Statements

Statement on McGill University’s Draft Policy on Academic Freedom

Published on April 12, 2023

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus continues to be committed to fostering academic spaces that respect the dignity and humanity of everyone. Our statement responds to developments surrounding academic freedom that may compromise such academic spaces and that pose a risk of disciplinary action against Black faculty, students, and staff. This statement also expresses solidarity with other historically marginalized communities adversely impacted by these developments.

In February 2023, McGill University’s administration circulated a draft policy on academic freedom to comply with legislative requirements on universities in Quebec. The Caucus believes it is crucial to acknowledge that the legislation giving rise to McGill’s draft policy responded to an insistence among some non-Black educators on saying the full n-word in classrooms. McGill’s draft policy must be understood against this background and a broader social context in which appeals to academic freedom are being used to perpetuate entrenched histories of bigotry, when respectful conduct can be used.

There is no doubt that academic freedom is essential to objectives of fostering knowledges, shifting paradigms, nurturing learners, and resisting hegemony. However, definitions of academic freedom that retrench historical oppression are counterproductive to its emancipatory purposes. In other words, some appeals to academic freedom may limit knowledge,[1] instead of nurturing academic pursuits that are generative because they are inclusive.

As historically excluded communities increasingly gain due recognition in the Canadian academy, universities must support research and teaching that respond to, and respect, these communities. For the Caucus, this means approaching academic freedom with an ethic of care that looks to historically marginalized communities for guidance on language use and scholarly inquiries that intimately affect them. Another university in Montreal is reaching out to Black community members to develop their policy on academic freedom. The Caucus is therefore deeply disappointed that it was not invited to participate in the drafting of McGill’s policy.

In its current form, McGill’s draft policy on academic freedom will not foster a careful approach guided by Black communities. Nor will it honour the University’s commitments to address racism and to promote inclusion, for example under the Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism. Remarkably, these commitments are absent from the draft policy, which instead prioritizes guiding principles such as: ‘The University will not prevent or limit scholarly inquiry or debate of any issue or question.’

McGill’s draft policy is unconstrained, whereas conceptions of academic freedom at other universities are expressly delimited by law (which prohibits hate speech) and commitments to anti-racism and equitable inclusion. The McGill draft policy states that it does not derogate from policies, regulations and collective agreements of the University. However, these existing instruments are silent on most conduct and language use that entrenches the oppression of historically marginalized peoples.[2] These instruments do not include the Anti-Black Racism Plan, as mentioned above, nor do they include the Calls to Action on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education; the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan; and McGill’s Principles of ‘integrity, responsibilities, equity and inclusivity’.[3] Rather, McGill’s draft policy could accommodate language use and activities with nefarious purposes that racialized and gender-diverse communities regard as hateful, abusive or regressive.

Not only does McGill’s draft policy fall short in these ways, but the Caucus believes it will also have a chilling or discriminatory effect on racialized and gender-diverse faculty, staff and students who challenge oppressive and ostensibly hateful practices in academic spaces.

McGill’s draft policy follows legislative requirements by stipulating a procedure to investigate complaints of ‘academic freedom violations’. The draft policy establishes a committee for this purpose with wide and vague discretion to make recommendations following a complaint. And the committee’s recommendations may include disciplinary measures. These procedures will, at best, be unpredictable. Given the social context described above, the Caucus fears, at their worst, these processes will encourage, and legitimize, complaints against faculty, students and staff who dare to set expectations for discussions and research that encourage respectful conduct and language.

The Caucus is distressed that Black faculty, students and staff are increasingly being welcomed into the Canadian academy only to risk being disciplined for establishing conditions necessary to flourish. The Caucus fears for other historically marginalized communities whom we support in solidarity.

Academic freedom does not require abandoning experiential knowledge, non-Western epistemologies, dignity, and humanity. Nor should it penalize University members who foster careful discussions and research. Through its policy, McGill must not institutionalize a false dichotomy between academic freedom and equality. Academic freedom includes cultivating knowledge, teaching and learning through respectful engagements that benefit everyone.

