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Environmental racism and Black environmentalist trailblazers

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Environmental racism and Black environmentalist trailblazers

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"I want to help people in ways that I haven't necessarily been helped. It's important to me to prevent some of the harm that I went through," Julius Lindsay says. The director of sustainable communities for the David Suzuki Foundation says that in his nearly two-decade long career in the environmental sector, he has never worked with another Black person.

And, he says, that's not uncommon. Black environmentalists share a love of nature and, often, a familial history of farmers and gardeners. But, unfortunately, another unifying experience is isolation in their field of work.

It can be hard for Black people to become environmental professionals when that requires expensive post-secondary education in fields they've been discouraged from pursuing. And even though environmental racism increases Black communities' health risks and their exposure to climate change, it's not always easy for them to focus on the issue when they're just trying to stay afloat, considering all of the other ways systemic racism impacts their lives.

What that means, Lindsay says, is that "I've never had a mentor." It also means constant work: on one hand, pushing non-Black environmentalists to give attention, time and money to issues affecting Black communities most; on the other, convincing people dealing with more immediate crises that climate action matters to their daily lives.

Though the community of Black environmentalists in Canada is small, it is definitely mighty. And it's grown enough that those who never had a Black mentor are now able to fill that role for someone else.

That includes Lindsay, who is always connecting people: in2020, he co-founded the Black Environmental Alliance, a group of environmental professionals aiming to address environmental justice issues and the lack of Black representation in the field.

"This is not a coincidence. It's a pathway that I've been on, and I can't be anybody but myself," he says. "It's really important that these things are part of my work." Lindsay credits his Grenadian parents, whose revolutionary spirit taught him phrases like "each one, teach one," for making him community- and family-focused.

Others whose achievements young Black scientists and environmentalists look up to include Ingrid Waldron, and her groundbreaking work on environmental racism, and Maydianne Andrade, the founder of the Canadian Black Scientists Network.

All across the country, Black environmentalists are leading initiatives to get their communities into nature, make sure they have clean water and help them understand the impacts of climate change and environmental racism on their lives.

Though the scope of their work varies, their stories are similar in many ways - including the inspiration they draw from others and a commitment to building connections that strengthen their communities. Here are some people doing just that.

Chúk Odenigbo, Ingrid Waldron and Louise Delisle

In 2013, Chúk Odenigbo was an undergrad student in Kingston, Ont., taking a sustainability course where the final exam was to "do something to change the world," he says. He put together a photo series called My Green Dream, highlighting the idea that humanity can re-integrate with nature without sacrificing modernity - since just going back to how things "used to be" in Canada wouldn't be beneficial for most Black, Indigenous and other people of colour, Odenigbo says.

The series resonated with audiences and was eventually published by the United Nations, bringing Odenigbo, a PhD candidate in medical geography at the University of Ottawa, to the attention of the world. Now it's his life's work: teaching Black people to center nature for the collective wellbeing of people and the planet by helping them overcome barriers such as not knowing how to swim, or fearing being perceived as dirty or unkempt.

His mentor is researcher, professor and author Ingrid Waldon, who popularized the concept of environmental racism in Canada. Waldron centres Black people in her work, including in her groundbreaking 2018 book There's Something in the Water, about environmental racism in Nova Scotia and the country at large. "In a country like Canada that for the longest time pretended that racism didn't exist - that's massive," Odenigbo says. "She's out here trailblazing."

Waldron encourages disenfranchised residents advocating for their communities and supports young Black environmentalists, too. "She looks after her people," he says. "There's the inspirational side where she's not just talking the talk, she's walking the walk. But then there's also the approachability side where if you need advice, if you want to share something, you get to touch base and that's really exciting too."

"I just found him to be an extremely bright, intelligent, young man," Waldron says about Odenigbo in return. "I like the way he thinks."

"Nobody has ever asked us before, 'How do you think climate change is going to affect you?' ''
- Nova Scotia activist Louise Delisle, on researcher Ingrid Waldron

Now a professor and the HOPE Chair in Peace and Health at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Waldron began researching the concept of environmental racism nearly a decade ago. She was studying gentrification in the north end of Halifax, where many of the former residents and descendents of one of Canada's oldest Black communities, Africville, now live.

Africville was historically neglected: the City of Halifax built a biohazardous waste dump, an infectious disease hospital, a slaughterhouse and a prison nearby, then ran a railroad extension right through the middle of the community. Then, in the 1960s, the city forced residents out of the area and bulldozed their homes.

Waldron made the ongoing environmental racism in Nova Scotia the core of her book, which garnered wide attention. In 2019, it became the basis of a documentary she co-produced, bringing There's Something in the Water to a wider audience. Now she's working to pass Bill C-226, the national strategy respecting environmental racism and environmental justice act, which she co-wrote with former Nova Scotia MLA Lenore Zann. If the bill passes, Canada will commit to studying the relationship between race, socioeconomic status and environmental risk, and financially compensating those who have been adversely impacted.

Waldron credits activist Louise Delisle as a mentor. The two met in 2016, when Waldron was recruiting a community facilitator for a project on how African Nova Scotians perceived environmental racism and its health effects. Delisle grew up in another historic Black community in Nova Scotia, Shelburne, which made a good case study because like Africville, it too was near an operating dump.

"I really loved Louise, I just loved her manner, her personality," Waldron says. "She had never heard of environmental racism, but she did know that something was going on in her community with that dump nearby."

