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UNI335H1 – Black Canadian Studies
Instructor: Dr. Cheryl Thompson
Term: Spring 2015
Time: Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00
Classroom: UC144
E-mail: cher.thompson@utoronto.ca
Office: Room B304
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 11:30-1:00 or by appointment
Course Description:
This interdisciplinary course interrogates the constitution of blackness in Canada. It considers
historical and contemporary narratives and focuses on both English- and French-speaking regions
of Canada. The course examines race and ethnic relations, alongside other identity formations such
as class, gender and sexuality. The readings and assignments draw from scholarly publications,
poetry, sport, music and artistic works. While people of African descent have been in Canada since
at least the seventeenth century, the histories of black Canadian presence have been overwhelmingly
written out of Canadian histories, as well as histories of the black Diaspora and transatlantic slavery.
This interdisciplinary course will give students a deeper understanding of diverse black communities
in Canada, and the critical tools to interrogate how blackness has been defined and represented in
the fields of popular culture, law, immigration and mobility, work and labour, political representation
and in the arts. Students will be asked to engage with both texts and images that shed light on black
populations in Canada and their linkages with the black Diaspora.
Purpose and Objectives:
1) The ability to evaluate the characteristics and complexities of blackness in Canada.
2) The ability to critically focus on the interrelationship between race and racism, difference
and power.
3) The ability to critically analyze a range of primary sources.
4) A greater understanding of how blackness has been framed within Canadian history, especially
with respect to visual culture, popular culture, and within political and legal frameworks.
5) The ability to describe many key features of black Canadian history in written and oral form.
Class Structure:
Classes consist of a lecture, a discussion of readings, the viewing of films and group discussion.
Evaluation:
1. Short Essay (2): Due January 20 and March 24
2. Critical Analysis Assignment: Due February 3
3. Mid-Term Exam: Due February 10
4. Essay Outline and Bibliography: Due March 10
5. Final Paper: Due April 1
(2 x 5%) 10%
15%
25%
15%
35%
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1. Short essay: Two (2) times during the semester students will be asked to prepare a short 350400-word (approx. 1-page) essay on the weekly readings. The essay should pull together aspects of
the readings for further contemplation and explore the social and/or cultural applicability of the
theories, issues and articles to be discussed. Students may choose which aspects of a reading or
readings they wish to focus on. The essays should not be mere summaries, but should illuminate,
contest, probe etc. the implications of the texts. Essays should be a maximum 1 page (12-point font,
double spaced) and will be submitted at the beginning of class.
2. Critical analysis of two (2) newspaper articles: 800-1000 words (approx. 2-3 pages).
Students are required to critically analyze and discuss how authors report on some aspect of
b l a c k n e s s in Canada in t w o separate newspaper articles in any historical period. They are
asked to compare how two (2) authors present different views on black identity through their
discussion of a single topic (such as crime, sports, music, education, immigration, politics,
multiculturalism, etc.). Students are welcome to discuss their ideas with Dr. Thompson during her
office hours in the weeks leading up to the due date.
3. Mid-term: In class on February 10. Students will be asked to answer three (3) of four (4) short
answer questions and two (2) of three (3) essay questions drawn from materials up to the mid-term.
Students will be expected to discuss material from lectures, video clips, and readings.
4. Essay o u t l i n e and b ibliography. 350-700 words (1-2 pages) and ten (10) sources
(in addition to your outline). Students will have to select a topic for their research essay well
in advance of the due date. For this short assignment (due March 10), students are asked to submit a
350-700 word overview of the general thrust of their essay and their research question. In addition,
they are required to include a bibliography of te n (10 ) scholarly articles or books that they will
use for their research essay. The te n sources cannot be those assigned in class. Students are
welcome to discuss their ideas with D r . T h o m p s o n during h e r office hours in the weeks
leading up to the due date.
5. Essay. 2,800-3,500 words (approx. 8-10 pages). Students will select a topic that examines some
aspect of blackness in Canada. The essay will combine a discussion of the s cholarly sources
from the i r bibliog ra phy a ssig nme nt as well as a minimum of three (3) primary sources
(newspaper articles, music, images, works of art, etc.) that further illustrate the topic of the essay.
Students can draw from lecture topics, course readings, and primary sources discussed in class.