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[1] Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, Statement on the Use of the N-Word in the Classroom, December 9, 2020, citing the Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, “Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge”. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture/

[2] Unless they rise to the level of discrimination and harassment, which are a high and difficult bar to meet: McGill Policy on Harassment and Discrimination.

[3] McGill University Mission Statement and Principles: https://www.mcgill.ca/secretariat/mission

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Report of the Working Group on African and Black Studies

Published on February 16, 2023; report dated April 2022

The Report of the Working Group on African and Black Studies is now available through the Dr. Kenneth Melville Black Faculty and Staff Caucus website. The full text of the Report can be accessed here.

The Working Group was established in September 2020 following a series of close consultations between the Dr. Kenneth Melville Black Faculty and Staff Caucus and the Principal and Vice Provost of McGill University.

The Report of the Working Group is the result of a large-scale collaborative effort involving a number of stakeholders, including the Caucus, McGill administration, faculty and students, members of the Black Alumni Network and many others. Several members of the Caucus played an important part in the drafting of the Report as members of the Working Group, including Professors Khalid Medani, Debra Thompson, Philip Howard, Loydie Majewska and Mbaye Diouf. We thank these members for their diligent and stellar work and congratulate them on the publication of such a comprehensive and groundbreaking Report.

After thoroughly reviewing the existing African Studies Program at McGill University as well as Black and African Diaspora Programs across North America, the Report proposes that McGill University establish an Institute for the Study of Africa, the African Diaspora, and Black Life. The formation of such an Institute would be a landmark development for the field of Black and African Diaspora studies in North America, while creating a host of new opportunities for scholars and students, as well as other members of the Black and African Diaspora communities to thrive, connect and share in their collective knowledge.

The Report outlines additional, specific initiatives that would be undertaken by this new Institute, including:

Broadening the offering of the current African Studies Program at McGill while reshaping what these studies will mean at McGill in the future;
Developing the first Graduate Program (MA and PhD) in this area of scholarship in the country;
Hiring and retaining African/Black faculty and ensuring cross-appointed faculty are not overcommitted in other service obligations;
Creating a conducive and nurturing environment for the mentorship of faculty members, as well as students;
Establishing an institutional locus for academic lectures, social gatherings, and social and cultural events to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment essential to productivity and satisfaction;
Ensuring that the scholars associated with the Institute are in a strong position to incorporate the input and concerns of African/Black faculty who work in other departments/units where their concerns are often overlooked or ignored.

Importantly, the Institute would operate as a standalone unit that would be interdisciplinary and interfaculty in nature. The Report proposes that the Institute initially be comprised of academic Associates and Affiliates. Associate Membership would offer a more formal modality for faculty to carry out teaching and research activities within the scope of the Institute, while Affiliation would provide a more informal and flexible option for interested parties.

The Caucus commends the authors of the Report, including its own participant members on this milestone achievement. It looks forward to working with McGill University to establish a leading hub for scholarship and community solidarity through the Institute for the Study of Africa, the African Diaspora, and Black Life.

Caucus 2021 Statement

Agreed by Caucus on August 25, 2021, published on September 16, 2021

In keeping with our Mandate, the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus continues to be committed to cultivating a nurturing environment for, and advocating on behalf of, Black faculty, staff and by extension students, at McGill University. In that capacity, we issue the following statements with regard to recent developments.

Meaningful Consultation

We wish to underscore that the effectiveness of McGill’s commitment to redress anti-Black racism depends on meaningful consultation and sustained dialogue with members of our Caucus, recognized Black student groups, the McGill Black Alumni Association, and broader Black communities. In particular, active, open-hearted listening to our communities is indispensable to any serious effort to undo systemic racism. Initiatives developed without good faith consultation and collaboration undermine the objective of addressing anti-Black racism, as they exclude and otherwise silence the very communities they purport to serve. Since its inception, the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus has fostered a mutually beneficial relationship with the University’s administration as it implements initiatives related to Black faculty and staff.

We expect the University’s administration, including the Provost’s Office where most equity initiatives are now housed, to demonstrate its good faith, by nourishing the relationship with the Caucus necessary to redressing anti-Black racism.