Delisle has vivid memories of the flames, smoke and ash that came from the Shelburne dump, and worrying as a little girl that the fires there would spread and burn down her home. As an adult, she moved back to Shelburne to take care of her ill mother. Seeing the dump was still in operation led her to start digging. Later on, community members discovered discarded oil at the dump was leaking into the ground, which Delisle believes has impacted drinking water.

Just months after she met Waldron, Delisle and other community members founded the South End Environmental Injustice Society, or SEED, setting out to fight the dump in earnest. "What they've done since then is just stunning," says Waldron. The group worked to get the dump closed and get homeowners new wells.

"A lot of this was Louise. I'm just amazed by her energy, her persistence, her strength," Waldron says. "I'm amazed that she's my mentor."

Delisle calls Shelburne, "a community in mourning all the time." She knows of many people who have died from lung diseases, strokes and multiple myeloma, a rare type of cancer of the white blood cells, illnesses she believes are linked to environmental contamination and racism.

"There are still people who do not and will not admit that there was an issue. But the group that we started, we're on fire about this," Delisle says. "That's why I love Ingrid so much because [she] picked up the ball and decided, 'okay, let's do some research about this. Let's work and try to find out what's happening.' "

Waldron works extremely hard for the Black community, Delisle says. "This is something that's never happened. Nobody has ever asked us before, 'how do you think climate change is going to affect you?' "

Zamani Ra and Violet Morrison

Zamani Ra is a mother, an environmental studies student and a tenant representative in her Toronto Community Housing building. In 2017, after noticing her neighbourhood was being impacted by erosion and flooding, she began organizing sessions to inform residents about climate change and what they could do to try to address it.

That's also when she founded Circular Environmental Education (CEED) Canada, which aims to make climate action "simple, convenient and culturally relevant," through workshops and consulting services. In 2022, she won a grant from the City of Toronto aimed at helping women fund local climate initiatives.

Ra calls her mother, Violet Morrison, her mentor. It's a term she also thinks applies to other relatives, including grandparents, aunts and uncles who were farmers or "land people," as she calls them. "I just feel like it's the most honorable thing to do," she says.

"[Elders] have some really valuable lessons for us to pick up and continue with," Ra says. "The practices of farming and planting can help people better conceptualize the importance of only taking what you need, and of generosity and reciprocity."

"The spirit of that, the energy of that is very important to me, and it's created who I am," she says. "This is not new for us, the language might be new, but this is not a new practice for us at all."

"It makes you feel good when you see people doing what Zamani would tell them ... listening and taking it at face value."
- Violet Morrison, mother, on Zamani Ra

Morrison, who moved to Canada from Jamaica in 1978, says she learns from her daughter in turn. Before Ra started CEED Canada, Morrison didn't know much about climate change or what it meant to be "environmentally friendly." Soon realizing that "we do so much to pollute the environment," she's now vigilant about things like separating recyclables and compostables from the rest of her waste and trying to educate others about doing the same.

"There's so much to learn from her," Morrison says about her daughter. "It makes you feel good when you see people doing what Zamani would tell them [in her workshops]. At least they're listening and taking it at face value."

"We have to do the work and make the world a better place for younger people that are coming up, and teach them what to do and how to do it."

Kiana Bonnick and Laurian Farrell

Kiana Bonnick describes her work at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Womxn of Colour Durham Collective as bridging gaps between climate change adaptation and community development. The goals of the programs she's developed for the collective are to build a sense of community for Black and racialized women in southern Ontario's Durham Region, and to better understand the relationship between racialized people, Indigenous people and the land.

There's a direct link between the strength of a community and their resilience to the impacts of climate change, she explained. "The stronger a community is, the more networks they have, and particularly, the more aware of the services in the community they are," the more adaptable and resilient they'll be.

Bonnick discovered her mentor, Laurian Farrell, during her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto. At the time, Farrell was the North American regional director of the Resilient Cities Network, which helps cities prepare for the impacts of climate change, and make sure their resilience plans are equitable. "I thought, 'Oh, wow, she's doing what I want to do,' " says Bonnick, who began following Farrell's work.

"One could go crazy doing this work. Knowing that I can get on a call with them every once in a while - I look forward to it."
- Laurian Farrell, deputy commissioner, bureau of coastal resilience, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, on Kiana Bonnick and Julius Lindsay

Their paths finally crossed when Julius Lindsay called the first meeting of the Black Environmentalist Alliance.

Farrell is currently the deputy commissioner in the bureau of coastal resilience at New York City's department of environmental protection. "It's just amazing to see someone ... who has done this work with municipalities, who has worked with conservation authorities, who is now living in New York and also brings her identity in the work that she does," Bonnick says. She officially asked Farrell to be her mentor in 2023.

As a Black female engineer, Farrell says she also never had a mentor or professor who looked like her, which is why she agreed to be Bonnick's mentor. "I'm really impressed with Kiana for her being able to go out and seek support," says Farrell. "It's something that I was missing that I didn't even know I was missing until later."

Farrell has learned that mentoring is a two-way street, "you get as much out of mentoring as you give," she says. And getting to know Bonnick has given her hope that young Black environmentalists will build upon and better the work that her generation has started.

"One could go crazy doing this work," says Farrell. "Knowing that I can get on a call with Julius and Kiana every once in a while - I look forward to it."

Peter Soroye and Maydianne Andrade

Peter Soroye spent much of his childhood outdoors, which helped develop his passion for conservation. Eventually, it led him to a PhD researching the effects of climate change on bumblebees and butterflies. He's now a conservation biologist in Ottawa with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, identifying key areas for preserving biodiversity.

