact." Administrators and faculty must be intentional about supplying and seeking out educational tools to mediate and navigate conversations about race from white positionality, and they must become comfortable with seeing and addressing colour in the classroom. It is clear that a primary factor in creating safety and safer spaces within academia is to facilitate space in the classroom for educational, proactive, and progressive conversations around race and racism that do not involve harmful rhetoric or uncompensated labour.
Systemic Issues with Pedagogy and Instruction
While the university proclaims campus-wide multiculturalism and diversity, the centralization of whiteness moves beyond interpersonal and instructional components in the classroom to all areas of campus life. Across the cumulative projects that have informed our site is the sentiment that students of colour need to be better represented and reflected in curriculum. A lack of representation in faculty, curriculum, administration, and social support programming and groups were some of the “places” identified to be missing racial and ideological reflection. Below, we have summarized some of the ways in which representation, reflection, diversity, and intentionality are lacking within pedagogy and the structure of the classroom:
In faculty:
- Lack of diversity amongst faculty and instructors
- Racialized instructors are often expected to teach courses or provide lectures on topics related to race, racism, and racialization only, regardless of their research expertise or areas of interest outside of these topics
- Lack of resources from white professors and faculty to pull from to support students of colour and their initiatives
- Lack of paid, consistent, and mandatory training and education around race, racism, and racialization inside and outside of the classroom
- Lack of mentorship around race-specific issues in the classroom
- Lack of paid guest speakers on topics of race or other topics white faculty feel uncomfortable addressing due to lack of personal and professional knowledge
Curriculum:
- Lack of representation and inclusion of literature, discourse, commentary, and materials from the margins
- Critical courses focused on race are not mandatory, thus allowing students to engage optionally
- Lack of interrogation into social location and whiteness beyond basic or rudimentary exercises (e.g. power flower)
- Lack of attendance to and recognition of the socio-economic and socio-political contexts that students of colour are living in
- Performative advocacy: ie. surface-level, lofty land acknowledgments, brief statements on racial issues in the community, etc.
- Educational tools on race often involve “trauma porn”; ie. heavy violence perpetrated against people of colour and other depictions of traumatic present-day and historic events
Administrative:
- Lack of diversity amongst administration and university leadership
- Lack of accessible, clear, and trauma-informed conflict resolution pathways for students of colour
- Lack of partnership with racialized communities and anti-racist community organizations to support students in the community
- Lack of intentional intervention when racist discourse happens publicly on campus; i.e. failure to intervene under the guise of honouring "free speech"
- Knowingly employing and supporting community members known to be discriminatory and racist against people of colour, thus furthering a general lack of safety on campus
- Lack of intentionally crafted/dedicated and funded physical safer spaces on campus for students of colour, caucus groups, and clubs
- Lack of diversity in school marketing, design (ie. wall of whiteness), and awarding/recognitions
Siloed Social Support Programming:
- Lack of formalized peer support
- Few opportunities to collaborate with other racial caucus groups across disciplines and faculties
- Lack of support, financially and personally, from faculty to ensure successful peer support services, caucus groups, or clubs
- Lack of intentionality around connecting caucus groups/clubs to additional resources
- Lack of diversity among student representatives on core committees and in meaningful faculty conversations
Altogether, the lack of representation and support creates instances where students of colour need to learn, make meaning, navigate conflict, and heal in isolation. Acknowledging a lack of representation also involves acknowledging the lack of supportive pathways that assist students in working through and unpacking these harmful experiences of violence and marginalization. This feeds into larger systemic issues, such as lack of conflict resolution pathways, accessible counseling and resources, and pedagogical support, which are significant gaps that need to be filled in order to create and maintain safety in the pedagogy in formalized ways.
Insufficient/underdeveloped conflict resolution pathways, racial trauma services, and pedagogical supports
As the effects of harmful discourse, unsafe environments, and lack of representation infiltrate the emotional, physical, spiritual, and academic lives of students of colour, racialized students continue to feel a lack of support. Insight from participants in our study shows that these feelings stem from insufficient information around navigating and addressing these experiences in a white-dominated institution (also known as "Predominantly White Institutions" or "PWIs"). Often having to search for support and resources independently, students of colour describe the disappointment around limited options available to assist with these complex experiences and the added labour of having to manage these things alone.
Unfortunately, the institution does not currently have a crisis or counselling pathway specific to students of colour that can speak to, acknowledge, and address their intersectional experiences. While some strides have been made and some on-campus services are leading new initiatives (e.g. the Black Student Success Centre, Indigenous Student Services, etc.), there continues to be a gap in providing equitable and inclusive services to all racialized students. Having spaces for consistent academic and emotional counselling around experiences of racial trauma has been named as a resource that would be highly beneficial to students of colour to aid in unpacking harmful experiences, externalizing them, developing critical consciousness, and assisting in continuing their academic journeys.
Additionally, students reported the need for conflict resolution pathways that would assist in navigating the uncomfortable and intimidating terrain that students of colour avoid or feel silenced in when having to address racist discourse in the classroom from students, TAs, or instructors, offer feedback to faculty and instruction around feelings of harm in the classroom, and have tangible change/solutions implemented when these situations arise. The reality is that many racialized students are isolated in the classroom; participants in our study described being one of the only students of colour in many of their courses. Fear around being labelled as aggressive or uncooperative, having no vocalized peer support or advocacy, and experiencing punitive grading practices as a result of their attempts to hold instructors accountable become considerations when students of colour seek to resolve pedagogical conflict. Coupled with a lack of understanding for the nuance and presentation of the situations amongst faculty and department administrations, students of colour end up continuing to feel unsupported, silenced, and displaced. Formalizing conflict and crisis resolution pathways to racial harm and race-based trauma that becomes precedent, institution-wide, is a need, not a want.