More broadly, we ask all McGill units to respect the fact that no individual member speaks for the Caucus unless that person has been expressly appointed by the Caucus to do so. The presence of a Caucus member at a meeting, on a committee, or at an event does not constitute consultation with the Caucus.

Mentorship and Conflict of Interest, and the PALA-ABR role

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus notes the responsibilities of the Provost’s Academic Lead and Advisor on McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism (PALA-ABR) as laid out in the McGill Reporter on June 30, 2021 and an email message from Provost Manfredi on August 25, 2021. According to these documents, the newly-arrived PALA-ABR is appointed to the Provost’s office with responsibilities that include “advising academic leaders (Deans, Chairs, Directors, Associate Deans) about the distinct needs and experiences of Black faculty and measures that can facilitate an equitable and inclusive environment for BIPOC faculty” and “serving as a mentor to Black faculty at all ranks.”

The Caucus expects that it should be meaningfully consulted, on an ongoing basis, on the nature of the responsibilities of the PALA-ABR, to articulate whether and how the new position as it develops might meet needs actually identified by our membership

Additionally, the Provost’s office oversees most stages of an academic’s academic trajectory and takes crucial decisions regarding colleagues’ tenure, promotion and retention. It currently assumes final decision-making responsibility in complaints procedures notably on harassment and discrimination. The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus has received expressions of concern, which it shares, that the PALA-ABR’s responsibility on mentorship creates a conflict of interest (whether apparent or real). The concern is compounded when newly recruited staff identified as Black are invited by the Provost’s office to gatherings hosted by the PALA-ABR that they may reasonably consider to compel attendance.

In this regard, the Caucus acknowledges the establishment of the Provost's Faculty Mentorship Network, in which the mentors are at arm’s length from the Provost’s Office. At the same time, we are puzzled that the mentors in this program, described on the program website as “outstanding teachers and researchers who have experience as institutional leaders at McGill” include few Black professors, and no members from the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus.

As expressed in our statements of August 1 and November 12, 2020, we call upon McGill to re-assign oversight of the Action Plan and its efforts to address anti-Black racism outside of the Office of the Provost.

McGill History Project

The McGill History Project is an attenuated response by the University to our Caucus’s call for the University to convene a full-throated, official task force to examine McGill University’s entanglements with slavery and its legacy in anti-Black racism, and cannot be framed in obfuscating terms. The Caucus’s past participation in the consultations on the terms of reference for the McGill History Project, including the composition of its Scholarly Research Team, reflects the kind of engagement we expect. A community-rooted McGill History Project, carried out under the leadership of appropriately qualified Black faculty at McGill at arm's-length from McGill’s administration, and with authority to issue recommendations for the future, remains a critical part of any reckoning with anti-Black racism during McGill’s bicentenary and beyond.

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty & Staff Caucus is alarmed that in Principal Fortier’s July 9, 2021 statement concerning damage to the sculpture of James McGill, James McGill’s slaveholding of Indigenous and Black people was expressed in ambivalent terms such as “not so positive” and “complex.” Moreover, the Caucus was taken aback that the McGill History Project was framed in this statement as, wholly or in part, for the purpose of deciding the future of the sculpture. Existing scholarship has already established that James McGill enslaved Indigenous and Black persons, and that Black and Indigenous members of the McGill community deem the statue a disturbing sanitization of that legacy and an ongoing affront to our humanity at both individual and collective levels. The University already has ample basis to make a decision to remove the statue from the main campus. A decision about the James McGill statue has never been the objective of the McGill History Project, which has much broader goals.

Use of of the N-Word in the Classroom

December 9, 2020

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus stands in solidarity with Black faculty, students and staff at the University of Ottawa, and our fellow Caucus member Adelle Blackett, who has faced backlash for speaking up in solidarity. During a time when the world is on fire over the issues of racism, inequity, and lack of human dignity, it is critical to refuse to allow academic freedom to become a red herring. The n-word is not simply a racial epithet. It has a sordid history, because, for hundreds of years, anti-Black racists have used it as a fierce weapon to dehumanize Black people. We are people, and yet are often seen as objects to be excluded, diminished, ignored, and murdered. These historic and contemporary contexts confer to members of the Black community the ultimate say regarding when and where it is appropriate to fully state the n-word.

