Black Canadian Research Articles

Quand se glisser dans la peau c’est s’immiscer dans la peau : antinoircité, proximité, résistance et le cas du spectacleSLĀV

SLĀV is a musical stage play directed by Robert Lepage, and based on recordings by singer Béatrice “Betty” Bonifassi. The recordings are Bonifassi’s reinterpretations of music composed by enslaved and incarcerated African Americans—that is Black people labouring under, and resisting, the conditions of slavery and its afterlife. Though Lepage and Bonifassi promoted the show as an homage to Black people, SLĀV opened at the 2018 Montreal International Jazz Festival to protests by the SLĀV Resistance Collective, accusing it of cultural appropriation. SLĀV was eventually cancelled as Black artists began pulling out of the festival. Unsurprisingly, Lepage, Bonifassi and much of the Quebec public accused the protestors of censorship, and of misunderstanding Quebec’s unique context. Situating its analysis within the field of Black Canadian Studies, in this article Howard examines the discourse around SLĀV as manifested through the words of Bonifassi, Lepage, journalists, and commenters. Howard argues that SLĀV instantiates the broader context of antiblackness in Quebec, and pays particular attention to gestures of inclusion and proximity consistent with modes of slavery and its afterlife in New France/Quebec. These gestures attempt to contain Blackness within national, linguistic, and other boundaries, disciplining the ways it is allowed to assert itself. Black resistance must therefore defy these boundaries and claim solidarity between and across variously located Black people.

Black Canadians' Exposure to Everyday Racism: Implications for Health System Access and Health Promotion among Urban Black Communities.

This study explores the social determinants of Black Canadians’ exposure to everyday racism, its relationship to health system access, and implications for health promotion. We used data from the A/C Study survey on HIV transmission and prevention among Black Canadians. We implemented the survey (N = 1360) in 2018–2019 in Toronto and Ottawa—two large cities that together account for 42% of Canada’s Black population—among self-identified Black residents aged 15–64 years, who were born in sub-Sahara Africa or the Caribbean or had a parent who was born in those regions. Participants reported racist encounters in the preceding 12 months using the Everyday Discrimination Scale. We assessed the socio-demographic correlates of racist experiences and the impact of racism on health system access using multivariable generalised linear models. Sixty percent of participants reported experiencing racism in the preceding 12 months. Based on the adjusted odds ratios, participants were more likely to experience racism if they were older, employed, Canadian-born, had higher levels of education, self-identified as LGBTQ + and reported generally moderate access to basic needs and adequate housing; and less likely to experience racism if they lived in Ottawa, self-identified as female or reported higher levels of social capital. Visiting a healthcare provider or facility, and difficulty accessing healthcare were associated with racist experiences. Racist experiences diminished the likelihood of being tested for HIV. Racist experiences were widespread, especially among those with higher levels of social wellbeing or greater exposure to Canadian institutions. Study participants also associated racist experiences with the healthcare system.

Cy McLean and the Trailblazers of Black Jazz in Prewar Central and Eastern Canada