His mentor is biologist and professor Maydianne Andrade, who is also the first Black environmental researcher he ever remembers meeting. Having grown up in one of the few Black families in North Bay, Ont., Soroye says he didn't know of many Black scientists at all until Andrade got in touch with him.

"I remember out of nowhere getting an email from Maydianne, and it was just so supportive," he says. "Regardless of all the things she's doing, she's paying attention to everybody and seeing what's going on."

That email came when Andrade was reaching out to Black scientists to join the Canadian Black Scientists Network, which she co-founded after the police murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd in 2020. Now a professor in the biological sciences department at the University of Toronto, Andrade's openness about the challenges she's faced and how she navigated them has been "essential" for Soroye.

"There should not be another generation of people like him who have to fight the battle alone."
- Maydianne Andrade, biological sciences professor, University of Toronto, on Peter Soroye

"I'm really happy with where I am, and I definitely count her among the people that have helped to make that happen," he says. Andrade's many accomplishments include making science accessible, including as a host of The Nature of Things. "There are rare people like Maydianne who have a larger legacy as a scientist and as a person," Soroye says.

For Andrade's part, she says she was initially impressed by the quality of Soroye's research and ability to defend it when it was inevitably debated. "His interviews with the media show that he clearly cared about outreach to the public and speaking in the language that was going to be compelling to the public," she says. "Just everything about him was impressive."

Andrade also didn't have many Black role models. As a university student in Vancouver, she wasn't surprised not to see many Black professors. But when she moved to Toronto - the city with the largest Black population in Canada - and still didn't see Black professors, she was shocked.

Andrade's main focus of study has been on how and why black widow spiders have evolved to have their extreme mating habits. Along with the Black scientists network, she co-founded the Toronto Initiative for Diversity & Excellence, a group of University of Toronto faculty working to advance equity, diversity and inclusion efforts.

Starting the organization has taken a lot of volunteer work, Andrade says, but is worth it so people have a space to discuss their experiences, including systemic and casual racism at work.

"It was people like Peter that made me realize it was worthwhile," she says. "There should not be another generation of people like him who have to fight the battle alone."

Updated on Feb. 8, 2024, at 1:39 p.m. ET: This story was updated to add that Kiana Bonnick develops programs for the Womxn of Colour Durham Collective as well as working with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
Updated on Feb. 12, 2024, at 4:39 p.m. ET: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Laurian Farrell's name.

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Matt Simmons (Local Journalism Initiative Reporter)

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'She's out here trailblazing': these 10 Black environmentalists are building community | The Narwhal

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Black Canadian scientists, researchers and environmental advocates discuss the importance of mentors, protégés and friends in their fields

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Eugenia Duodu & The Visions of Science Network for Learning

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Eugenia Duodu & The Visions of Science Network for Learning

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Visions of Science annually engages over 700 youth in 24 communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Eugenia holds both an HB.Sci in chemistry and biology and a PhD in chemistry from UofT.

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Visions of Science Network for Learning Inc. (VoSNL) is a charitable organization that aims to advance the educational achievements and positive development of youth from low-income and marginalized communities through meaningful engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and research.

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Crystal is a digital accessibility specialist and an incredible advocate for inclusivity. Her YouTube channel is well worth a follow. and she has a series of Earth, Wind, and Fire accessibility shorts that honestly crack me up. I will post them below.

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accessibility a11y tech "web development" "software development" "software testing" "software qa"

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If Mavis Beacon simped for accessibility instead of typing

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Article: The healing is mutual: Students as partners in anti-oppressive education (Melanie-Anne Atkins)

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Article: The healing is mutual: Students as partners in anti-oppressive education (Melanie-Anne Atkins)

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#africanmythology #africanmythologyseries #africanmythologybooks #bookclubs #bookclublondon #londonevents #freebooks"

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Google's responsibilities will include performing user experience research to collect input from the community, providing infrastructure for data collection, funding and obtaining a license to use the data commercially. Howard will lead the coordination effort with other HBCUs, manage vendors, recruit participants and maintain the repository.

We're solving the pipeline problem that plagues traditional speech collection. This project is not just focusing on data collection, or transcriptions, or the output, it's leveraging community-centered methods and expertise.

To ensure the safety of participant data, Google is conducting research to determine best practices for speech collection and identifying as many risks as possible, and aligning with Google's AI Principles which directly inspired Howard's own set of best practices.

"I see this becoming a whole consortium of HBCUs that work together to understand and improve technology for Black people in a respectful way, and show that you can create technology that celebrates Black voices," says Dr. Washington.

Project EBV is in its infancy and has just begun to take its first steps, but the big-picture goals and Dr. Washington's vision guides the team.

As owners of the dataset, Howard will take the lead on its licensing and sharing with other parties who wish to contribute to this effort. Google also hopes to use the dataset to improve its own products, ensuring that our tools work for more people.

In the end, the ultimate goal is allowing people to voice technology and express themselves authentically.

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A partnership with Howard University to improve speech technology for Black voices

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A partnership between Howard University and Google to build a high-quality African-American English speech dataset.

