Prof ’s ‘walkout’ sparks outcry

Accused of racism and misogyny

The director of Ryerson University’s School of Social Work has stepped down amid a hue and cry that he committed “a violent act of anti-Blackness, misogyny and misogynoir” (a newish term for misogyny directed at black women) by walking out of an anti-racism meeting last month.

Dr. Henry Parada will remain at the school as a teacher and researcher, says a recent email to students from Dr. Lisa Barnoff, dean of the faculty of community services that includes social work.

The short email is dated Nov. 16.

But the incident that sparked the outcry and appears to have led to Parada’s quitting the director’s job occurred Oct. 27 on the downtown Toronto university campus.

According to the Black Liberation Collective Ryerson branch, Parada walked out of the meeting “at a time when Black folks were giving praise to a young Black woman professor at a critical and vulnerable time …”

According to several screeds on the BLC Facebook page, his actions “perpetrate anti-Black racism … indicated … you do not value anti-Black racism scholarship, Black women, Black educators or education, Black experience, Black life and ultimately Black students…. You chose to violently disrupt the speaker and the space.”

Despite repeated messages left Monday by Postmedia for senior social work administrators and Parada himself, no further details about his alleged walking out — let alone how merely leaving a meeting can be deemed a violent act — could be confirmed.

(Parada’s office is in the same building where the meeting was held. Perhaps he had an appointment? Heard an office phone ring? Had to go to the loo?)

The first of the BLC screeds was almost incoherent. It took the form of an open letter to various senior university and social work administrators, was dated Oct. 31 and posted on Facebook the next day.

Unsigned, as befits a collective, the letter accused Parada of being unable “to contain your anti-Black rage” and of “a public display of toxic masculinity” and demanded he “immediately step down” as social work director, publicly apologize “and publicly release how you will genuinely address anti-Black racism.”

The letter was signed “In rage, solidarity and kindness” by unnamed “concerned students,” the social work student union, the Ryerson Feminist Collective and United Black Students at Ryerson.

It was certainly filled with fury, though the purported kindness was virtually impossible to detect.

A second tirade was posted Nov. 7, apparently sparked by a two-line response to the first from the social work school.

“We hear your concerns about Anti-Black Racism in the school and want to assure you we take them seriously,” the school’s letter said. “We ask for your patience as we continue to work to respond to the people, communities and constituencies involved.”

Again, BLC raged on Facebook: “This disingenuous response to our open letter is just another display of the anti-Black racism perpetrated by the School of Social work and particular individuals who benefit from maintaining this system of Whiteness.”

In a bizarre bit of circular logic, the statement acknowledged that people were curious about what had happened in the original instance and said, “We can appreciate wanting to know the specifics of this event.”

But then BLC slammed that kind of “problematic questioning” as only adding “to the anti-Black racism we are confronting.”

So, you see, even asking questions about the precipitating event is anti-Black.

In Monday’s Facebook harangue, BLC began referring to Parada as “former director” but was clearly unsatisfied.

“We indict the School of Social Work of perpetrating anti-Black racism through placing our Black educators in the most precarious forms of employment, through particular educators allowing Black students experience anti-Black racism in the classroom,” it said, and issued more demands.

Among them are a meeting in January with various deans and “other higher administration,” a commitment to “challenging antiBlack racism and anti-Native racism” in the manner approved by BLC, and “an official apology from Henry Parada that names what he did and why he stepped down.”

Later postings Monday showed a group of students at a BLC protest on campus. “We showed up today,” the group’s Facebook page said. “And we’ll show up every time needed until change happens.”

SO, YOU SEE, EVEN ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRECIPITATING EVENT IS ANTI-BLACK.