5. Race, the University, and Social Transformation

This chapter uses the backdrop of racism in institutions of higher education to examine the varied manifestations of structural racism in the United States and Canada in two ways. First, the chapter analyzes how being Canadian in American higher education reveals how the core conceptualization of the university—as an employer, a space where ideas are debated, a public good, a corporation or brand, and a home and community—each surreptitiously works to exclude non-white people. Secondly, the chapter uses these lessons to rethink the ways that systemic racism functions in Canadian higher education, in spite of Canada’s national imagery as a tolerant, multicultural, and egalitarian society. In normative terms, I question whether belonging in the university is feasible or desirable for Black academics, given the systemic nature of racism in Canadian and American higher education.