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Article: A Call to Interrogate Educational Development for Racism and Colonization

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Article: A Call to Interrogate Educational Development for Racism and Colonization

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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It is widely known that as an institution, higher education is laden with historical and structural racism. From the role of slave labor and the forcible taking of Indigenous land to finance colleges and universities, to the continually weakening legal system around affirmative action, to the problematic aspects of standardized testing-today, college experiences and access to a degree are inequitable among students. Globally, a Standardized, dominant form of the English language and Eurocentric ways of thinking are valued as superior in most educational spheres; these are a direct result of continuing legacies of colonization, and they sustain ongoing oppressive practices (Battiste, 1998; Bray, 1984). On an individual level, faculty of marginalized identities experience racism and oppression in their daily lives from colleagues and students (Rideau & Robbins, 2020; Pittman, 2010; Dickens et al., 2020); similarly, students of marginalized identities experience racism and oppression from faculty and from one another (e.g., Samuel & Burney, 2003).

Yet, while racism and colonization both exist and persist in higher education, most faculty do not receive formal training in the realm of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) as it pertains to the higher education classroom. Therefore, faculty draw upon resources such as university centers for teaching and learning, educational development programs, and various books, websites, and articles for pedagogical support. We suggest that educational developers and others in similar support roles must engage in critical reflection upon their own profession to avoid perpetuating racism, colonization, and oppression in the academy.

Educational developers have been identified as a resource for supporting faculty in gaining a stronger awareness of student diversity, inclusive and equitable teaching skills, cross-cultural understanding, and positionality (Dewsbury, 2017). In practice, this includes working with schools, departments, committees, and individuals to improve efforts around DEIJ-from workshops to sustained programs to the creation of online resources. Recently, while one of us was co-leading one of these programs, faculty participants were asked to consider how their discipline has been shaped by historical legacies of racism and colonization. It was a complex prompt, and participants came up with some thought-provoking and eye-opening responses. But how can we, as educational developers, help faculty engage with this prompt if we haven't thoroughly examined our own field?

Within academic disciplines, it has been acknowledged that racism, colonization, and oppression is embedded in disciplinary norms and practices (Shanklin, 2000; Silius, 2020; Dickens et al., 2020; Trisos et al., 2021), including in disciplines sometimes perceived as "race-neutral" (Haynes & Patton, 2019). Like any academic discipline, educational development holds various values, norms, standard practices, and assumptions. Turning the mirror on ourselves is imperative because as educational developers, we impact the teaching practices instructors choose, the ways in which instructors feel supported, and ultimately, students' learning experiences. Only when we have interrogated our own values and assumptions for legacies of racism and colonization can we begin to be aware of how we are perpetuating oppression in higher education. This awareness must be present before we take deliberate and meaningful steps to address these issues and support faculty to do the same.

This should not feel new. Fifteen years ago, Manathunga (2006, 2007) used concepts from postcolonialism to identify colonial underpinnings of educational development, particularly our role as "developers of Others" who value "scientific educational psychology canon" and "applying [empirical] evidence-based theory" while maintaining a "phobia" of local disciplinary knowledge and intuitive approaches to teaching (2006). Over 30 years ago, Berendt (1989) critiqued the pattern of professionals in "staff development" programs in developed countries being repeatedly called upon to create similar programs in developing countries, suggesting this is a form of neo-colonialism. Recently, Sotto-Santiago explored educational development from the lens of faculty who participated in these programs, finding a need for programs tailored to experiences of faculty of marginalized identities, as most programs are dominant group-centric (2020) and most educational developers do not offer such tailored programs (2019).

If we endeavor, as a profession, to examine our values and assumptions for legacies of racism and oppression, what might this look like? We offer one example: educational development's reliance on empirical evidence as necessary "proof" that certain teaching strategies work. As the field of research on teaching and learning has progressed over time, education researchers have delved deeper into rigorous experimental design, learning analytics, and quantitative methods. Work on the "science of learning," done in departments of cognitive psychology and neurology, complements this body of research (see McMurtrie 2022 for a review). Today, educational developers regularly refer to the importance of data-informed teaching, and our national organization lists "evidence" as one of its three values (POD Network). The concept of evidence is often assumed to be free of bias and assumptions, but this is a faulty assumption. Such empirical approaches center dominant ways of knowing; moreover, it is not always clear if all students are equitably represented in the evidence and data collected in educational studies. Though this has not been deeply investigated in the context of educational development, some have critiqued "evidence-based" approaches as neocolonial in regard to educational policy (Shahjahan, 2011) and disciplinary epistemologies (Koro-Ljungberg, 2009). Traditional methods of academic analysis-which often include steps toward verification and validity-can be limited, problematic, even violent, as they project (and center) the researcher's goal and voice onto narratives and lived experiences of the research subjects (Hendry, 2007; Lewis, 2011).

One result of this dependence on empirical evidence is the discourse on active learning. There is prolific research on the effectiveness of active learning, particularly for marginalized students such as Black and first-generation college students (Freeman et al., 2014; Eddy & Hogan, 2014). Probably most, if not all, educational developers encourage instructors to incorporate active learning into their teaching. Educational developers discuss traveling to other countries to train faculty to use active learning approaches (Smith & Hudson, 2017) and to engage in "idea exchange" with academic developers in "emerging contexts" (Lee et al., 2013). But active learning's effectiveness depends on its execution, and students who are unfamiliar with Western approaches to active learning experience discomfort and dissonance (Hallinger & Lu, 2012; Li & Jia, 2006). Is it possible to address or expand the Western values embedded in active learning to encompass other culturally informed ways of learning; is active learning always better; should we, as educational developers, even strive to "discover" a universal teaching strategy? What does this signal to our students who, for instance, have been educated in East Asian countries where pedagogical approaches may be practiced differently, and what unique barriers and challenges to their learning does this emphasis on active learning impose on them? How can we encourage instructors to cultivate culturally responsive learning environments alongside their use of active learning strategies-so that students' varied cultural backgrounds can serve as strengths in their learning experiences (Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Frambach et al., 2012; Huang et al., 2020)? This is one way that our dependence on empirical evidence might result in exclusionary teaching and perpetuate a colonial teaching approach.

