by Hannah Tan
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,” a quote magnificently formulated by Martin Luther King Jr.—one of the most fervent and devoted civil rights activists of his time—and squarely exemplified by the Scholar Strike movement that has proliferated exponentially in colleges and universities in the United States throughout the two-day event on the 8th and 9th of September.
A strike, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is defined as employees’ steadfast refusal to work as a form of an organized protest in an attempt to obtain particular concessions from their employers. Having been categorized as a form of peaceful demonstration along with boycotts, sanctions, and mass civil disobedience, strikes have been rife and have been playing a notable, if not pivotal, role ever since the struggle for racial equity embarked on its endless and desolate journey.
One of the most prominent strikes during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s was the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike in Memphis, where African American sanitation workers were skimping by with the minimum wage then of 65 cents per hour for their filthy, grueling, yet necessary labor each day of hauling trash. Their fuelling rage was pushed to the precipice following the government’s resolute denial to compensate the families of two dead sanitation workers who were horridly killed on the job due to the malfunctioning of the garbage truck. Filled with teeming disgust, many black sanitation workers walked out of their jobs and went on a strike that preceded a march led by Martin Luther King Jr. as well as his last speech in Memphis, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, before his tragic death. His death, however, did not deflate the workers’ resolution to seek economic justice but rather acted as the milestone in their struggle that intensified their commitment. Nearly two weeks later, their relentless effort finally paid off when the city agreed to grant raises to African American employees and recognize the workers’ union.
Throughout the struggle of African Americans for justice and equality, numerous, if not countless strikes have taken place to reach a compromise between the white-supremacist government and the blacks desperately endeavoring for the most basic human rights that so many of us take for granted before the gruesome and thoroughly unjust incident of George Floyd that rocked the world, or who knows? Maybe some of us are still refusing to acknowledge the plague in our justice system that has resurfaced after the thin veil of invisibility draping over it has been stripped bare following the mounting cases of police brutality in this year of 2020, or worse still, we do recognize it, but we are being silent about it; not taking any action against it; not voicing up and using our privilege to help the under-privileged; not standing up and being their allies; not regarding it as our responsibility to understand them and trying to make a change, however small, to bring equity a step closer to the blacks, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).
On the 9th and 10th of September, however, a momentous movement—Scholar Strike, has etched its potent existence on the hefty book of modern history. A labor action inspired by the WNBA and NBA strike in August and led by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, Anthea Butler, as well as co-organized by Kevin Gannin, a professor of History at Grand View University, Scholar Strike is both an action and a teach-in where personnel and students from the higher education sector step away from their daily routine for two days and fill the empty hours by participating in educational events designed to raise awareness of both public and university faculty and prompt action against the widespread racism, brutal policing, mass incarceration and other upshots of racial discrimination sprouting across the so-called “Land of Freedom”.
When I first came across the hashtag “Scholarstrike”, I remember my mind starting to reel and was thinking if it connotes the term “scholars strike”, as in the college and university students in the U.S.A. have seen enough of the absurd actions taken against the minorities and their voiceless, despondent cries for help and justice, thus deciding to strike out and make a stand against the preposterous system, no matter how longevous or how the human civilization, in fact, has been built upon this hideous approach; or if it is just the sole literal meaning of a “scholar strike” where students refrain from their countless daily duties as a formation of our world’s future hope and leaders to focus public’s attention on the critical struggle of suppressed races that has not been alleviated even in the alleged avant-garde 21st century which embraces change and levels up acceptance and tolerance. After learning that it is after all the latter implication, it struck me that the scholar strike can be comprehended in two routes that eventually leads down to the same destination and aim.
To achieve this goal, or rather, take a stride closer to this goal, students from universities and colleges all over the U.S.A has shown great if not, fervent response to the movement. According to the Inside Higher Ed, although a small number of academic institutions have publicly advocated the strike, there seemed to be little to no objections among school authorities for their students to excuse themselves from their studies and take part in the movement. Several professional associations like the American Sociological Association have voiced out that they supported sociologist participants and efforts to “make a collective stand against police violence (particularly against communities of color) in the U.S.”
On these two distinctive days where racism in campuses was laid bare and discussed thoughtfully among youths and faculty instead of continuing to bury these execrable experiences for fear that they would be jeered at or dismissed recklessly, an approximate number of 5000 scholars, administrations, and professors in the higher education signed up and substituted their normal education with a whole new and different form of enlightenment where for once, others are the nucleus of the sessions and they are there to understand, to learn and to think from another perspective.
However, the factor that sets this scholar strike apart from previous conventional strikes is that it is not entirely focused on acquiring concessions as the end result but rather, is more gravitated towards participants leaving the sessions at the end of the two days more informed and aware than ever. Just like how when we fast, we should do so in a comprehensive way where we abstain from food and use our mealtime to reflect on the blessing that has been conferred upon us that not everyone has the honor to seize. If we just fast for the sake of fasting, then it shouldn’t be labeled as fasting but mere weight loss. Similarly, if the scholars decided to go on the strike and did not by any means try to participate in the teach-ins or discussions, then that would undoubtedly be categorized as playing truant as they did not do anything to improve the standing of the minorities in society.
Several weeks after Butler’s infamous tweet reading “I would be down as a professor to follow the NBA and Strike for a few days to protest police violence in America” was posted, innumerable professors from colleges and universities showed their support for this program by posting short educational videos on the Scholar Strike official Youtube channel with topics such as Black Theology and Black Lives Matter, The Power of the Stories We Tell, Malcolm X Decolonise America, Bellinger Girard Police, etc. Others sought ways to contribute to the movement including replacing scheduled classes with private Zoom discussions as well as pre-planned readings and reflections. The pandemic, however, has severely restricted most of the untenured faculty members from engaging fully in the strike, but each attempt, no matter how small, is significant in bringing about critical changes to and impact on the movement to end anti-Black, racist, and colonial police brutality.
In order to highlight the intensifying police brutality in its own country, Canadian scholars have also emulated the movement in the U.S.A. and have initiated their own Scholar Strike on the same day. However, very few of us are actually aware of Canada’s state-sanctioned racism despite D’Andre Campbell, Rodney Levi, Ejaz Choudry, Chantel Moore’s police shootings, maiming, and murder. After these incredulous happenings that have been on the rise in recent months, Canadian scholars are outraged at the impetuous actions of their country’s law enforcers that have managed to slip by uncriticized and unscathed. They believed that their shared work to resist anti-Black violence follows from the intellectual, emotional, and creative labors of Black intellectuals, activists, scientists, artists, designers, writers, poets, curators, filmmakers, and many more who have contributed to and shaped the society that we live in now.
No matter how sophisticated one establishment presents itself, systemic violence is still standing in the way of racial justice and peace. Even in places that seem as ethical as reputable universities, many Black, Indigenous, and racialized employees are precariously hired, either on part-time or short-term contracts. The few that have been employed full-time found it difficult to remain in their respective employment due to institutional racism and other forms of violence in the universities.
Throughout the two days of the strike, a keynote address was given by journalist and activist Desmond Cole and cross-campus digital teach-ins have been held to bring together activists, artists, and scholars from York University, University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and OCAD University. Several institutions took a step further to take part in the movement by targeting certain segregational issues that are entrenched in their campuses. For instance, the University of Toronto has brought the campus cops matter to the table and has discussed ways to resolve it.
An ideal example of how humanity can come together and liberate each other, this historic two-day long movement has indeed gone to great measures to put an absolute halt on systemic racism and violence that the vulnerable minorities have been suspended to. Now that thousands upon thousands of scholars have made their stand, isn’t it time for you to make yours as well?