Action Plan against Anti-Black Racism & Support for Black Experiences and Scholarship

The TMU Sociology Department has a strong core commitment to putting transformative equity at the heart of our teaching, research, community activism, and departmental life. We reconfirm our solidarity with Black Peoples who have long experienced brutal systemic racial exploitation and oppression in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and on a global scale. This commitment is grounded by the recognition that effectively addressing anti-Black racism requires that we examine the multiple, interlocking systems of oppression that give rise to white supremacist power and privilege embedded in socio-political institutions and relations. This Action Plan Against Anti-Black Racism (forthcoming) marks the first of many statements outlining our department’s commitment to addressing intersecting violence and oppression in pursuit of decolonization and tangible racial justice.

This Action Plan:

• Demonstrates our commitment to consistently working in solidarity with Indigenous, Black-Indigenous, and other racialized communities
• Theoretically acknowledges and pedagogically understands the interconnected nature of anti-Blackness, settler colonialism, and xenophobia in Canada and the United States, and their far-reaching implications
• Commits to decolonizing anti-Black racism in the areas of teaching and curriculum, support for students, research support and departmental life
• Reflects the steps the department has already taken and future initiatives
• Complements our commitments to expanding Indigenous Studies, Black Studies  and Caribbean Studies
  

This Action Plan maps the steps needed to reach our departmental goals. Our intent is to build a department in which Black, Indigenous and racialized faculty, staff, and students can thrive. We make a special commitment to creating a Sociology curriculum in which Black students can see themselves and their communities represented through specific focus courses and by modifying other courses to correct for implicit or explicit foundation in white settler colonialism.