However, they need to make use of new material beyond the assigned readings. Students need to
cite and discuss a minimum of five ( 5 ) scholarly sources not assigned in class (not all
sources need to have appeared in the bibliography). This is not an opinion piece but rather an
analysis of the scholarly arguments and a critical examination of primary sources. Students are
welcome to discuss their ideas with D r. T ho mp so n during her office hours in the weeks
leading up to the due date.
Required Readings:
1) Coursepack is available at the University of Toronto Bookstore. Where noted, students are
advised to view weekly readings on the internet through the University of Toronto’s Blackboard
site, log in to https://portal.utoronto.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp with your UTORid via
University of Toronto Web Login, or configure a proxy on your web browser (such as the
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EZProxy add-on for Firefox). Blackboard readings for each week will be posted at the beginning
of the semester.
Recommended Readings:
These sources are not required for this course but they are key texts in Black Canadian Studies that
you might want to access. Reading some of these materials will help you further understand the
complexity of black populations in Canada and the constitution of blackness.
Afua Cooper. 2006. The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old
Montréal. Toronto: HarperCollins.
Frank Mackey. 2004. Black Then: Blacks and Montreal, 1780-1880’s. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
University Press.
Robin Winks. [1971] 1997). The Blacks in Canada: A History, 2nd ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
University Press.
Dorothy Williams. 1997. The Road to Now: A History of Blacks in Montreal. Montreal: Véhicule Press.
Harvey Amani Whitfield. 2005. From American Slaves to Nova Scotian Subjects: The Case of the Black
Refugees, 1813-1840. Toronto: Prentice Hall.
Jane Rhodes. 1999. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in The Nineteenth Century.
Bloomington, Indiana: Indian University Press.
Kristin McLaren. 2004. “We Had No Desire to Be Set Apart’: Forced Segregation of Black Students
in Canada West Public Schools and Myths of British Egalitarianism.” Social History /Histroie Sociale 37
(73): 27-50.
Dionne Brand. 1994. “‘We Weren’t Allowed to Go Into Factory Work Until Hitler Started the War’:
The 1920s to the 1940s.” In We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian
Women’s History, ed. Peggy I. Bristow, pp. 171-91. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Barrington Walker. 2010. Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario's Criminal Courts, 1858-1958.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Barrington Walker. 2012. The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Donald H. J. Clairmont and Dennis W. Magill. 1999. Africville: The Life and Death of a Canadian Black
Community. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Lawrence Hill. Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. Toronto: HarperFlamingo.
Cecil Foster. 2005. Where Race Does Not Matter: The New Spirit of Modernity. Toronto: Penguin.
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Calvin W. Ruck. 1986. Canada’s Black Battalion: No. 2 Construction, 1916-1920. Dartmouth, N.S.:
Society for Protection and Preservation of Black Culture in Nova Scotia.
Adrienne Shadd. 2010. The Journey From Tollgate to Parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton. Toronto:
Natural Heritage Books.
Tracey Adams. 2011. “Making a Living: African-Canadian Workers in London, Ontario, 18611901.” Labour/Le Travail 67: 9-44. – (Blackboard)
Jenny Burman. 2010. “Danger to the Public”: Targeting and Deporting Jamaican-Born
Torontonians.” In Transnational Yearnings: Tourism, Migration, and the Diasporic City, pp. 111-28.
Vancouver: UBC Press.
Trey Anthony. 2005. Da’ Kink in my Hair. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press.
Dionne Brand. 1998 [1994]. Bread Out of Stone. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
Marlene Nourbese 1989. She Tries Her Tongue: Her Silence Softly Breaks. Charlottetown, P.E.I.:
Ragweed.
Blackboard: This course has a Blackboard site where this syllabus is posted. Links to assigned
journal articles will be posted there as well. The instructor will frequently post materials to
Blackboard, and students should check this site regularly. More detailed descriptions of the
assignments will be posted on the Blackboard site at least two weeks before the due date.
Faculty of Arts and Science Definition of Grades:
Evaluation of Written Work: Essays will be returned accompanied by comments noting areas
that need attention. A copy of these comments will be retained on file. Essays and assignments will
only be returned to the writer. Questions about grades cannot be answered effectively with e-
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mail. The Faculty of Arts and Science only permits the re-marking of assignments within one
month of the date of the assignment’s return to you. Please read carefully the Faculty of Arts and
Science Definition of Grades (above) before discussing your grade on an assignment with your
professor. If you ask her to reconsider an assignment, note that your grade is as likely to go down as
it is up.
