Every February, Canadians are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present.

Learn more about Black History Month in Canada.

Please join us as we celebrate Black History Month at Brandon University!

Black History Month 2024

Welcome to Black History Month 2024! This is a time we honour the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities in February, and forever!

We have three events planned this month, and we kick off the month with BUSU’s Renaissance Ball.

Renaissance World Tour themed Ball hosted by BUSU and the Racialized Collective:

• Date: January 27th
• Time: 10pm to 2am
• Venue: Bailey’s Cafe

Tickets: $15 (available at the BUSU office or Cafe do Good, 1502 Rosser Ave)

Theme: Silver/Chrome and Black (Participation optional)

Event Highlights: join us for the Renaissance World Tour themed Ball which is our special celebration in honor of Black History Month, aiming to pay tribute to the rich heritage of Black history and acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the LGBTTQ* community.

Special performance by the House of Hex.

Categories for Public Participation: Vogue, Runway, Sex Siren, Lip Synch, Best Dressed, Renaissance, more information regarding the categories can be found on our Instagram (@Racialized_collective)

• • •

Our second event will take place on Thursday, February 15 from 5pm-8pm in the Mingling Area at Bailey’s. We will have special guest presenters Akech Mayuom and Sheika Henry to speak on our theme of Black Mental Health & Black Excellence. Bailey’s will be running drink and food specials, and there will be appetizers and drinks for everyone to share for free (food was determined through a survey of students indicating their favourite dishes!) After this, let’s have fun for our mental health, and come together to play.  We will play traditional board games, hopscotch, skip rope, and of course dominos and cards.

• Date: February 15, 2024
• Time: 5pm to 8pm
• Venue: Bailey’s Cafe
• Admission: Free
• Theme: Black Mental Health & Black Excellence

• • •

Finally, please join us on February 27 in the free slot from 12:40-1:30 in Clark Hall room 212 to hear Dr. Christopher Schneider’s presentation on Understanding Systemic Racism in Policing and the Failed Promise of Body Cameras. This timely presentation comes off the heels of the UofM International student who was shot and killed by Police.  https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/man-fatally-shot-by-winnipeg-police-was-international-student-lawyer-says-1.6707998

This presentation will provide an overview of the social and historical conditions that contributed to both the foundation and evolution of the structure of modern policing across North America to understand why it is Black and Indigenous persons who continue to remain disproportionally affected by police violence and brutality. Police body-worn cameras have been touted as a major police reform measure and a remedy to reduce police violence, among other efficacy claims. Talk of equipping police in Manitoba with body cameras is heating up again after police in Winnipeg shot and killed three people at the end of 2023, including Afolabi Stephen Opaso, a 19-year-old international university student originally from Nigeria. In response, the province has announced its willingness to support some of the costs associated with body cameras. The Brandon Police Service expects body cameras for its officers by late summer. The remainder of the presentation will detail the failed promise of body cameras and explain why it is likely a matter of time until police across the province are outfitted with the devices. The talk will conclude with some suggestions for community stakeholders concerning potential body-worn camera programs.

Christopher J. Schneider, PhD, is an award-winning professor of sociology at Brandon University. Dr. Schneider has published seven books and over 100 scholarly papers, opinion pieces, reviews, and essays. His research and publications have focused largely on information technologies and related changes to police work including having  published extensively on police body-worn cameras. A frequent contributor to media, his work has appeared in more than 625 news segments and reports including the New York Times.

• Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024
• Time: 12:40pm to 1:30pm
• Venue: CHO 212
• Admission: Free

Extend your learning

• Take the Implicit Association Test that confronts your own unconscious biases https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/canada/takeatest.html
• Take the Economic Policy Institute’s interactive website. Explore the connections between gender, ethnicity, age, education and income, and understand that income inequality was created: http://inequality.is/

Show your support on Zoom

Would you like to show your support for Black History Month? Use one of our Zoom backgrounds! Simply click on your preferred image to open it in your browser, then right-click and save it to your computer. Then you will be able to follow these instructions for changing your Zoom background.

NOTE: Most people have Zoom set to show a mirror-image of their video to themselves, which is the default setting because it appears more natural. The text will look reversed to you. However, the video is sent correctly to everyone else in the Zoom, and everyone else will see the text correctly.

Beyond history

The John E. Robbins Library has put together a Black History Month and Beyond guide, where you can find information about Black History in Canada, Podcasts, Videos and Anti-Racism Resources.

Scarborough Charter

While we focus on Black History Month during February, we must all commit to anti-racist actions every day and all year long. For example, BU is proud to be one of the institutions committed to anti-Black racism and Black inclusion as a founding signatory of the Scarborough Charter.

Additional celebrations

The Government of Canada has a wide variety of resources and celebrations for Black History Month.

Learn more

Contact Cheryl Fleming for further information at flemingc@brandonu.ca.