As part of the commitment to redressing anti-Black racism within post-secondary education including our own institution, it is imperative that we examine the academic spaces in which learning has traditionally occurred, especially regarding the use of the n-word. First, only Black people have the ultimate say where use of the n-word is concerned. Second, if the objective is to highlight the historical use of the word as an academic discussion point, then insistence by non-Black people to articulate the full word in the classroom, rather than the euphemism, becomes suspect. Abandoning our dignity and humanity should not be confused with preserving academic freedom. As noted by the Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, “Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.”[1]

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[1] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture/

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Response to McGill University’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism

November 12, 2020

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus is heartened to see that McGill University, through the Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), has developed and made public its Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism. Too often, statements that confirm the prevalence of anti-Black racism are empty words without deed, even as it is widely acknowledged that eradicating the systemic, entrenched anti-Black racism at McGill University and in Canadian society demands concrete, sustained, and targeted action. The issues raised below lead us to start the reflection on the implementation phase of the plan. The Caucus seeks assurance that it will be a partner in decision making, in addition to being part of the consultation with the Black community of the University. Given our shared commitments to creating favourable conditions for substantive change at McGill, we hope that the following issues will be addressed in the spirit of accountability and transparency:

The Action Plan details a commitment to “undertake an expanded McGill history project that will investigate McGill’s connections with the transatlantic slave trade” (p. 19). Our original Statement of August 1, 2020, requested that McGill strike a Task Force on Transatlantic Slavery and Colonialism. The formation of a university-level Task Force would guarantee the funding, administrative support, and gravitas necessary to fulfill this important mandate. One difference between task forces and research project teams is the assignment of authority and resources, i.e. personnel and materials needed to ensure the success of the task force. McGill’s connection to the transatlantic slave trade is not simply a matter of intellectual curiosity; it is the beginning of an investigation into the means by which we can achieve reparative justice. We seek to understand if the scope of the proposed ‘expanded history project’ would achieve the same outcome as a task force and if the findings would be similarly embraced by the University. It is therefore essential that the Caucus be involved in the design of the “expanded McGill history project”, including the drafting of its Terms of Reference.
The Action Plan provides targets for faculty and staff recruitment over the next twelve years (p. 31-33). We consider these commitments to be of the utmost importance, and as such we understand that these targets should be treated as the minimum number of faculty and staff McGill seeks to recruit, and in the short to medium term the university will work toward exceeding these targets. In order for these initiatives to be successful, and against a background of contrived explanations for the failure to hire Black faculty, however, McGill needs to address two key issues: the pipeline and retention. First, the development of a pool of Black faculty and staff to recruit from requires creativity. Cluster hiring should be considered, a practice that had been widely used by peer universities to address the diversity issue. In addition, models from the University of California and the University of Chicago, which fund post-doctoral fellowships in order to create this kind of pipeline, are excellent examples. Second, McGill must develop concrete mechanisms to retain Black faculty and staff. As outlined in our August 1 statement, this should include specifically designated funding for Research Chairs and spousal hires. With regard to the goal of increasing the number of Black non-academic staff, the University should explicitly commit to filling some of the positions at the senior, executive level. The Vice-Principal (Administration & Finance) must also engage all administrative units to meet the goals of the Plan. Specific plans for the professional development of Black non-academic staff should be spelled out. Without attention to these issues, any recruitment efforts will be significantly undermined, because our new hires will probably leave McGill after a few years, leaving us in the same position in which we began.
The Action Plan proposes to establish a Working Group to explore possible expansion of the African Studies Program to include African diasporic/Black Studies. The Caucus acknowledges the recent invitation to participate in the Working Group, but, nevertheless, would like to ensure that its expertise is fully recognized both in the formation of the Working Group and in the drafting of the Terms of Reference.
The Action Plan recognizes that successful implementation depends on its acceptance at all levels of the University. It should therefore incorporate explicit steps to ensure that Deans, Directors, Chairs and other unit heads sign on to the vision and goals of the Plan.
The Action Plan (p.43) gives oversight responsibility to the Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic). While this might be a convenient, short-term arrangement, the Caucus reaffirms its recommendation that responsibility for university-wide equity initiatives be vested in an office headed by a senior executive (e.g. a Vice-Principal), properly funded and staffed, with a great deal of autonomy, and reporting directly to the Principal. Among the responsibilities of such an office would be the development of mechanisms for handling complaints by faculty, staff and students about microaggressions and discrimination.
The Action Plan commits $15 million over five years for implementation and identifies several measures for accountability and transparency. The Plan should demonstrate the feasibility of this commitment in relation to the hiring targets and other actions by providing a projection, however tentative, on how the money is expected to cover the costs. If the current Black faculty and staff are expected to assist in the implementation of the Plan, it would be appropriate that they be compensated (e.g. course release time, work-load adjustments, staffing reallocations, etc).

