Specifically, “Indigenous faculty members” at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the black Dean of the university’s social work department.
Not sure this should go in racism or education, so I put it in current events, because this represents an episode of the ‘adults’ of both fields.
First up is Kathy Hogarth, a black Dean and self-styled “radical.” A radical who invokes the “burden” of her unspecified “trauma,” who works “in the name of resistance,” and whose melanin-related grumbles include “the system of white mediocrity,” onto which her paler colleagues allegedly hold with “a vice grip.” One can only hope that Dr Hogarth’s “trauma,” whatever it might be, was at least partly soothed by the $200,000 salary.
Second up is the Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) social work faculty. Since you ask, IFS describes itself as a distinct program within the faculty that is based on Indigenous “traditions, languages, and territorial protocols.”
In short, magic browness.
It was a faculty retreat in September 2022 that the showdown between Hogarth and the Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) social work faculty came to a head.
The IFS asked to participate in the retreat remotely because its members were still scared of contracting the ChiCom flu, but Hogarth had a preference for the department’s members to appear in-person. Hogarth allowed the IFS team to participate remotely in the morning, but said the afternoon session was not conducive to virtual participation… The IFS team said they experienced feelings of “confusion and exclusion.” Hogarth “relented,” though she did not apologize.
It’s perhaps worth keeping in mind that the claims of emotional injury – and the subsequent escalation in rhetoric, which I’ll get to – started with a question of whether attendance via a Zoom call was ideal at a retreat intended to “foster community.”
Still, everyone’s happy now, right? Time for some collegial bonding.
Maybe not.
The IFS team… claimed Hogarth’s “exclusion” of them was “an act of anti-indigenous racism” and “colonial violence.”
Hogarth later recounted in a report that the faculty were “rowdy” during the retreat, interrupting her and challenging her decisions, and that they wrote phrases like “less colonialism” and “less bullshit” on the end-of-day feedback notes. Hogarth interpreted this as “implicit racism.”
Now it gets fun. Grab a drink.
Following the retreat, Hogarth sent out an email to the department faculty and senior leadership,
“As one of less than a handful of Black Deans in Canada, I cannot divorce my Blackness from my leadership identity. The experiences of colonialism are embedded in my DNA. The enactment of colonial violence on my Black body is unrelenting.”
This would make a great opera.
“After being bloodied and bruised at the Faculty Retreat, and nursing the bloodiness of the day, I was forced to dry my tears, put a smile on my face and go welcome a new cadre of students to our institution. And I ask, how can I do that with integrity after witnessing and experiencing such violence at the hands of social work ‘professionals’? Yet, I had to be strong because that is what is expected.”
She was being strong, you see. Stoical. Not drama-queeny at all.
Now the medals and heroism.
“As a leader, and more so as a Black woman leader, there is always a jostling for power. I saw that. I saw the subtle and not so subtle attempts at destabilising, the micro-invalidations, and the micro insults. Anti-black racism was as real and alive as it has ever been on Wednesday. As painful as it is, I am naming that.”
This accusation of racism – particulars of which were not forthcoming – was followed by an appeal to take the high road, to abandon “toxicity,” and to forge a “healthy community”:
“I will not join the toxic. I will not engage in the violence. Those are not negotiable. I challenge you, both perpetrators of violence and bystanders, to do better.”
Alas.
Days after Hogarth’s email, the tenured faculty sent the higher-ups of Laurier a petition to have Hogarth removed as dean, claiming a “crisis of leadership.” The petition was endorsed “with the unanimous support of all 16 tenured faculty of the Faculty of Social Work (FSW).” The professors wrote that Hogarth’s… email had been “extremely distressing.”
So many feelings. We’re going to need more tissues. And louder music.
“Unfortunately, the toxic and violent climate at the FSW as a result of Dr Hogarth’s actions have deeply impacted morale, weakening our sense of belonging and community, and have negatively impacted faculty members’ wellbeing.”
And then, inevitably, the big guns boomed:
“The anti-Indigenous racism enacted by the Dean is in itself completely unacceptable. Under no circumstances should any faculty member be intentionally excluded from participating in collegial meetings, especially a meeting designed to foster community and engage in planning,” read the faculty petition. We have recently experienced colonial violence and anti-Indigenous racism at the hands of our Dean… During our remote participation, she was actively violent towards the IFS team as witnessed by our FSW colleagues.”
Again, particulars of this “violence,” indeed “colonial violence,” remain oddly mysterious. We are, however, told that the Zoom meeting was “harmful and humiliating,” a “marginalising experience,” and “resulted in the team feeling unsafe in the workplace.”
Despite the competing feats of Olympic-level hyperbole, two formal investigations by the university uncovered no evidence of racism or indeed violence, whether colonial or of some other kind. However, the social work department – this bastion of “equity,” “diversity,” and “decolonisation” – was described in one of the reports as an intimidating and hostile workplace, with one witness favouring the phrase,
cliquey, scary, and tense.
tnc.news
Not sure this should go in racism or education, so I put it in current events, because this represents an episode of the ‘adults’ of both fields.
