By Rita Kaur Dhamoon
University of Victoria
Abstract
My main contention is that racism should be read beyond the registers of attitude, discrimination, human rights, or harassment – rather, I approach racism as a workload issue that labour organizations and employers need to address at the level of collective bargaining. To explore this argument, I focus on racism and workload as it relates to Black faculty, faculty of colour, and Indigenous faculty in universities and colleges in Canada, although the argument can be applied to other job types and other places. While there is significant research on racism in universities, it remains largely disconnected from the literature on workload in universities. Many unions have policies and statements in support of local, national and international anti-racist struggles, but the idea of racism as a workload issue has not been seriously taken up by unions/associations, or for that matter by anti-racist activists on university/college campuses. I offer reasons why racism is a workload issue, and consider the potential role of unions in addressing racism.
Photo by Tim Dennell