We look forward to continued cooperation with the administration to ensure that the Caucus plays a leadership role in the successful implementation of the Action Plan, ensuring that it truly contributes to building a better university and enhances its overall excellence.

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Statement of the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty Caucus

August 1, 2020

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty Caucus stands in solidarity with the recent anti- Black racism protests, which began in the United States after the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd while handcuffed in their custody. These protests have reverberated worldwide, illustrating the need to confront and uproot the stigmatizing scourge that is systemic anti-Black racism—an existential threat to all Black people.

In Canadian society, systemic anti-Black racism permeates our institutions, including academe. McGill University is on the eve of commemorating its Bicentennial in 2021. That commemoration is inextricably linked to James McGill’s chattel enslavement of people of African and Indigenous descent at his Old Montreal residence and Burnside Estate, the property on which McGill University now stands. The Bicentennial is also profoundly connected to the profits that James McGill derived from goods that enslaved Africans produced on West Indian plantations.

A long overdue reckoning with anti-Black racism and the need for reparative justice is pivotal to honouring the humanity of Black people within academia and beyond. Our Caucus is heartened by Principal Fortier’s and Provost Manfredi’s respective statements on June 30th and July 3rd acknowledging the urgency and pressing importance of addressing anti-Black racism for McGill University, and committing both to build the McGill Plan for Addressing Anti-Black Racism consultatively, and to allocate the resources necessary to realize its goals. We call on McGill University to take the following urgent, interdependent actions:

Task Force on Transatlantic Slavery and Colonialism

First, McGill must convene an official task force that will excavate its connections to transatlantic slavery and colonialism. Leading universities across the Black Atlantic and including Dalhousie in Canada have led the way in building high-profile, comprehensive, consultative, research-driven task forces with respected, community-rooted academics at the helm. The space was created for the academics involved to have the research time release necessary to produce work of the highest caliber, in the broad public interest. The task forces had resources to hire graduate or postdoctoral researchers, but the structure and reporting lines were distinct, seized upon the magnitude and gravity of the work undertaken, and built in accountability to the broader Black community. Those initiatives honour the courage and vision of the universities that have entrusted colleagues with this mandate. It is not too late for McGill to act decisively and consultatively, now, to commit to building a task force around the Provostial Postdoctoral Research Fellows on Slavery and Colonialism, which will affirm that equity is a key theme of McGill’s Bicentennial (p. 7).

Targets and Timetables for Recruitment of Black Faculty, Students and Staff, and Accompanying Support

Second, McGill needs specific targets and timetables for the recruitment of Black faculty and students as it has rightly built for Indigenous colleagues, alongside targets and timetables for the recruitment of Black staff. Concerning faculty, the abysmally small current cohort of 10 self-identified Black tenured or tenure-track colleagues (out of approximately 1,700) illustrates the urgency with which McGill must recruit and retain excellent Black professors, and librarians. Representation should go beyond census numbers, to take into account the need to build a ‘critical mass’ of Black academics, able to respond to the disproportionate but crucial responsibilities that we assume for mentoring and community engagement within and beyond the University in keeping with McGill’s mission statement. Recruitment and retention must include specific and careful attention to spousal hiring. Similarly, specific time-bound commitments are necessary for the hiring, retention, and promotion of Black managerial, administrative and support staff. There is a significant opportunity for McGill to undertake proactive community outreach-based recruitment measures in Montreal-area Black communities.

