Philip S S Howard

This article investigates the ways that the ostensible humour associated with contemporary blackface incidents in Canada is constituted. It argues that the conditions of possibility for contemporary Canadian blackface humour are an anti-black libidinal economy dependent upon the tropes of biological racism, and a socially embedded, psychic association of the Black body with pleasure that was entrenched through slavery’s relations of domination. With the specificities of anti-blackness in view, this article refines Simon Weaver’s concept, embodied racism, to emphasize that it is a form of biological racism that has historically targeted Black people, and continues to do so today. Then, building upon these foundations, I argue that contemporary Canadian blackface humour is constituted and intensified by the specific racialized social relations in Canada, such as its postracialist claim to being racially egalitarian, and the ways it mobilizes multiculturalist discourse to make Blackness perpetually foreign and out-of-place in Canada—matters that, in part, characterize the contemporary Canadian colonial project. The article therefore suggests that making clear these ways in which contemporary Canadian blackface is only legible as humour through racialized social relations is a necessary component of challenging suggestions that blackface is harmless, non-racial humour.

This article is based on a qualitative research project examining the phenomenon of contemporary Canadian blackface.  It addresses the discursive juxtaposition of blackface with the claim to Canadian racial progressiveness that typically attends public debates about blackface.  I argue that blackface and the discourses defending it are forms of racial consumption through which ostensibly progressive white subjectivities are secured. I further argue that contemporary Canadian blackface discourse is post-racialist in its ability to juxtapose racist expression with claims of racial transcendence, and I identify this postracialism as a longstanding feature of Canadian national narratives that are partially constructed through revisionist understandings of the nation’s relationship to blackness, and against an ostensibly more virile racism in the United States.  This analysis reminds us of the symbiotic relationship between racial fetishization/fascination as found in contemporary blackface, the foundational white supremacy of the Canadian settler-colonial context, and the always uneven terms upon which blackness is included in Canada.  It clarifies what is at stake for Canadians who participate in blackface and in defending it, and helps us to understand the pedagogical import of both blackface and Canadian egalitarianism for perpetuating anti-blackness in Canada.

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xB7C643qZ9sF3qPHrDDI/full

Abstract: From the frequency of the racially motivated and racially-justified slayings of black youth to the increased popularity of blatantly derisive racist humour, the enactment of race and racism appears to have become more defiantly overt and unapologetic. Yet this upswing of racist incidents seems to accompany the rise to prominence of Barack Obama, whose candidacy and election also paradoxically ushered in an American post-racialist discourse. In this contradictory context, humour is a popular technology for weaving together these apparently opposing currents. This article, argues that post-racialist humour is eminently pedagogical, playing a key role in the communication of racial knowledge in the post-racialist climate when race is unspeakable. Drawing theoretically upon Goldberg’s (2009; 2012) analyses of neo-liberal racism and the concept of “racial dis-appearance” (Goldberg 2012), it examines some of the racial humour directed at the Obamas occurring as political cartoons and online. It argues that the contemporary use of historical racist tropes in humour betrays a deep and enduring societal racist literacy rooted in racial history, and performs a specific function of casting and recasting racial boundaries in ways that are congruent with the work performed historically by these tropes. Paying attention to the ways that the racist history of these tropes is denied, I map out some of the features that distinguish racial knowledge and literacy in the post-racialist era from that in the colour-blind era that it is quickly replacing. Framing post-racialist humour as racial plagiarism, I conclude by offering some thoughts about the form that resistance to post-racialist humour, and more broadly post-racialist knowledge, might take.

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Bm7y8VYIC6XEs7VDqZX3/full

In the midst of the complicated racial-linguistic landscape that is Montreal,
Quebec, the educational experiences of the relatively small population
of Anglophone Blacks are often invisibilized within the education
literature, and relatively little attention is paid to the nature of Black students’
and educators’ struggles with racism and Eurocentricity within
Anglophone schools in Montreal. This article makes a contribution to
the empirical literature concerning these groups. It shares the experiences
of, and racism witnessed by, two Black teachers in Montreal. Their narratives
paint a compelling picture of the consequences and effects of
educating Black students within a colour-blind context in Montreal
schools, as well as the pedagogies and personal philosophies they work
through to resist and challenge the context of denial within Canadian
education. The article ends with a discussion of the ways in which the
teachers’ pedagogies align with critical anti-racist praxis, and nascent
forms of African-centred pedagogy.