There are many more avenues for exploration along these lines of thinking. This includes examining other commonly stated values in educational development. It also includes asking ourselves the following:

What are the foundational values and priorities of the field of educational development?

Who has been included in shaping these, who hasn't, and why?

What is the context in which we've gathered the research that is foundational to our field?

What are the standard practices, norms, or assumptions in educational development that have been shaped by racism and colonization?

Whose teaching and learning has traditionally and historically benefited from our work? Who has traditionally and historically been excluded?

We invite educational developers and others who support college instructors in their teaching to interrogate our values and norms by turning the mirror on ourselves.
Heather Dwyer, assistant director at Tufts University's Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, is engaged in investigating the ways that educational development reflects and perpetuates racist structures. Her article "A Mandatory Diversity Workshop for Faculty: Does it Work?" was published in 2020. She earned her doctorate in Ecology at the University of California, Davis, and has been supporting university instructors in their teaching since 2011. Marisella Rodriguez is a senior consultant in the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her doctorate in Political Science at the University of California, Davis. She is a published author in International Studies Quarterly and To Improve the Academy (forthcoming, Fall 2022). Jamiella Brooks is an associate director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary work at CTL focuses on programming and support for equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Her teaching and research interests include sociolinguistics, language and power, discourse analysis, and anticolonial pedagogies, and she has presented on codeswitching and linguistic equity.
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Manathunga, Catherine. "'Unhomely' Academic Developer Identities: More Post‐Colonial Explorations." International Journal for Academic Development 12, no. 1 (2007): 25-34.

McMurtrie, Beth. "Why the Science of Teaching is Often Ignored." The Chronicle of Higher Education. January 3, 2022. https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-the-science-of-teaching-is-often-ignored (accessed March 17, 2022).

Pittman, Chavella T. "Race and Gender Oppression in the Classroom: The Experiences of Women Faculty of Color with White Male Students." Teaching Sociology 38, no. 3 (2010): 183-196.

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Rideau, Ryan and Claire K. Robbins. "The Experiences of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members of Color with Racism in the Classroom." To Improve the Academy 39, no. 2 (2020): 129-160.

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Shahjahan, Riyad A. "Decolonizing the Evidence-Based Education and Policy Movement: Revealing the Colonial Vestiges in Educational Policy, Research, and Neoliberal Reform." Journal of Education Policy 26, no. 2 (2011): 181-206.

Shanklin, Eugenia. "Representations of Race and Racism in American Anthropology." Current Anthropology 41, no. 1 (2000): 99-103.

Silius, Vytis. "Diversifying Academic Philosophy: The Post-Comparative Turn and Transculturalism." Asian Studies 8, no. 2 (2020): 257-280.

Smith, Cristine and Katherine E. Hudson. Faculty Development in Developing Countries: Improving Teaching Quality in Higher Education. New York: Routledge, Taylor, & Francis Group, 2017.

Sotto-Santiago, Sylk. "'Am I Really Good Enough?': Black and Latinx Experiences with Faculty Development." To Improve the Academy 39, no. 2 (2020): 107-128.

Sotto-Santiago, Sylk, Frank Tuitt and Natasha Saelua. "All Faculty Matter: The Continued Search for Culturally Relevant Practices in Faculty Development." Journal of Faculty Development 33, no. 3 (2019): 83-93.

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Jamiella Brooks, PhD, Heather Dwyer, PhD, and Marisella Rodriguez, PhD

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A Call to Interrogate Educational Development for Racism and Colonization

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We suggest that educational developers must engage in critical reflection upon their own profession to avoid perpetuating racism, colonization, and oppression.

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https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/danger-silence-transcript

https://hillmanfoundation.org/hillman-prizes/2022-hillman-prize-book-journalism-2

https://ocul-bu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01OCUL_BU/hngtcg/alma993842744305151

https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2022/11/clint-smith-december-cover-story/672105/

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The danger of silence | Clint Smith | TED

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Black Voices in Tech: A Chat with Tech Baddie Netta Jenkins - Obsidi

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Hey folks! Back in the days, seeing or hearing the words "Black women" and "tech" in the same sentence was an anomaly or like using an oxymoron. It just never happened. Fast forward to decades later, not much has changed in the heart of Silicon Valley, and women continue to be disproportionately underrepresented in tech.

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The Niagara region has some of Canada's most poignant stories of freedom and courage. Discover an extensive collection of displays and monuments honouring Black Canadian history.

Niagara was a key location in the legendary Underground Railroad that led an estimated 40,000 enslaved people to freedom throughout the 19th century. When visiting Niagara, stand in the spot where Harriet Tubman crossed into Canada in 1856, witness the landing points where freedom seekers arrived in Canada and see the printing press that printed Upper Canada's 1793 Act Against Slavery.

Begin your journey at Niagara's Freedom trail and explore monuments dedicated to Canadian Black history along the way.

