Ph.D. candidate Nicola Dove, co-authored an opinion piece about structures of continuing dehumanization and devaluation of Black lives in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. "Living within often-contradictory sets of circumstances speaks to our experiences and those of our extended communities, so we offer paradox and the questions it raises... as a means of wayfinding," said Dove and co-authors.

One year ago, the three of us delivered a presentation entitled “Beyond Black History Month”. Since then, we have moved through the two-year mark of the murder of George Floyd and witnessed another set of hate-driven mass murders in Buffalo with its attendant promise of an(other) awakening and call to change. We have also witnessed the recent loss of Tyre Nichols and other previous deaths in Canada – some of which are covered by the media and others are not. Those violent losses, especially intensified as we move through the global pandemic, have shone a light on structures of continuing dehumanization and devaluation of Black lives in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. The repeating calls to action reveal the deep paradox that in order to be heard, and to initiate a movement for what Katherine McKittrick calls “Black livingness,” more souls have had to be lost. The lives and experiences of Black people are rife with such paradoxes in this, the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent.

Read the full article on the University Affairs web site.