Given President Obama’s current ambiguous stand on racial matters, many
African Americans are asking legitimate questions about the implications of his
presidency for African Americans and for antiracist struggle. They speculate
about whether he has “sold out” or whether he is strategizing for a future moment
when he will act decisively in the interest of African Americans in fulfilling his
duty to serve all Americans. This article contends that Obama’s ambiguity and
the need to pose the above questions flow from the contradictions involved with
an African American occupying the presidential office in a country that has yet
to eradicate anti-Black racism. The fundamental question, then, is one about the
limits around African agency within dominant institutions. Through a discussion
of African agency and African conceptions of community, this article contributes
to a conversation about how African Americans might maximize African agency
where it is found within dominant institutions.

"Crash Politics and Antiracism" argues that race and racism continue to script the social fabric in Euro-North America. While dominant discourses claim that we have made significant progress away from racial bigotry, there is no shortage of evidence that inequitable ideologies of race prevail. Similarly, mainstream cinematic productions have mass appeal, yet tend to demonstrate and cement the racial ideologies that circulate in society. As such, they can be used either for the propagation of dominant ideologies or in the development of critical consciousness. "Crash Politics and Antiracism" does the latter, understanding the award-winning film "Crash" as an especially interesting pedagogical site, for while to many it offers a fresh analysis of race and racism, the antiracist analyses in this book suggest that it recycles oppressive understandings of race. The essays in this collection, written from a variety of racial locations, provide readings of "Crash" that seek to disrupt the movie’s subtle messages and, more importantly, some of the intractable liberal notions of race that perpetuate racial inequity. The considerations raised in this volume will enrich critical conversations about how race and racism work in contemporary Euro-North American societies - whether these conversations occur in classrooms, boardrooms, or living rooms.

SLĀV is a musical stage play directed by Robert Lepage, and based on recordings by singer Béatrice “Betty” Bonifassi. The recordings are Bonifassi’s reinterpretations of music composed by enslaved and incarcerated African Americans—that is Black people labouring under, and resisting, the conditions of slavery and its afterlife. Though Lepage and Bonifassi promoted the show as an homage to Black people, SLĀV opened at the 2018 Montreal International Jazz Festival to protests by the SLĀV Resistance Collective, accusing it of cultural appropriation. SLĀV was eventually cancelled as Black artists began pulling out of the festival. Unsurprisingly, Lepage, Bonifassi and much of the Quebec public accused the protestors of censorship, and of misunderstanding Quebec’s unique context. Situating its analysis within the field of Black Canadian Studies, in this article Howard examines the discourse around SLĀV as manifested through the words of Bonifassi, Lepage, journalists, and commenters. How...

In recent years, there has been a significant amount of new attention to white dominance and privilege (or whiteness) as the often unmarked inverse of racial oppression. This interest has spawned the academic domain called Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). While the critical investigation of whiteness is not new, and has been pioneered by Black scholars beginning at least since the early 1900s in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, what is notable about this new interest in whiteness is its advancement almost exclusively by white scholars. The paucity of literature centering the Black voice in the study of whiteness both suggests the lack of appreciation for the importance of this perspective when researching the phenomenon of racial dominance, and raises questions about the manner in which racial equity work is approached by some Whites who do work that is intended to advance racial equity. This study investigates the context of racial equity collaborations between Blacks and Whites, res...

Given President Obama’s current ambiguous stand on racial matters, many African Americans are asking legitimate questions about the implications of his presidency for African Americans and for antiracist struggle. They speculate about whether he has “sold out” or whether he is strategizing for a future moment when he will act decisively in the interest of African Americans in fulfilling his duty to serve all Americans. This article contends that Obama’s ambiguity and the need to pose the above questions flow from the contradictions involved with an African American occupying the presidential office in a country that has yet to eradicate anti-Black racism. The fundamental question, then, is one about the limits around African agency within dominant institutions. Through a discussion of African agency and African conceptions of community, this article contributes to a conversation about how African Americans might maximize African agency where it is found within dominant institutions.

State schooling in North America has drastically under-served
Black communities, and much educational research has explored
visions of schooling that might provide a more relevant and
socially just educational experience for Black students. Toronto’s
Africentric Alternative School is the product of just such a vision.
This article explores the aspirations, experiences, and practices of
the first cohort of teachers at the Africentric Alternative School as
they exercise agency to implement this vision. Findings demonstrate
several key features of the teachers’ work, which they offer
as their understanding of Africentric pedagogy: (1) they cooperate
with each other, parents, and community to establish a familial
environment for all school stakeholders; (2) they endeavour to
establish classrooms that affirm students’ lived and political
Blackness, that value the diverse ways in which Blackness is lived,
and that help students to challenge oppressive practices among
themselves; and (3) they persevere through sometimes challenging
conditions created by historical and ongoing educational
injustice, endeavouring to preserve the dignity of all members of
the school community. Teachers, students, and parents consistently
contrast these conditions to those they find in other school
settings, which therefore positions these teachers’ pedagogies as a
response to antiblackness embedded in public schools in Toronto.