Learn about the rich Black history in Niagara during the 1800s that made strides to ending slavery in Canada. Visit the site where the Niagara Movement began, the location where the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held meetings and Little Africa, where freedom seekers settled in Canada. Finish learning about Canadian Black history in the 1800s at Niagara-on-the-Lake's Steward House, part of Niagara's "coloured village." In 1837, homeowner William Steward was one of 17 local blacks who signed a petition asking Lieutenant Governor Sir Francis Bond Head to refuse to extradite Kentucky fugitive Solomon Moseby.

Explore the River

Learn about the rich Black history in Niagara that made strides to ending slavery in Canada.

1700s

Simcoe Memorial

Visit the historic collection of buildings around Navy Hall that once served as the first seat of government for the Executive Council of Upper Canada. It was here where John Graves Simcoe took the first legislative steps in the Act Against Slavery of 1793.

Learn More about Black History Stamp Honouree Chloe Cooley

In celebration of Black History Month, a new stamp unveiled by Canada Post features an illustration of Chloe Cooley, a young, Black enslaved woman who lived in Queenston in the late 18th century and her act of resistance that led to the gradual abolition of enslavement in Upper Canada and establishment of the legendary Underground Railroad.

On March 14, 1783, Cooley was violently bound and dragged to the shores of the Niagara River by Sergeant Adam Vrooman with the assistance of two other men. Cooley fought back hard, screaming and yelling for help as she struggled to get free. Her screams and violent resistance were brought to the attention of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe by Peter Martin, a free Black and former soldier in Butler's Rangers and William Grisley, a neighbour who witnessed the event.

An avowed abolitionist, Simcoe immediately moved to abolish slavery in the new province of Upper Canada; however, he was met with opposition in the House of Assembly. Finally, a compromise was reached, and on July 9, 1793, an Act printed at the Louis Roy Press was passed that prevented the further introduction of enslaved people into Upper Canada and allowed for the gradual abolition of slavery. It was the first piece of legislation in the British Empire to limit slavery and set the stage for the great freedom movement of enslaved people, known as the Underground Railroad.

Discover a plaque dedicated to Chloe Cooley along the Niagara Parkway near Queenston, as well as a display at Niagara Parks' Laura Secord Homestead with a copy of the original Act Against Slavery, the legislation that Cooley inspired. Continue along the Niagara Parkway and learn from the numerous other monuments and markers across Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake honouring Black Canadian History.

Location: Look for a plaque on the water side of the Niagara Parkway, just south of the crossing of Line 6 road and the Niagara Parkway.

Niagara's Freedom Trail

Walk Niagara's Freedom Trail which honours the thousands of enslaved people that found freedom in Canada. Between 1796 and 1949, the Underground Railroad aided an estimated 40,000 fugitive slaves in their escape to the more tolerant northern American states, or ultimately to the freedom of Canada. Fort Erie, Ontario became a popular crossing for freedom seekers because of its proximity to Buffalo, New York. Ferry operators aided fugitive slaves and used a secret system of codes and symbols to distinguish bona fide passengers from potential spies.

1800s

Harriet Tubman Tribute

Born on a Maryland plantation around 1822, Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 to become a leading abolitionist and the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad. Known as "the Moses of her People," she guided thousands of enslaved people to freedom. When the US Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 permitted slaveowners to capture and return fugitive slaves, Tubman extended her route to Canada, where slavery had been abolished in 1834, and established her base of operations in nearby St. Catharines.

Little Africa

Little Africa was a popular settlement for freedom seekers arriving in Canada during the 1840s. Many of the inhabitants were employed cutting wood for fuel used by the nearby railways that ran through the settlement and steamboats that plied the Niagara River. The population of Little Africa grew to approximately 200 and declined in 1880 because of decreasing demand for wood in the area. A nearby graveyard remains as a legacy to this once thriving community of industrious Black Canadians.

William and Susannah Steward House

The Steward home was a significant part of Niagara's community of former Canadian slaves, Black Loyalists and fugitive slaves that settled in the region in the 19th century. In 1837, homeowner William Steward was one of 17 people who signed a petition asking Lieutenant Governor Sir Francis Bond Head to refuse to extradite Kentucky fugitive Solomon Moseby. Moseby was rescued from the Niagara jail by more than 200 community members. The home now serves as a compelling memorial to the hardworking people that contributed to the building of Niagara-on-the-Lake and to protecting former slaves who settled in the area.

The Niagara Movement

This is the site of the former Erie Beach Hotel which hosted the inaugural meetings of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), originally called the Niagara Movement. In July 1905, W.E.B. Du Bois and 28 men from fourteen states met at the hotel to write the group's founding principles. The organization aimed to further African Americans' fight for civil rights by building upon the progress gained since the American Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

1900s

Bertie Street Ferry Landing & Freedom Park

The Bertie Street Ferry landing was the longest operating ferry dock used by freedom seekers and the site were thousands of fugitive slaves first set foot in Canada. It was an activity hub that served not only as a crossing point between Canada and the United States, but also as a customs, immigration, vehicle registration and a railroad station. The last ferry transporting people and vehicles to Fort Erie arrived at the Bertie Street Ferry Landing on September 2, 1950. Freedom Park was established at the site to honour the thousands of enslaved people that found sanctuary and experienced freedom for the first time in Canada.

2000s

Waystation to Freedom

Inside the Old Fort Erie Welcome Centre, the Waystation to Freedom display tells the story of Fort Erie as a transit point for the Underground Railway.

Voices of Freedom Memorial

The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has set aside a significant site in the heart of the Old Town to understand, celebrate and honour its Black history. The Voices of Freedom memorial is an experiential art installation designed to engage, educate and challenge visitors about this important part of Canadian history.

