My participation in the MSVU Master’s Cohort has truly been a blessing. It has afforded me an incredible opportunity to explore Afrocentrism, critical race theory and the processes of continuous learning. I am interacting and learning within a collection of communities of practice that promote exciting and culturally relevant ideas, understandings and reifications. This new negotiation of meaning has real-life implications for the participants and the conversation about these emerging social constructs. Unfortunately, we’re only in this particular learning environment three times for a total of thirty hours over a span of three months. This is an insufficient amount of time to understand these important concepts which challenge current hegemonic paradigms and established negotiated meanings, applying a critical analysis to the world.
It has been my experience that when I leave the institution and participate in my collective continuum of communities of practice, these counter-theories are marginalized and indeed opposed by well-established reified conventions and shared agreements that have little tolerance for dissent. As I attempt to negotiate new meanings and understandings of social constructs, I am bombarded with scripts and narratives and imagistic-perceptual responses identity bearing beliefs, which fail to validate this philosophical shift. It has been difficult integrating this knowledge and perspective into my individual identity in a practical and sustained way.
As Bracher states, “ The most fundamental need is the need for recognition, the need to be validated, or at least acknowledged, taken into account, by others”. I only have a very limited number of individuals and communities of practice where I can attempt to engage in meaningful conversations about by new learning experiences. My most significant relationships extended family and friends aren’t afforded regular opportunities to participate in socio-political debate except in very superficial ways. For a host of reasons, there are only limited opportunities to ‘get together’ where important discussions about race and ethnicity, power and privilege or community involvement take place. When you can’t derive support and validation for new ideas that are directly related to the Afrikan/African Nova Scotian community from the most important influences in your life, it makes it much more difficult to integrate these concepts into one’s life. Even worse, individuals can be critical of change because it threatens their identity and individual belief system. A family member recently told me not to get ‘all Malcolm X on them’ after I asserted that African Nova Scotian professionals have a responsibility to find ways to contribute to our community(i.e provide leadership or participate in volunteerism). Additionally, Corrections Service Canada, the organization where I’ve worked for the part eleven years, is a highly hierarchal collection of communities of practice with an inordinate level of reification and limited participation by individuals. The individuals who comprise my personal workplace are not receptive to new ideas and are not familiar with Afrocentrism, communities of practice theory or contemporary critical race theory. I have been interacting within this institution on a daily basis for seven hours for five days a week for the last decade; and for the foreseeable future.
I agree with you, Brother Jude, on the gap between academia and every day practice, especially where the identities of black folk are concerned. I do not say this to universalize the plight of black folks but as ,I have written before, to a certain extent one can generalize about the experiences of black folks the world over, because we all suffer from the devaluation of blackness. This devaluation, engendered by the elevation of whiteness, is fanned sometimes by the ineptitude of African leadership, which keeps the home of black people in a pathetic and deplorable state, and as you so astutely observe, by the ignorance, apathy and thence lack of agency of some black people in positions where they can impact change.
ReplyDeleteHow then do we render radically progressive paradigms and theories like afrocentricity and critical race theory to the lay black person? I deliberately use the term “lay black person” not to exclude everyone but to strategically place agency on black people in the elevation of blackness. As Marxists will say, progress is achieved through the cyclical or dialectical progression of ‘thesis’, ‘antithesis‘and ‘synthesis’. In our case the thesis would be the devaluation of blackness; the antithesis will be naming race as the foundational ‘master signifier’ of our identity; and some day in the future, I hope, the synthesis would be the true brotherhood of all humanity.
So keep pushing on Brother Jude, in your intersecting ‘communities of practice’. As they say, someday, something gotta give.
I agree Jude that the course has been a blessing! Despite according to some the "Elephant in the Room".The discourse has challenged everyone to speak differently had the course been taught by a black person. Despite the arguments for and not a professor who is not black, I feel that the course has provided a safe and encouraging place for African Nova Scotians. One thing that I have learned is that regardless of the Community of Practice the conversations still have to take place.
ReplyDeleteThe local leadership appears to be struggling for a voice. Either through internal power politics or the lack of a vision . The black voice is not being heard. The advantage of the course is to validate our stories and recognize that we do have a voice. We have all changed by this course and this program and will continue to change. As Wenger says,the narratives, categories, roles, and positions, come to mean an experience of participation is something that must be worked out in practice". There is no question that the course is providing leadership for tomorrow. Jude you are one of those leaders! Keep the faith!
During our last course we discussed this blog entry and most, including me, of the class explained how we shared similar sentiment. I was excited to read your blog to read the details myself. I feel that often, it is difficult to find a place outside of our safe classroom to discuss the issues that we have learned. I find that we as a group need to provide each other with support for when we leave the comfort of our own educational walls. It is important for us to try and reach others without having the stigma of going ‘all Malcolm X on them’. Again, it is important for you to know that you are not alone, we all share these sentiments. Outside of the classroom it is hard to find a place that we belong, in both the Black and non-Black communities. Thank you for sharing this heartfelt blog with us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melina, that you are not alone. We all go into work keeping up a smile that is phony to say the least to get by. We all don't have the opportunity to work for a Black owned business or a community grassroots organization where we meet and speak with like minded individuals on a daily basis. Working with the hospital system I understand the hierarchy that a big organization has, and the lack of meaningful discussion that goes on within the work place. On a day to day basis I bite my tongue at the conversations I hear and the things that are done to staff who are of colour. I recently came in on a conversation about a nurse of colour being told by a doctor that she was "stupid "; in front of a patient! Are these the things that we have to put up with in the workplace and say nothing about it? I recently had a nurse call asking for a doctor of African decent who's name is not hard to pronounce by the way, and she was called "Dr. Unka-lunka" followed by a you now who I mean... My initial thought was maybe she didn't know how to say it...but I think it was just blatant disrespect for a doctor of colour. Within our cohort we have the safety to speak freely and not worry about the consequence of talking about race and our interactions surrounding it outside of the class. I think as educated Black people we need to get together regularly and converse about our strides and mishaps and give each other support, as well as be a supporting shoulder for those who want to want to know more and educate themselves with Afrocentrism and other theories that go hand in hand with it. We can educate ourselves but it's up to use to bring our brothers and sisters along with us
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog, mainly because I felt/feel many of the same frustrations and disconnect that you had expressed. I feel like we should be making more of a concerted effort to find ways to extend our educational experiences beyond the classroom and our small circles, where these conversations make sense. In each of our courses so far we have had lots of opportunity to discuss theories with issues we see but our discussions don’t necessarily seem to be leading anywhere. I am hopeful at some point along our journey we will take all that we have synthesized and use it in a more meaningful and practical manner that benefits more members of our communities. I guess one way to affect change can be through policy, possibly with some patience (at least on my end) once we look closer at policy from an Africentric perspective, we will start to see how to make the theoretical practical.
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