Hide your last name, keep quiet in class: UWindsor panel talks anti-Black racism on campuses

When University of Windsor law student Chris Osei-Kusigoes to submit an assignment, he thinks twice about putting his full name on the paper.

His last nameis "pretty ethnic" andhe doesn't want it to keep him from gettingan A.

"There's so many different ways that you have to act, that you wouldn't have to worry about if you weren't a Black student," said Osei-Kusi, who is also the national director of advocacy for the Black Law Students' Association of Canada.

He was one of five UWindsor students who joinedjournalist Eternity Martis for a live-streamed panel discussion Thursday about anti-Black racism.

The talk, which included Martis as a guest speaker, was held by UWindsor's Office of Student Experience and focused on the experiences Black students have had on post-secondary campuses across North America.

Martis also talked about her best-selling book They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life and Growing Up a memoir that looks ather own experiences as a Black student on a mostly-white campus and links it to the systemic issues affecting students today.

Current and former university students discuss anti-Black racism on Canadian campuses

4 years ago

Duration 1:53

Eternity Martis, Jeremiah Bowers, Samrah Yohannes, Chris Osei-Kusi, and Camisha Sibblis participated in a panel discussion on July 9, 2020, facilitated by Fardovza Kusow, to share their experiences of anti-Black racism on Canadian campuses and discuss what they believe needs to change.

Throughout her academic career, Martis said she's encountered many upsetting experiences, rangingfrom people saying "Your English is great, where are you from? You're probably not from around here" to beingat a party where students in blackface confronted her, "smiling and leering and [threatening] violence and being told to go back to my country."

She said friends of hers have had similar experiences and have even had the N-word spray-painted on the doors of their dorm rooms.

UWindsor criminology and psychology student SamrahYohannes, whoorganizedthe city's Black Lives Matter rally, said as a Black woman, she doesn't even like speaking up in class, conscious that other students will think she "has an attitude" or "Of course she has something to say."

"When we as Black people are voicing our opinions, it's just looked down at and attached to a stereotype," Yohannes said.

"You sometimes feel as a Black student you're not as valued as the other students or you have to find everything yourself or go within your community to find everything and your journey is made harder."

More support for Black students, faculty, staff

The students also addressed avenues of care or support they'd like to see on post-secondary campuses.

"It's about making Black students, Black faculty and staff feel safe," said Jeremiah Bowers, an international relations and development major, who also chairs the National Black Students' Caucus.

"So creating spaces for Black students and faculty and staff to have open conversations and to have space for communityhealing and to support each other. It's not about the institution holding our hand or saying 'I think this is what you want.'"