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The Niagara region has some of Canada's most poignant stories of freedom and courage. Discover an extensive collection of displays and monuments honouring Black Canadian history. Niagara was a key location in the legendary Underground Railroad that led an estimated 40,000 enslaved people to freedom throughout the 19th century.

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So I cheated a bit and leaned into my hobby outside of work BUT this article features both past and present (as of 2022) black game developers/innovators. It gives insight and celebrates their various achievements both in terms of contributions, and advocation.

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The gaming industry is booming with consumers spending in gaming software and services. Within the US, over 428,000 jobs are in the industry; however, only of those job holders are Black. Those dismal numbers are disheartening when you consider the contributions that Black people have made within the gaming industry's history as well as the present.

This lucrative world wouldn't be what it is today without the work of Black innovators within the industry. Whether it is in manufacturing or overall design, some of your favorite video games wouldn't exist without the efforts of talented Black gaming professionals.

This list of Black innovators in the gaming industry certainly isn't exhaustive. But it is a starting point to learn more about Black geek history. Here are 10 names you should know.

Gerald "Jerry" Lawson

Gerald "Jerry" Lawson was one of the few Black engineers in the gaming industry during the 1970s. And though one of few, his impact resonates tremendously throughout the gaming world. You don't get called the " , a.k.a. the precursor to modern-day video game cartridges. This game-changing idea was adopted by Atari and father of the video game cartridge " for nothing. Lawson and his team led the development of the Fairchild Channel F Pair that with a spot in the Nintendo before Lawson left to make more history as the owner of Video Soft, the first Black gaming development company. World Video Game Hall of Fam e and you have a legacy that lasts forever.

Ed Smith

Ed Smith was a part of the APF Electronics team that designed the early cartridge-based video game, the . After leaving behind a brief stint in developing traffic signals at Marbelite in New York, Smith joined APF Electronics and developed the MP1000. Two years later, his team developed the personal computer, the Imagination Machine , which acted as a plug-in expansion module. This became the first combined home video game console and personal computer. Now retired, Smith has put all of his experience as one of the few Black gaming innovators of his time within an autobiography entitled Imagine That! .

Muriel Tramis

Black people's contributions to gaming innovation and history didn't just happen within the States. Game designers like Muriel Tramis from Martinique, paved the way for Black women to excel within the gaming industry. Prior to developing video games, Tramis worked on military drones for Aerospatiale as a programmer. A career shift into gaming led Tramis to develop games like La Bosse des Maths and in the early part of her career; however, Tramis is most known for the games Méwilo and Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness .

Co-written by author Patrick Chamoiseau, places players as a paranormal psychologist investigating a city haunted by France's imperialism. Whereas centers on an enslaved person using night to orchestrate a rebellion against slave owners in Martinique. The former of the two games earned Tramel a Silver Medal from the Ministry of Culture in 1988. Twenty years later, she was a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France.

Alice "Wonderwoman" Washington

Not every gaming innovator worked within game design. Several were in key manufacturing roles connected to constructing coin-operated games like Alice "Wonderwoman" Washington. Her efforts were put towards installing printed circuit boards , or PCBs, within arcade game cabinets. PCBs contain the game and all of the tech needed for it to run properly. This allowed for arcade frequenters to play some of their favorite games. Without her efforts, some of the most popular games today wouldn't have made it to an arcade near you.

Tanya DePass

Diverse representation within video games and in gaming development is incredibly important and desperately needed. Modern innovators, like Tanya DePass, understand this. The Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games established the nonprofit to bring the gaming work and research of marginalized people to the forefront of the gaming world. The organization also advocates for positive intersectional portrayals of identity and culture within video games. The lifelong Chicagoan is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Fresh Out of Tokens podcast, the Creative Director of CypherCo, LLC. , and serves as a Diversity Liaison for . A multi-faceted problem requires a multi-faceted solution and DePass is ready to provide it.

Shawn Alexander Allen

Game developer Shawn Alexander Allen made a name for himself in the modern blockbuster gaming world. The self-proclaimed "hip-hop obsessed" writer, speaker, and activist worked on video games for Rockstar Games . Properties such as Grand Theft Auto IV , Grand Theft Auto V , and Red Dead Redemption , all of which have reached record setting sales, have been connected to Allen's efforts. He left the world of blockbuster games behind to create his own company, NuChallenger . Under his company, he created the video game Treachery in Beatdown City. The game was successfully crowdfunded and released in 2020 to multiple major platforms.

Additionally, his work has been commissioned by the NYU Game Center and featured within the Museum of the Moving Image . Aside from game development, Allen writes and speaks about representation within the gaming industry and game design.

Neil Jones

A multi-disciplined 3D artist and game developer, Neil Jones found his ascent into the gaming industry pantheon quite difficult. The Detroit-based game developer worked on games, like and , which focused on social issues and systemic oppression pertaining to the Black community. While creating these aforementioned projects, Jones wasn't able to secure a position at a video game studio. So, he struck out on his own and reaped the benefits.

Under his imprint, Aerial Knight , Jones published his first game Never Yield . The 3D side-scrolling endless runner with a Black main character traversing through a futuristic version of Detroit was released in May 2020 across multiple major platforms. And his determination to be successful continues to pay off as highlighted in multiple publications, such as and the . In short, Jones is a name to know in modern Black gaming history.