The specific time-bound commitments for the hiring of Black tenured and tenure-track colleagues need to be accompanied by targeted, supportive measures that apply throughout the academic lifecycles of our Black colleagues. McGill bears responsibility for equity throughout renewal, tenure and promotion processes. Our University should encourage supportive practice—including mentorship—and ensure accountability for equitable procedures and outcomes. McGill should also leverage the Canada Research Chair program and internal chair program to recruit and retain Black faculty. We reiterate the reflection of the McGill Working Group on Principles of Commemoration and Renaming that there is a significant opportunity to rename the internal professorships. Moreover, the messaging on EDI in McGill’s recent CRC announcement considers racialized candidates to be over-represented. McGill’s CRC announcement therefore prioritizes Indigenous applicants, as well as applicants with a disability, but not Black applicants. In the absence of disaggregated data, the deleterious effects of stereotypical assumptions are compounded, historical exclusions are replicated, while the exceptional under-representation of Black faculty is obscured. In other words, methodological problems arise when institutions do not pay specific attention to anti-Black racism and the Black experience. In keeping with international law alongside the momentum on disaggregation following the CRC program’s equity addendum, we urge McGill to disaggregate data for Black faculty in the attribution of research chairs, while paying careful attention to the internal messaging to Deans and departmental Chairs.

The commitment to recruiting more Black students should take into account our University’s integral connections to the city of Montreal, and its historic relationships to slavery here. Consequently, McGill must ensure inclusive outreach to various Black populations in Canada and beyond that include specific targets for the recruitment of students from the Black communities of the Greater Montreal Area. At present, students from these Montreal communities appear to constitute a very small percentage of the Black students at McGill, reflecting a historical pattern of student enrolment that has overlooked the Black communities in closest proximity to the University. McGill should create an appropriately funded entity focused on Black access at McGill, with responsibility for outreach, recruitment, support and retention of Black students. This entity would build on and formalize the work that has to date been undertaken by organizations like the Black Student Network and the McGill Black Alumni Association, among others, to promote McGill to High School and CEGEP students. The entity would also establish collaborations with schools and community organizations that serve local Black communities to establish strong educational relationships with Black students in the Greater Montreal Area well in advance of the point at which they make decisions about attending

university.

We are encouraged by the scholarly interest in the study of new frontiers of African and Black studies, including slavery as a global institution and its legacies, and the importance of relevant curricular offerings to the decisions students make about their studies. We call on McGill to increase support to the existing African Studies Program beyond its current focus on undergraduate teaching and facilitate its development and expansion as a centre of research, learning, and documentation as well as the study and teaching of Africa and the African Diaspora across the disciplines. This call is based on our shared premise that African Studies is a foundational field with a crucial role in focusing on—and providing support to—the lives and experiences of Africans and all peoples of African descent, that

is, on Black life and anti-Black racism as it occurs in Canada and globally.

Institutionalizing Equity and Representation across McGill and in Senior Administration

And third, McGill must institutionalize equity with a specific focus on equity for Black persons within the institution. We call on McGill to create an Office dedicated to anti-racism. A Vice Principal—or another senior executive with University-wide responsibility —who shares our lived experience should oversee this Office, with a staff that includes other trained Black professionals who can recognize and support the unique experiences of Black faculty, students, and staff. Furthermore, the pursuit of equity must be manifest in the actions and diversification of the University’s senior administration, and be sustained by practices of meaningful participation on the part of historically marginalized communities, including consultation with the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty Caucus, in a range of decision-making processes.

These are trying times. But McGill has an opportunity to lead in confronting and uprooting anti-Black racism. Black excellence and perseverance alone in the face of unmitigated systemic anti-Black racism cannot ensure that Black faculty, staff and students will be treated equitably and with dignity. As we forge ahead in this U.N. International Decade for People of African Descent, McGill should cultivate a relationship in which members of the Black professoriate, alongside staff and students and alumni, are able to trust that substantively we are respected, valued members of the University community.

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