Cy McLean and the Trailblazers of Black Jazz in Prewar Central and Eastern Canada Wade Pfaff (bio) THE STUDY OF JAZZ IN CANADA'S BLACK COMMUNITIES must begin with the fascinating stories of the lives of the first generation of big band leaders in the 1920s and 1930s, who overcame grave personal and professional obstacles due to their skin color in a turbulent time. Although these African Canadian musicians struggled to make lives for themselves as professionals, the fast-paced changes taking place in the music industry after the Second World War and the Canadian media's lack of attention combined to make them invisible to all but a few historians. This research note examines the career and family history of Cyril (Cy) McLean and compares his accomplishments with those of two other important band leaders who gained large audiences in Canada during the interwar period (1918-1939)–Ollie Wagner and Myron (Mynie) Sutton–in order to discuss the fact that there were racialized barriers in Canadian entertainment. Each of these men left their homes in small Black communities across the country and went on to create some of the first all-Black Canadian swing bands in Canada. The "Great Migration" of southern American Black people to the industrial urban cities of the northern United States during the first half of the 20th century occurred in an east-west fashion in Canada, with Black Canadians gravitating towards the centre of the country for community, opportunity, and a more equitable business climate. This research note also draws attention to the ways in which African diaspric music has helped shape Black Canadians' resilience and political will, which in turn has helped unite Canada's diverse African diasporic population. Each of the three musicians mentioned above–Cy McLean, Ollie Wagner, and Mynie Sutton–were important influencers in the fledgling jazz industry of Canada, but when the public's taste changed in later years all three men returned to physical labour jobs to support their families. These trailblazers of Central and Eastern Black Canadian jazz, sadly, are almost completely forgotten today, except by Canadian music historians. Their life stories are inspirational studies of perseverance, dedication to art, and the maintenance [End Page 121] of personal dignity in a society that was full of admiration for Black people's artistry yet lacked empathy for their lack of civil rights or poor quality of life. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Cy McLean, Toronto Star, 24 June 1969 (photographer Doug Griffin). Source: Toronto Star Photograph Archive, Object Number TSPA_0067429F. During the Great Depression in Canada, there were no federal laws dictating racial segregation. But right up to the end of the Second World War, local customs and regional business practices ensured that there were very [End Page 122] few premier performance venues in Central and Eastern Canada that allowed Black Canadian artists much less Black customers. The best jobs were always reserved for union members only, and Black people were not welcome in most Canadian union locals until Cy McLean and his band broke through these racial barriers in 1944. Prior to that landmark year, Black Canadian musicians had to play under an American union card or perhaps under the Coloured Clef Club of Montreal union card (an all-Black organization). Big stars from the United States, such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, could play in the top venues, but they had to enter from the rear and arrange for dwellings themselves with the local Black community because reputable hotels in Central and Eastern Canada did not allow Black patrons. Cy McLean and the Rhythm Rompers were very active in Toronto during the Second World War, but by the 1960s, as swing music continued to lose popularity, McLean ended up playing his brand of "sweet" jazz in some of the less-desirable venues around Toronto with just one or two accompanists while maintaining a second job to support his family. Cy McLean's story is representative of many unknown artists' struggles, which were (and are) not unique in Black Canada even today. Cy McLean's family came to Canada as part of a modest migration from the West Indies that started in...

Black Canadians in theCanadian Journal of Communication: A Critical Reading of Language and Voice in Its Publishing History

Background: This article is a response to #CommunicationSoWhite—Canadian style. It probes what articles about Black Canadians have been published in the Canadian Journal of Communication’s (CJC’s) history, and what has been the focus of these articles in terms of race, racism, and colonialism.Analysis: Using critical discourse analysis, this article examines language and voice in seven articles that focus on media representation of Blackness and/or Black visibility/invisibility.Conclusion and Implications: Over a 20-year period, the CJC’s corpus on Black Canadians changed. The articles moved from simplified or stereotypical representations of Black culture to giving agency and voice to a heterogeneity of Black experiences. This article asks readers to consider how and when Black Canada will move from the margins of Canadian communication studies to the centre.

'Good Intentions' that 'Do Harm': Canada's state multiculturalism policy in the case of Black Canadians.

This essay identifies Canada's recognition of the United Nations Declaration for People of African Descent (UNDPAD) as a multiculturalist iteration. In this scope, the essay discusses the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives (CSMARI) program as a central element of state multiculturalism, through which Canada plans to meet commitments to Black Canadians-and by extension, the UNDPAD. Although the CSMARI program is well intended, it causes harm to Black Canadians by reinscribing stereotyped material lack and other forms of racialized scarcity. Rather than address longstanding social-economic histories that sustain racialized poverty, state multiculturalism policy inadvertently reinforces these. The CSMARI program's focus on material lack as opposed to the systemic aspects that underpin these, amplifies Canada's multicultural myth of inclusivity while leaving unquestioned the cultural barriers that block Black citizens. State multiculturalism policy maintains the status quo by commodifying and depoliticizing anti-racism, while also neutralizing the language of naming experiences of exclusion. This essay adapts an anti-Black racism feminist theory to recast state multiculturalism as, implicitly, a cause of harm. The paper questions 'good intentions' that 'do harm' as a critical reflection that speaks to the dissonance expressed by Black Canadians, despite state multiculturalism policy.

“We are Full and Complex People”: Heterogeneous Commonality, Creativity, and Collaboration in Podcasting

ABSTRACT Group membership under a shared identity marker has intragroup diversity, or ”heterogeneous commonality.” Thus, self-representations within identity groups can elicit different perspectives about, or approaches to, the same topics. This article textually analyzes episodes from Black Canadian Content Creators, My Blackness, My Truth, and Seat at the Table about Black creative collaboration and social justice to assess how podcasts function as heterogeneously common publics foregrounding podcaster identities to approach the same topics. This article also analyzes each podcast’s online presence for inviting audiences to participate as part of these publics.