Chella Ramanan

Video games can live within fantasy, but they can be just as powerful when rooted in reality. Chella Ramanan understands this and through her company 3-Fold Games , co-founded with Claire Morwood, she created Before I Forget . This short, narrative-heavy game allows users to play as Sunita, a woman suffering from early onset dementia. Sunita patches her memory together through interactions with her environment.

Aside from co-founding 3-Fold Games, Ramanan has advocated for diverse representation both within video games and game development as the co-founder of , an organization dedicated to the diversification of the gaming industry, and through her time as a gaming journalist. Her work hasn't been in vain, as she continues to promote her gaming advocacy within major publications, like The Guardian , and at game development conferences, like at AdventureX . Ramanan even received the 2019 Progression Advocate Award from the Game Dev Heroes Awards.

Ahmed and Khalil Abdullah

Ahmed and Khalil Abdullah were simply two brothers passionate about video games with hopes of creating their own. That hope was paired with their passion to learn more about the industry. Through using a variety of online resources, combined with their computer science degrees from UMass Amherst, these two ultimately carved out their own space in the gaming industry with their game development company Decoy Games . The multi-award winning company generates a unique gaming experience for its players, with games like Swimsanity! , and simultaneously pushes for innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion within the industry.

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10 Black Innovators Who Changed the Gaming Industry

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Black innovators play a critical role in the history of creating and developing of the many games and components that built the gaming industry.

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Tolu, is a faculty developer who also works at the intersection of ed tech and pedagogy. She is wonderfully insightful about many things and I will like to one of her digital accessibility posts below.

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The Black Feminist Pedagogical Origins of Open Education

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The Black Feminist Pedagogical Origins of Open Education

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The IAT is a computerized, online test that seeks to establish the strength of your automatic association of one concept with another. As an example, the test may show that you more easily associate positive terms with one ethnic or cultural group over another.

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Preliminary Information

On the next page you'll be asked to select an Implicit Association Test (IAT) from a list of possible topics . We will also ask you (optionally) to report your attitudes or beliefs about these topics and provide some information about yourself.

We ask these questions because the IAT can be more valuable if you also describe your own self-understanding of the attitude or stereotype that the IAT measures. We would also like to compare differences between people and groups.

Data Privacy: Data exchanged with this site are protected by SSL encryption. Project Implicit uses the same secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS) that banks use to securely transfer credit card information. This provides strong security for data transfer to and from our website. IP addresses are routinely recorded, but are completely confidential. We make the anonymous data collected on the Project Implicit Demonstration website publicly available. You can find more information on our Data Privacy page.

Important disclaimer: In reporting to you results of any IAT test that you take, we will mention possible interpretations that have a basis in research done (at the University of Washington, University of Virginia, Harvard University, and Yale University) with these tests. However, these Universities, as well as the individual researchers who have contributed to this site, make no claim for the validity of these suggested interpretations. If you are unprepared to encounter interpretations that you might find objectionable, please do not proceed further. You may prefer to examine general information about the IAT before deciding whether or not to proceed.

If you have questions about the study, please contact Project Implicit at questions@projectimplicit.net. To obtain more information about the study, ask questions about the research procedures, express concerns about your participation, or report illness, injury or other problems, please contact:

Tonya R. Moon, Ph.D.
Chair, Institutional Review Board for the Social and Behavioral Sciences
One Morton Dr Suite 500
University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800392
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0392
Email: irbsbshelp@virginia.edu
Website: https://research.virginia.edu/irb-sbs
Website for Research Participants: https://research.virginia.edu/research-participants

I am aware of the possibility of encountering interpretations of my IAT test performance with which I may not agree. Knowing this, I wish to proceed I am aware of the possibility of encountering interpretations of my IAT test performance with which I may not agree. Knowing this, I wish to proceed using a touchscreen OR using a keyboard.

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On the next page you'll be asked to select an Implicit Association Test (IAT) from a list of possible topics . We will also ask you (optionally) to report your attitudes or beliefs about these topics and provide some information about yourself.

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Voices of Freedom Park in Niagara on the Lake

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Voices of Freedom Park in Niagara on the Lake

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A Note from the Chairs

An accurate and complete understanding of our history is essential for establishing our true identity. This understanding allows us the opportunity to respond, and the manner of our response uncovers our character and shapes our future. The presentation of Canadian history often excludes the voices of Blacks, one of the earliest group of settlers.

The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has set aside a significant site in the heart of the Old Town to understand, celebrate, and honour its Black history. Voices of Freedom is an experiential art installation designed to engage, educate, and challenge visitors about this most important aspect of our history. Voices from the past will tell their stories, enriching visitors' understanding of how they shaped our town and nation.

But Voices of Freedom isn't just about looking back. Ongoing research and programming will allow today's and tomorrow's voices to impact our nation's future.

It is a tragic injustice that, amidst the celebrated historical importance of Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Town's significant and nation-shifting Black history has not been given a proper "hearing."

Voices of Freedom is intent on righting this wrong. Individually and collectively, all of Canada will benefit from listening to the Black voices of Canada's past, present, and future. Such a hearing is essential for our nation to move towards a fair, just, and free society.

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An accurate and complete understanding of our history is essential for establishing our true identity. This understanding allows us the opportunity to respond, and the manner of our response uncovers our character and shapes our future. The presentation of Canadian history often excludes the voices of Blacks, one of the earliest group of settlers.

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List of biographies of some notable Black people in Canada

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List of biographies of some notable Black people in Canada

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I reviewed this and didn't find anyone I thought would work well for this padlet (was hoping for current voices), but now that we have so many!, I thought it was worth adding to grow the collection.