All tagged Black History Month
By the 1680s, the institution of slavery in the Atlantic colonies was premised on race. Blackness became intertwined with servitude, whiteness became an attribute of the free and by extension white identity functioned as a “shield from slavery.” In the American and Caribbean colonies, a tiered system based on skin colour distinguished whites and light-skinned Creoles from Africans.
The fields of digital humanities, media studies, journalism, image and visual culture studies, and communication studies often ignore Black Canadian perspectives. In many instances, engagement with race, digital technologies, media production, culture, and history is also absent. Over the past decade, Black Canadians have been making significant moves in digital content creation, film production, digital archives, and heritage preservation.
During Black History Month in 2023, Montreal-based artist Franck Sylvestre performed a puppet show geared toward Black children. The show included a puppet named “Max” who appeared with coal black skin, jagged teeth, bright red lips, wide eyes, and an ape-like nose. Many Black community organizations publicly denounced Sylvestre and his puppet.
As a Black Canadian scholar, writer, and public speaker, I participate in Black History Month every year. I am also old enough to remember when there was no Black History Month, and we would sit around complaining about the lack thereof. But every year when February rolls around, I find myself torn about it, especially the way it is presented within universities where Black people often do not have a seat at the table (and even if we do, too often what we say is met with deafening silence or ignored altogether).