Psychosocial Distress in Patients With Advanced CKD by Racial Group and Immigrant Status: A Canadian Cross-sectional Study

Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) have been reported to experience profound psychosocial distress. Other work has established that patientswith CKD from marginalized populations (including individuals who on the basis of race often face racism and related discrimination, termed "racialization") experience health care inequities. Given limited information on the intersection of these 2 phenomena, we assessed the association of psychosocial distress with racialized status and immigrant status in Canadians with advanced CKD. Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data. 536 patients with advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate<30mL/min/1.73m2, with or without kidney replacement therapy) from multiple clinical centers in Toronto. Racialized status (individuals who identify as Asian or as African, Caribbean, or Black Canadian), immigrant status, and combined immigrant-racialized status. Psychosocial distress, defined as the presence of depression, anxiety, or social difficulties (ie, a score of≥10 points on the Patient Health Questionnaire 9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7, or Social Distress 16 scales, respectively). The independent associations of racialized status and immigrant status with psychosocial distress, depression, anxiety, and social difficulties were examined using univariable- and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression. Mean age of the 536 participants was 57±16 (SD) years, 62% were male, and 45% were immigrants. Of the sample, 58% were White, 22% were African, Caribbean, or Black Canadian, and 20% were Asian. Psychosocial distress was present in 36% of participants (depression in 19%, anxiety in 12%, and social difficulties in 31%). To assess the combined impact of racialized and immigrant status, we created a variable with mutually exclusive categories: White nonimmigrant, racialized nonimmigrant, White immigrant, and racialized immigrant participants. In our final multivariable-adjusted model, compared with White nonimmigrant participants, racialized immigrant participants were more likely to have psychosocial distress (OR, 2.96 [95% CI, 1.81-4.81]), depression (OR, 1.87 [95% CI, 1.05-3.34]), and social difficulties (OR, 3.36 [95% CI, 2.03-5.57]). Overall similar associations were seen for racialized nonimmigrants and for White immigrants. Convenience sample; small subgroups; combined exposure variable grouping Asian and African, Caribbean, and Black participants together; lack of data about mechanisms. Both racialized and immigrant status based on self-report of demographic characteristics were associated with psychosocial distress among patients with advanced CKD. These patients may benefit from culturally competent psychosocial support. Psychosocial distress is frequent in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and impacts quality of life and clinical outcomes. Psychosocial distress may be especially scarring in people who are racialized (marginalized on account of their membership in a particular racial group) and/or who are immigrants. We assessed the association of psychosocial distress with racialized and immigrant status in Canadians with advanced chronic kidney disease. Among 536 participants from multiple medical centers in Toronto, we found that racialized and immigrant participants were more likely to have psychosocial distress, depression, and social difficulties compared with White nonimmigrant participants. This is likely related to the multiple intersectional challenges, including experience with racism and discrimination that racialized immigrant patients may face. Further studies are needed to elucidate the specific factors that contribute to more distress. The potential impact of culturally competent and safe support for these patients will also need to be studied.

‘We want our own data!’: building Black community accountability in the collection of health data using a Black emancipatory action research approach

Community accountability is a model through which to redress anti-Black racism in health care and to create community-based participatory research about the health of Black Canadians. This article provides a case example of a study undertaken by a Black community collective in Quebec made up of researchers, activists, service providers, business leaders and their allies who sought community accountability in making visible the impact of COVID-19 on local Black communities. The principles articulated within the Black emancipatory action research approach (Akom, 2011) are used to ground an analysis of our research-activist process in order to illuminate how knowledge gained through the collection of data can be used to help inform Black communities about the realities, needs and concerns of their members, to advocate for rights and entitlements, and to work towards community accountability in research that empowers Black communities, both in Quebec and elsewhere.

Who is Black? The urgency of accurately defining the Black population when conducting health research in Canada.

