The Universities Studying Slavery—USS—conference is happening outside of the United States for the first time, and it’s happening in Halifax. From Wednesday Oct. 18 to Saturday Oct. 21, keynote speakers and panel sessions will take place at the Black Cultural Centre—BCC in Cherry Brook and the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel to consider the theme: “Slavery, Reparations and Education.”

Two Halifax universities—Dalhousie and King’s—partnered with the BCC to bring the conference to a city whose own history is inextricably linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the history of enslaved Black people.

The Coast will be covering each day of the conference as it unfolds.

Says the USS website, “Universities Studying Slavery—USS—is a consortium of over one hundred institutions of higher learning in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Scotland, Ireland, and England. These schools are focused on sharing best practices and guiding principles as they engage in truth-telling educational projects focused on human bondage and the legacies of racism in their histories.

“Member schools are all committed to research, acknowledgment, education, and atonement regarding institutional ties to the slave trade, to enslavement on campus or abroad, and to enduring racism in school history and practice.”

Dr. Isaac Saney is a Black Studies in Cuba specialist and tenured professor at Dalhousie University. Saney is the coordinator of Dal’s Black and African Diaspora Studies program—the first of its kind in Canada—and the chair of the organizing committee for this year’s USS conference.

“Dalhousie was the first Canadian university to expose its links to slavery,” says Saney. “Then King’s followed. There is this consortium of 50 to 60 universities in the United States called Universities Studying Slavery, which looked at their roots. And it seemed only logical that both universities should join. And so [King’s president Bill Lahey] thought, ‘Why not have the first conference outside of the United States ever?’ And he considered Halifax particularly because of Halifax’s connection in Nova Scotia basically as the birthplace of Black history in a sense of the Black presence in Canada. And, of course, the fact that this history is often ignored; the existence of slavery is often ignored in Canadian historiography.”

Lord Dalhousie was committed to the enslavement of Black people. The namesake and original initial investor of the largest university in Halifax directly benefited from enslaved peoples. The university has recently gone public with this history. In 2019, Dalhousie University published their Report on Lord Dalhousie’s History of Slavery and Race, following the public presentation of the Report of the Findings of the Scholarly Panel to Examine Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race, in 2018. Following Dal, the University of King’s College commissioned their own inquiry into King’s historical ties to the enslavement of Black people. Their findings were published in 2019, entitled King’s College, Nova Scotia: Direct Connections with Slavery.

“We learned that a substantial percentage of the funding that came to King’s over almost its first seven years came from wealth generated by enslaved Black people,” said King’s’ president Bill Lahey. “And we also learned that many people associated with Kings—founders, presidents, parents, donors—were themselves associated with slavery. And that, in some ways, King’s represented the old worldview in which slavery was thought of as being a defensible practice.”

Lahey says it’s clear that without the level of funding King’s received both directly and indirectly from 1789 to 1854 from the enslavement of Black people, King’s couldn’t have existed.

“Between 1789, and 1802. Kings received a provincial grant,” says Lahey. “That was based on a sugar tax. So that means 100% of that grant was derived from wealth generated by enslaved Black people, because the sugar was being produced in the Caribbean…. [And] from 1789 to 1854, our research shows that as much as 10% of the fees that were paid by students came from family wealth that was generated by enslaved Black people. So it’s substantial.”

Both Lahey and Saney acknowledge barriers African Nova Scotian and Black students face when entering universities, and how these are related to histories of enslaved Black people in Nova Scotia. Lahey says just under 4% of its students self-report as being African Nova Scotian or Black. “And 10 years ago, it would have been a much smaller percentage.”

Lahey and Saney say hosting the USS conference is a part of redressing these inequities, along with building representation in faculty, programming, scholarship initiatives and research within the institution. “Achieving our aspirations [for King’s] to be a place that’s truly welcoming and inclusive and supportive of Black students requires us to be ruthlessly honest about our history, and to show that we understand the accountability that comes from that history,’ says Lahey.

“It cannot be something that’s swept under the table, and then still expect people who are living with a legacy of that history to be fully trustful of you when you say you are working to be a more inclusive and welcoming university for Black students, faculty and staff.

“The purpose of this conference and the growing relationship that we have with the Black Cultural Centre is to not just have a series of distinct initiatives, but to develop a comprehensive plan and strategy that declares our objectives, the things that we’re going to do to achieve those objectives, and how we’re going to be accountable for the progress.”

On Tuesday, Oct. 17, King’s and Dal announced a new academic appointment focused on the history of slavery in Canada, called the Centennial Carnegie Appointment in the History of Slavery in Canada. This appointment was announced in connection with the USS conference.

Says the release, this tenureship will be a part of the Department of History and “will advance important scholarship worldwide and contribute to the commitments both universities have made to redress historical exclusions and chart a course for a more inclusive and diverse future. The Appointment also forms part of the universities’ responses to urgent calls asking higher education to address anti-Black racism and ensure Black flourishing, by supporting models of ‘inclusive excellence.’ To that end, the two institutions have signed onto the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education: Principles, Actions, and Accountabilities.”