E-mail policy: Please use e-mail to communicate with me only for administrative matters.
Please come to me during my office hours to address questions that you have or raise them before
or after our weekly class. If you cannot make it to my office hours, please talk with me after class
or e-mail me to set up an alternative appointment. I will respond to e-mails within 48 hours, so
please do not leave your inquiries to the last minute. Please take the time to compose a formal email. Assignments will not be accepted by email. Please use your University of Toronto e-mail
address to communicate with me, and please check this e-mail account regularly to receive updates
about this course.
Organization: I encourage you to bring a draft of your essays to my office hours the week
before they are due. I cannot read drafts submitted by e-mail. I also suggest that you allow time to
proofread your work for grammar, clarity, and content.
UC Writing Centre: Take advantage of the services offered at the UC Writing Centre (located in the
UC library) or those found at your own college (http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/writingcentres/arts-and-science). The UC Writing Centre is available for students to discuss assignments
in all UC courses, no matter what college students belong to. The Writing Centre provides
individual instruction during a 50-minute appointment. Make your appointments, based on
assignment deadlines, as soon as possible. The Writing Centre also offers drop-in services.
Appointments can be made online: http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/writing-centre.
Canadian Studies program: Those interested in majoring or minoring in Canadian Studies,
please come talk to Dr. Thompson during her office hours. The director of the Canadian Studies
program is Dr. Nelson Wiseman (nelson@chass.utoronto.ca). The Canadian Studies program’s
website is http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/canadianstudies.
Technology Etiquette in the Classroom: Laptops may be used in class, but please focus on
the class lecture and discussion. Do not distract your fellow students by checking e-mail or
Facebook or watching videos. Please turn off your cellphones and do not use them in class. Save
your texting for later.
Submission of written work and lateness penalty: Assignments are due in class. Late
submission of an assignment will be penalized by the deduction of five ( 5 ) percentage points
per day (excluding weekends). If an assignment is not handed in during class, it is considered a day
late. Late assignments will not be accepted after one week without a valid medical certificate. Late
assignments should be submitted and date-stamped in the University College Program Office
located at UC173. Neither the course instructor nor the University College Program Office will be
held responsible for any late assignments that go missing. Be sure to retain a copy of your paper
and keep all your notes and drafts.
Illness and absences: Please obtain lecture notes from a classmate if you miss one or more
classes. The Powerpoint does not contain enough information to get a grasp of the lecture.
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Notify your course instructor as soon as possible if a serious illness or other concern is affecting
your ability to keep up with the course. It is also wise to contact your college registrar if you
are experiencing academic or personal difficulties.
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
The code of academic conduct disallows the following:

to represent as one’s own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any
academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to
commit plagiarism;

to submit, without the knowledge and approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted,
any academic work for which credit has previously been obtained or is being sought in
another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere
The University of Toronto takes academic honesty very seriously. Any suspected cases of plagiarism
will be investigated. “How not to plagiarize” can be read on the University’s writing web site,
at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize.
Authors do not cite sources properly merely to avoid accusations of plagiarism but also to
establish credibility, bring other work to the reader’s attention, and demonstrate competing
viewpoints.
Accessibility and Accommodations: Students with diverse learning styles and needs are
welcome in this course. If you have a disability/health consideration that may require course
format accommodation, please feel free to approach the course instructor to discuss your needs.
If you require accommodations for a disability, or have accessibility concerns about the course, the
classroom or course materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible: 416-9788060 or accessibility.services@utoronto.ca.
Student Conduct: Students and instructors are expected to maintain a professional
relationship characterized by courtesy and mutual respect and to refrain from actions
disruptive to such a relationship. It is the responsibility of the instructor to maintain an
appropriate academic atmosphere in the classroom and the responsibility of the student to
cooperate in that endeavour. The instructor is the best person to decide, in the first instance,
whether such an atmosphere is present in the class. A statement of the policy and procedures
involving disruptive and/or harassing behaviour by students in academic situations is available on
the U of T website: http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/studentc.htm.