KEY POINTS In recent research evaluating the health of Black people in Canada, many terms have been used to define who is Black. These include “Black individuals, people or communities;”[1][1],[2][2] “Black Canadians;”[3][3] “African-Canadians;”[4][4] “African;” “Caribbean;”[5][5

Gothic Realism and Other Genre F(r)ictions in Contemporary Black Canadian Writing

Gothic Realism and Other Genre F(r)ictions in Contemporary Black Canadian Writing

From concern to commitment

Black students are systematically excluded from healthcare education, denying an increasing Black Canadian population access to diverse healthcare practitioners. This study explored admissions processes related to the inclusion of equity groups within McGill’s Occupational Therapy program and identified recommendations specific to Black applicants. Data was collected from a survey of current students and program graduates. Data analysis, applying a critical intersectional lens, was contextualized in dialogue with five key individuals at McGill and a review of the literature. Findings revealed an application process that foregrounds the experiences of white upper-class applicants while leaving historically excluded students feeling dissatisfied and unable to authentically represent themselves. Barriers to admissions in occupational therapy include a website with no Black representation, a difficult-to-navigate admissions guide, and an admissions committee currently lacking Black or Indigenous representation. The valorization of Black applicants and students through visibly welcoming spaces and meaningful resources for inclusion and success are acknowledged, but not yet developed. The study findings support next steps by providing program-level recommendations such as the inclusion of Black faculty on the admissions committee and the option to submit an essay for Black applicants. The implementation of an evidence-based Black Student Pathway is necessary.

Inequalities of extreme commuting across Canada

There is growing body of research and practice assessing transportation equity and justice. Commuting is an especially important dimension to study since such frequent, non-discretionary travel, can come at the expense of time for other activities and therefore negatively impact mental health and well-being. An ”extreme commuter” is a worker who has a particularly burdensome commute, and has previously been defined based on one-way commute times above 60 or 90 minutes. In this paper, we examine the social and geographic inequalities of extreme commuting in Canada. We use a 25% sample of all commuters in Canada in 2016 (n = 4,543,417) and our analysis consists of descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. The average one-way commute time in 2016 across Canada was 26 minutes, but over 9.7% of the workforce had commute times exceeding 60 minutes. However, this rate of extreme commuting was 11.5% for low-income households, 13.5% for immigrants, and 13.4% among non-white Canadians, reaching as high as 18.6% for Black Canadians and 14.7% for Latin American Canadians specifically. We find that these inequalities persist even after controlling for household factors, commute mode, occupation, and built environment characteristics. The persistently significant effects of race in our models point to factors like housing and employment discrimination as possible contributors to extreme commuting. These results highlight commuting disparities at a national scale prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and represents clear evidence of structural marginalization contributing to racialized inequalities in the critical metric of daily commute times seldom recognized by Canadian scholars and planners.

“To Teach Empathy and Fight Racism”

“Fugitive libraries,” as described by Shannon Mattern in her titular work, are Black libraries that emerge in American contexts in response to conditions of exclusion and antiBlackness. The question of whether they are necessary in a Canadian cultural context has not been investigated before, in part due to the lack of distinct existing scholarship on Black Canadian librarianship. Using an interdisciplinary framework informed by Black Canadian and Indigenous scholars, I undertake a content analysis and close reading of Black History Month and Black Lives Matter programming and booklists in two Canadian public libraries from 2020-2021 to investigate whether the programming meets the needs of Black Canadian communities, and whether fugitive libraries are a necessary response. I determine that though clear efforts towards the inclusion of Black narratives are apparent in these libraries, Black History Month programming and the discourse surrounding it are shaped to benefit and mobilize non-Black Canadians, rather than to address the needs of particular Black communities, and propose fugitivity as a solution to these conditions.

‘Getting shut down and shut out’: Exploring ACB patient perceptions on healthcare access at the physician-patient level in Canada

ABSTRACT Purpose The experiences of African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) Canadians are seldom explored in the Canadian context. Family physicians act as a gateway to the rest of the healthcare system and are necessary to provide proper patient care. However, Canada’s history with colonialism may impact the socio-cultural context in which patients receive care. Method 41 participants from Waterloo Region, Ontario, were engaged in eight focus groups to discuss their experiences in the healthcare system. Data were analysed following thematic analysis. Results Style of care, racism and discrimination and a lack of cultural competence hindered access. oor Inadequate cultural competence was attributed to western and biomedical approaches, poor understanding of patients’ context, physicians failing to address specific health concerns, and racism and discrimination. Participants highlighted that the two facilitators to care were having an ACB family physician and fostering positive relationships with physicians. Conclusion Participants predominantly expressed dissatisfaction in physicians’ approaches to care, which were compounded by experiences of racism and discrimination. Findings demonstrate how ACB patients are marginalized and excluded from the healthcare syste Iimplications for better access to care included utilizing community healthcare centres, increasing physicians’ capacity around culturally inclusive care, and increasing access to ACB physicians.