Says Saney: “The Scarborough Charter was signed by our 50 universities in Canada. It actually acknowledged the existence of anti-Black racism and how critical universities were particularly in the educational sphere in combating it, right? And so there were calls for a number of things around curriculum, around diversity of student bodies, diversity of faculty and so forth. So those are things that are important, right, and so on. And we just had at Dalhousie the announcement of a million dollar scholarship, the Senator Don Oliver Scholarship for African Nova Scotians. So I think those things are important as well.”

On the responsibility of universities to hold these conversations on slavery and race, Saney says “they have to render an account that this history existed. Then they have to redress it in terms of the courses that are being offered. And also in terms of the fact that Canada has, in many ways, lagged pathetically behind the United States. So the first Black Studies program, which came out of the Black liberation struggle in the 1960s—in fact, you know, fighting for the Black Studies program was part and parcel of the liberation struggle, a very critical part of it—was in 1969, in San Francisco State University.

“We’ve waited until 2023 to have our first Black Studies degree program in Canada. So I think it’s important to understand that the Black experience is not trivial. It’s not meaningless. It’s not marginal. It’s not incidental to the Canadian story. So it needs to be emphasized in terms of courses that are offered. And I would argue in building Black Studies programs as well, in order to also to address that when we look at discrimination, marginalization and so forth, that existed in the educational sphere.

“Universities have to also admit that Black students of African descent quite often found it very difficult, if not impossible, to enter institutions of higher learning. So I think it’s also important to provide resources and scholarships and programs that reach out into the community and provide access for students. “

Sahey says he’s looking forward to the conference opening “a dialogue, a discussion, an expansion of the multifaceted way in which slavery and its consequences and legacy have continued to shape and impact in very negative ways people of African descent in the Americas. I think it will show a light on the fact that the enslavement of people of African descent and the discontents of the policies of segregation, discrimination, marginalization, disenfranchisement, that followed the many communities of people of African descent, that story unfolded here in Canada as much as it unfolded in the United States. Dr. Afua Cooper and others have referred to slavery as ‘Canada’s great secret.’ So we’re going to talk about slavery within the Canadian context, and particularly the Nova Scotian context, and show that it wasn’t marginal. It wasn’t, in a sense, accidental. It wasn’t trivial. But it marked society in very profound ways, establishing a constellation of practices, conventions, ideas and values, that had a profound effect and a profound impact on the lived trajectories of people of African descent.”

Of the conference starting Wednesday, Oct. 18, Saney says: “What often happens with scholars is they find, you know, areas of convergence, areas of commonality where we can continue to research. Where I think it’s going to be exciting is it’s going to demonstrate how exciting and fertile, from an academic and research perspective, Black Canadian Studies is as a field, and particularly studying Nova Scotia. So I think people will be able to explore this history in much greater detail and richness. And to show that it’s, you know, the complexity and meaningfulness of this history for understanding what is this thing we call Canada.”

Saney says all keynote speeches will be available to watch on Zoom.

“At the conference itself, reparations is gonna be a very big issue,” Saney says. “And what people need to understand about reparations is—there’s a sort of stereotypical notion that reparations is about money.[But really] the reparations movement is about reconciling relations between those who have suffered because of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and have endured the consequences and burden, right, of that legacy, reconciling society with them. But more importantly, transforming social relations within countries and between countries for the benefit of everybody. So reparations is not just about people of African descent; it’s about envisioning a world in which everyone can realize their full human potential. And we can only do that by addressing these historical injustices. Because these historical injustices redound for the detriment of all of us.”

The conference will bring leading reparations specialists to Halifax, such as Hilary Beckles, who is the keynote and a leading scholar on reparations. “But we also have perhaps the leading political activist on reparations, at least in the Caribbean context: H.E. David Comissiong,” says Saney.

The other keynote speakers of the conference are: Dr. Sylvia D. Hamilton, renowned filmmaker, writer, journalist and artist, and University of King’s College’s Inglis professor; Dr. Afua Cooper, distinguished historian and poet, and Killam research chair in Black and African Diaspora Studies at Dalhousie University; Dr. Harvey Amani Whitfield, leading historian of Black history and slavery in colonial Canada and a professor in Black North American History at the University of Calgary; and Dr. George Elliott Clarke, renowned poet and E.J. Pratt professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.

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Disneyland visitors ringing in the first day of spooky season may have been lucky enough to get a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious surprise. A viral Instagram reel shows Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke atop a balcony in New Orleans Square inside the park. The beloved star is best known in the Disney pantheon for his role as Bert, the chimney sweep, in the 1964 musical “Mary Poppins.”

“I would have lost my collective spoon full of sugar if I saw the absolute legend there,” user @jedi_master_alex wrote in the comments.

“I was there, and I just cried!! An iconic legend….,” another user @acwfoster wrote.

Van Dyke is no stranger to making guest appearances at Disneyland. In Dec. 2015, the star spent his 90th birthday in the park and was spotted on the same balcony where guests sang him “Happy Birthday.” In 2012, he also spent his birthday at Disneyland as the celebrity guest for a holiday tradition: the annual Candlelight Ceremony.