Lectures and Reading Overview:
Course Introduction:
Week 1 (January 6)
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Overview of course topics, theoretical frameworks, and expectations.
Framing the Discussion:
Week 2 (January 13)
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Joseph Mensah. 2002. “Conceptual Background.” In Black Canadians: History, Experience, Social
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Conditions, pp. 11-42. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
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Constance Backhouse. 1999. “Introduction.” In Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada,
1900-1950, pp. 3-17. Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
Canadian Slavery and Visualizing Difference
Week 3 (January 20) – Short essay #1 due (5% of total mark)
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Maureen Elgersman. 1999. “Introduction: Slavery in New France.” In Unyielding Spirits: Black
Women and Slavery in Early Canada and Jamaica, pp. 3-20. New York: Routledge.
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Harvey Amani Whitfield. 2006. “Slavery and Freedom in Nova Scotia” and “Settlement and
Struggle.” In Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815-1860, pp. 9-24
and pp. 43-62. Burlington, Vermont: University of Vermont Press.
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Karolyn Smardz Frost. 2007. “Oh, Freedom!” In I’ve Got A Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the
Underground Railroad, pp. 193-220. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Blackface Minstrelsy and Racial Mimicry
Week 4 (January 27)
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Stephen Johnson, 1999. “Uncle Tom and the Minstrels: Seeing Black and White on Stage in
Canada West prior to the American Civil War.” In (Post)Colonial Stages: Critical & Creative Views on
Drama, Theatre & Performance, ed. Helen Gilbert, 55-63.
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Cheryl Thompson. 2015 (forthcoming). “Come One, Come All’: Blackface Minstrelsy as a
Canadian Tradition and Early Form of Popular Culture,” in Towards an African-Canadian Art
History: Art, Memory, and Resistance. ed. Charmaine Nelson (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press), 34
pages. – NOT IN COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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Joan Nicks and Jeannette Sloniowski. 2010. “Entertaining Niagara Falls, Ontario: Minstrel
Shows, Theatres and Popular Pleasures.” In Covering Niagara: Studies in Local Popular Culture, eds.
Joan Nicks and Barry Keith Grant, pp. 285-310. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
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Helen Gilbert, 2003. “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over Again: Indigenous Minstrelsy in
Contemporary Canadian and Australian Theatre.” Theatre Journal 55 (4): 679-98. – NOT IN
COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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In-class discussion: Contemporary blackface incidents at Canadian universities.
The Boundaries of Race, Space and Place
Week 5 (February 3) – Critical analysis of two (2) newspaper articles due (15% of total mark)
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Joseph Mensah. 2002. “Geography of Blacks in Canada: Immigration and Spatial Distribution.”
In Black Canadians, pp. 57-88. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
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David Austin. 2007. “All Roads Led to Montreal: Black Power and the Black Radical Tradition
in Canada.” Journal of African American History 92 (4): 516-39. – NOT IN COURSEPACK
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(Blackboard).
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Jennifer J. Nelson. 2008. “Authoring Africville: A Selected History” and “Knowing Africville:
Telling Stories of Blackness.” Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism, pp. 3-27 and pp. 54-78.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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Film & In-class discussion: Remember Africville (1991), dir. Shelagh Mackenzie. Discussion on the
2010 Africville apology (articles posted on Blackboard). Clips from Prelude to the Sir George
Williams University Computer Centre Riot.
Mid-term exam (25% of total mark)
Week 6 (February 10)
• In-class
February 16 is Family Day (university is closed)
Reading Week
February 17-20
Black Labour: Racism and Resistance
Week 7 (February 24)
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Agnes Calliste. 1993/1994. “Race, Gender and Canadian Immigration Policy: Blacks from the
Caribbean, 1900-1932.” Journal of Canadian Studies 28 (4): 131-48. – NOT IN COURSEPACK
(Blackboard).
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Patience Elabor-Idemudia. 2000. “Challenges Confronting African Immigrant Women in the
Canadian Workforce. In Anti-Racist Feminism: Critical Race and Gender Studies, ed. Agnes Calliste
and George Sefa Dei, pp. 91-110. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
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Film & In-class discussion: The Road Taken (1996), dir. Selwyn Jacob. Discussion on race and
racism in the workplace.