On Black Canadian Media Studies: A Conversation with Cheryl Thompson

On February 17, 2022, the Canadian Journal of Communication met with Cheryl Thompson (2021) via Zoom to discuss her latest book, Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty, and the possibilities of a Black Canadian media studies. Dr. Thompson is a professor in the School of Performance in X University,1Toronto, Canada, and author of Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture. She has published articles in Emergent Feminisms: Challenging a Post-Feminist Media Culture, the Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Journal of History Annales canadiennes d’histoire (CJH / ACH), and Feminist Media Studies. She has also published in The Conversation, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Spacing, Herizons, Halifax Coast, and Rabble.ca. Thompson grew up in Scarborough and currently resides in Toronto. She is working on a book that addresses Canada’s history of blackface.

Introduction: Race and the Olympic Games

Introduction: Race and the Olympic Games

A Tale of Two Olympians: At the Intersection of Class, Blackness, and Amateurism in Canada, 1920s–1930s

Abstract In 1928, British Guiana-born Phil Edwards earned the first of his five Olympic medals, becoming the first Black person to medal for Canada. Four years later, Ray Lewis earned his first and only Olympic medal, becoming the first Black Canadian medalist. Edwards was a middle-distance intercollegiate champion and a medical school student who would go on to earn four more medals in 1932 and 1936; Lewis was a star sprinter working as a sleeping car porter. In exploring their paths to and from the Olympics, this article enquires into the complex intersection of race and class, interrogating the Black experience and social transformation through sport.

Black Women Coaches in Community: Promising Practices for Mentorship in Canada.

Mentorship programs have been shown to help under-represented women navigate their environments, but little research has been done on mentorship programs in sport coaching in Canada. The first of its kind in Canada, the Black Female Coach Mentorship Program (BFCMP) created by the Black Canadian Coaches Association in partnership with the Coaching Association of Canada caters to an historically excluded population: Black, Biracial, and Indigenous women coaches. The research aimed to understand the experiences of program participants to better inform policy, decision-making, and sustainability of the BFCMP. Through mentorship session observations, one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 15 of the 27 inaugural BFCMP mentors and mentees, and thematic analysis, we determined the ability to form a trusted community was a promising practice for coach mentorship programs. Our findings suggest that participants, the majority of whom were the only Black woman coach in their program/institution, benefit from mentorship because of the opportunities to help each other develop as leaders, build relationships to resist loneliness, and nurture resilience through community.

Who Gets To Do Medicine: Black Canadian Studies and Medical Education

Black studies both addresses the epistemic dilemma Eurocentrism makes of Blackness while also understanding Blackness as relational, situating Black activism and intellectual life as intricately connected. Yet discussions of Black studies have generally been excluded from the fields of science and medicine. In this article, I focus on three considerations of Black studies in these fields: Dalhousie University’s rotating senior research chair in Black Studies, which moved into the Faculty of Medicine in 2019; a reflection on the 1968 Sir George Williams Affair, which highlighted the harms anti-Black racism in science studies has upon Black students and communities; and lastly, an examination of who gets to do medicine in Canada. In the almost two-hundred-year history of medical education in Canada, systemic barriers remain in place that obstruct Black people from participating in medical training. I seek to explore how Black studies in medical education is more than an accounting of brutality and atrocities. Science and medical studies also include Black experiences through method, thought, and intervention, thus creating anew.

Understanding the Health and Well-being of Canadian Black Children and Youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated health inequities and vulnerabilities in our society, with the Black population being disproportionately affected. As previous pandemics have resulted in an increase in adverse events to children and youth, we reviewed the literature to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black children and youth. We found Black children and youth experience psychosocial stressors related to uncertainties of the future. Differential gender effects related to COVID-19 are also apparent. Physical distancing related to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in differential impacts on physical activity levels in children. We also noted, increase levels of isolation may result in undetected child abuse. The review highlights the urgent need for multifaceted interventions that address disparities in social determinants of health and psychosocial needs of Black children and youth in Canada. Future research that addresses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black children and youth is needed to help create context-specific interventions.