Van Dyke has spent much of his life as a celebrity figurehead for Disneyland after appearing in several Disney films. In “Mary Poppins,” he played not only Bert but Mr. Dawes Sr., the director of the bank. He also starred in the 1966 film “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” And in 2001, Van Dyke narrated “Walt: The Man Behind the Myth,” a documentary about the life of Walt Disney. 

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Claim:

In June 2020, activists called for Dick Van Dyke to be digitally removed from “Mary Poppins” due to the actor’s use of blackface.

Rating:

On Feb. 22, 2020, the Southend News Network published an article saying that activists were calling for the removal of actor Dick Van Dyke from the movie “Mary Poppins” due to Van Dyke’s use of “blackface”: 

Dick Van Dyke Condemned Over ‘Blackface’ Appearance In Mary Poppins

There have been calls for the actor Dick Van Dyke to be digitally edited out of the 1964 Disney Movie Mary Poppins after multiple people noticed that he had applied ‘blackface’ makeup for the role of Bert, the chimney sweep and general Jack of all trades.

But this item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:

Southend News Network was originally started in October 2015 with no real aims or objectives in mind other than to add a satirical/spoof-like touch to issues that people are passionate about in Southend On Sea. Above all else, SNN is all about having the occasional ‘dig’ at the powers that be, as well a slightly bigger and more frequent ‘dig’ at certain elements of local media!

This story went viral in June 2020 as the U.S. saw widespread protests against racial injustice and police brutality. As these protests continued, a number of companies issued statements in support of Black Lives Matter, and some started to wrestle with past racist content they may have produced or spread. HBO Max, for instance, briefly pulled “Gone With The Wind” to add a disclaimer about how the movie portrayed slavery. Netflix also removed content that featured characters done up in blackface.  

While there were some changes to movies and television shows in June 2020 due to their use of blackface or other racist stereotypes, there have not been any widespread efforts to remove Van Dyke from “Mary Poppins.” One reason for this may be because Van Dyke’s character’s face is covered in soot, and this is not — at least not explicitly — a racist caricature:

While this rumor originated from a satire website, and there have not been a widespread calls to have Van Dyke removed from “Mary Poppins,” some academics have labeled this scene problematic for being a “parody of black menace:”

“We’re in on the joke, such as it is: these aren’t really black Africans; they’re grinning white dancers in blackface. It’s a parody of black menace; it’s even posted on a white nationalist website as evidence of the film’s racial hierarchy.”

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

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In the run-up to a rare open-air hearing on the city’s drug crisis, San Francisco authorities cleared and swept United Nations Plaza — normally a hotspot for drug use and petty crime — to set the stage for an unusual open-air hearing on the city’s drug crisis to prepare crisis.

Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, a group of more than two dozen people were busy street selling and using drugs near the east side of the square. An Urban Alchemy employee approached the crowd and told them they would have to move soon because the mayor was coming.

City worker Mason Newt pressure washers the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco ahead of a board of directors hearing scheduled for the area later Tuesday. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard

The open-air oversight panel hearing — likely the first of its kind in the panel’s history — required the coordination of multiple departments and agencies working together to shoo away the plaza’s ordinary residents and disrupt the typical daily flow of drug sales and use.

Throughout the day, workers from Urban Alchemy and employees from the BART Police Department and the Recreation and Parks Department were regularly seen roaming the area while workers from the Public Works Department cleaned up the surrounding sidewalks.

“I’ll clean it up for the mayor,” said a public works sanitation worker, who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.

In addition to the cleaners, the city spent $4,650 on media services and logistics to organize a broadcast of the hearing — all for a question-and-answer session that typically takes between 15 and 20 minutes of the board’s time .

United Nations Square appeared quiet just after noon on Tuesday, hours before the mayor and bosses began the scheduled question-and-answer session on the city’s drug crisis. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

The mayor is expected to answer questions from CEO Aaron Peskin and others about the drug crisis; The Board will then take a break and meet at City Hall for the remainder of the session.

On Monday, Peskin sent a letter outlining his demands on Breed.

In the letter, Peskin called on the mayor to “establish a permanent emergency operations center that will coordinate on a daily basis all the many agencies and departments that can handle this crisis,” and called on her to coordinate multiple parties involved in stopping the public drug trade involved .

On Tuesday, the Department of Emergency Management confirmed a pilot program planned as part of Breed’s upcoming budget proposal that could allow enforcement of outdoor drug use laws.

City Hall employees place the board’s tablecloths on a table in front of the federal office building at UN Plaza. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard

About two hours before the mayor’s arrival, the UN Plaza was unusually quiet. The clean-up crews are gone and only a few people walked around without anyone visibly taking drugs. Just before 1 p.m., workers cordoned off an area in front of a federal office building at UN Plaza while others set up tables and chairs.

On Natoma and Minna streets near Seventh Street and in front of the San Francisco Federal Building, several people said they were evicted from the UN Plaza around 7 a.m. However, they said they knew nothing about the mayor’s appearance.

“I don’t know that the arrival of the mayor would change anything,” said Trevor Pearsoa. “They always move us around like this.”

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