Young Black women's resistance to the Canadian settler colonial state apparatus: Negotiating the complexities of “being part of the system that oppresses”

Abstract

AbstractYoung Black peoples encounter racism and discriminatory practices and policies through formal education and in the larger society (Creese, 2013; Dei & James, 1998; Kelly, 1998). As the experiences of the research participants—young Black women between the ages of 18 and 30—highlight, a formal education system that is structured to benefit and perpetuate the settler colonial state apparatus marginalizes Black youth, including those who are deemed “successful” through their acceptance into higher education as formal education and the labour market are structured according to the logic of settler colonialism. As such, these systems operate by imposing Euro‐Western systems of knowledge, justice, and community on racialized peoples, and in particular, Black peoples. Yet, the research also shows that while injustice is the reality for young Black people, so too is resistance through a small yet powerful contingent who are refusing to remain complicit in perpetuating settler colonialism.