First up is Kathy Hogarth, a black Dean and self-styled “radical.” A radical who invokes the “burden” of her unspecified “trauma,” who works “in the name of resistance,” and whose melanin-related grumbles include “the system of white mediocrity,” onto which her paler colleagues allegedly hold with “a vice grip.” One can only hope that Dr Hogarth’s “trauma,” whatever it might be, was at least partly soothed by the $200,000 salary.
Second up is the Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) social work faculty. Since you ask, IFS describes itself as a distinct program within the faculty that is based on Indigenous “traditions, languages, and territorial protocols.”
In short, magic browness.
It was a faculty retreat in September 2022 that the showdown between Hogarth and the Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) social work faculty came to a head.
The IFS asked to participate in the retreat remotely because its members were still scared of contracting the ChiCom flu, but Hogarth had a preference for the department’s members to appear in-person. Hogarth allowed the IFS team to participate remotely in the morning, but said the afternoon session was not conducive to virtual participation… The IFS team said they experienced feelings of “confusion and exclusion.” Hogarth “relented,” though she did not apologize.
It’s perhaps worth keeping in mind that the claims of emotional injury – and the subsequent escalation in rhetoric, which I’ll get to – started with a question of whether attendance via a Zoom call was ideal at a retreat intended to “foster community.”
Still, everyone’s happy now, right? Time for some collegial bonding.
Maybe not.
The IFS team… claimed Hogarth’s “exclusion” of them was “an act of anti-indigenous racism” and “colonial violence.”
Hogarth later recounted in a report that the faculty were “rowdy” during the retreat, interrupting her and challenging her decisions, and that they wrote phrases like “less colonialism” and “less bullshit” on the end-of-day feedback notes. Hogarth interpreted this as “implicit racism.”
Now it gets fun. Grab a drink.
Following the retreat, Hogarth sent out an email to the department faculty and senior leadership,
“As one of less than a handful of Black Deans in Canada, I cannot divorce my Blackness from my leadership identity. The experiences of colonialism are embedded in my DNA. The enactment of colonial violence on my Black body is unrelenting.”
This would make a great opera.
“After being bloodied and bruised at the Faculty Retreat, and nursing the bloodiness of the day, I was forced to dry my tears, put a smile on my face and go welcome a new cadre of students to our institution. And I ask, how can I do that with integrity after witnessing and experiencing such violence at the hands of social work ‘professionals’? Yet, I had to be strong because that is what is expected.”
She was being strong, you see. Stoical. Not drama-queeny at all.
Now the medals and heroism.
“As a leader, and more so as a Black woman leader, there is always a jostling for power. I saw that. I saw the subtle and not so subtle attempts at destabilising, the micro-invalidations, and the micro insults. Anti-black racism was as real and alive as it has ever been on Wednesday. As painful as it is, I am naming that.”
This accusation of racism – particulars of which were not forthcoming – was followed by an appeal to take the high road, to abandon “toxicity,” and to forge a “healthy community”:
“I will not join the toxic. I will not engage in the violence. Those are not negotiable. I challenge you, both perpetrators of violence and bystanders, to do better.”
Alas.
Days after Hogarth’s email, the tenured faculty sent the higher-ups of Laurier a petition to have Hogarth removed as dean, claiming a “crisis of leadership.” The petition was endorsed “with the unanimous support of all 16 tenured faculty of the Faculty of Social Work (FSW).” The professors wrote that Hogarth’s… email had been “extremely distressing.”
So many feelings. We’re going to need more tissues. And louder music.
“Unfortunately, the toxic and violent climate at the FSW as a result of Dr Hogarth’s actions have deeply impacted morale, weakening our sense of belonging and community, and have negatively impacted faculty members’ wellbeing.”
And then, inevitably, the big guns boomed:
“The anti-Indigenous racism enacted by the Dean is in itself completely unacceptable. Under no circumstances should any faculty member be intentionally excluded from participating in collegial meetings, especially a meeting designed to foster community and engage in planning,” read the faculty petition. We have recently experienced colonial violence and anti-Indigenous racism at the hands of our Dean… During our remote participation, she was actively violent towards the IFS team as witnessed by our FSW colleagues.”
Again, particulars of this “violence,” indeed “colonial violence,” remain oddly mysterious. We are, however, told that the Zoom meeting was “harmful and humiliating,” a “marginalising experience,” and “resulted in the team feeling unsafe in the workplace.”
Despite the competing feats of Olympic-level hyperbole, two formal investigations by the university uncovered no evidence of racism or indeed violence, whether colonial or of some other kind. However, the social work department – this bastion of “equity,” “diversity,” and “decolonisation” – was described in one of the reports as an intimidating and hostile workplace, with one witness favouring the phrase,
cliquey, scary, and tense.
Diversity dysfunction at Wilfrid Laurier Universityâs faculty of social work
Confidential university documents leaked to True North reveal troubling times within Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Social Work, characterized by the Indigenous faculty members and the black dean accusing each other of racism.
tnc.news