Debating Black Cultural Representations
Week 8 (March 3)
Last day to drop Spring courses is March 8.
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Cheryl Thompson. “Why We Need to Rethink Black History Month.” Rabble.ca, 21 February
2014. http://rabble.ca/news/2014/02/why-we-need-to-rethink-black-history-month - NOT IN
COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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David V. Trotman. 2005. “Transforming Caribbean and Canadian Identity: Contesting Claims
for Toronto’s Caribana.” Atlantic Studies 2 (2): 177-98 – NOT IN COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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Jenny Burman. 2010. “Masquerading Toronto through Caribana: Diasporic Carnival Meets the
Sign “Music ends here.” In Transnational Yearnings: Tourism, Migration, and the Diasporic City, pp.
129-51. Vancouver: UBC Press.
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Black Beauty and the Politics of Hair
Week 9 (March 10) – Essay outline and bibliography due (15% of total mark)
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Constance Backhouse. 1999. “‘Bitterly Disappointed’ at the Spread of ‘Colour-Bar Tactics’: Viola
Desmond’s Challenge to Racial Segregation, Nova Scotia, 1946.” In Colour-Coded: A Legal History
of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950, 227-71. Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
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Cheryl Thompson. 2009. “Black Women, Beauty, and Hair as a Matter of Being.” Women’s
Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 38 (8): 831-56. – NOT IN COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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Althea Prince. 2009. “Beginning the Walk” and “Conversations with Young Black Women in
Toronto.” The Politics of Black Women’s Hair, pp. 11-23 and 55-69. London, Ontario: Insomniac
Press.
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Film & In-class discussion: Clips from 'da Kink in My Hair (2007-2009) and The Colour of Beauty
(2010), dir. Elizabeth St. Philip. Discussion on the question of racial bias in the contemporary
beauty culture industry.
Black Canadian Artistic Expressions
Week 10 (March 17)
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Andrea Fatona. 2006. “In the Presence of Absence: Invisibility, Black Canadian History, and
Melinda Mollineaux's Pinhole Photography.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31: 227-38. –
NOT IN COURSEPACK (Blackboard)
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Rinaldo Walcott. 2003. “No Language is Neutral’: The Politics of Performitivity in M. Nourbese
Philips and Dionne Brand’s Poetry. In Black Like Who?, 73-88. Toronto: Insomniac Press.
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Klive Walker. 2005. “One-Drop Dubs the Maple Leaf: The Story of Reggae in Canada” In
Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground, pp. 155-76. Toronto: Insomniac Press.
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Selected poetry from D’bi Young, Clifton Joseph, Afua Cooper (Handout in-class).
Canadian Hip-Hop and the Markings of Blackness
Week 11 (March 24) – Short essay #2 due (5% of total mark)
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Rinaldo Walcott. 2003. “Keep on Moving: Rap, Black Atlantic Identities and the Problem of
Nation.” In Black Like Who?, pp. 113-29. Toronto: Insomniac Press.
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Awad Ibrahim. 2003. “Marking the Unmarked: Hip-hop, the Gaze & the African Body in North
America.” Critical Arts 17 (1-2): 52-70. – NOT IN COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
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Remi Warner. 2006. “Hip-hop with a Northern Touch!? Diasporic Wanderings/Wonderings on
Canadian Blackness.” Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 15: 45-68. – NOT IN
COURSEPACK (Blackboard).
Blacks in Canadian Sport: Issues and Controversies
Week 12 (March 31)
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George & Darril Fosty. 2004. “Introduction: Soul of a People.” Black Ice: The Lost History of the
Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes 1895-1925, pp. 1-6. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing.
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Cecil Harris. 2003. “Introduction” and “Wrong Place, Wrong Time”. In Breaking The Ice: The
Black Experience in Professional Hockey, pp. 13-16 and pp. 59-74. Toronto: Insomniac Press.
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William Humber. 2004. “Black Baseball’s Early Days in Canada” and “Hockey: The Canadian
Specific.” A Sporting Chance: Achievements of African-Canadian Athletes, pp. 43-59 and pp. 99-114.
Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.
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Film & In-class discussion: Willie O’Ree interview and blacks in today’s NHL.
Essay (35% of total mark) due Wednesday April 1 (by close of business day)