Austin Uzama PhD.
May 23, 2021
I was born in Nigeria. I grew up on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. My dad sent me to Japan as an exchange student in the early 80s, and I ended up staying there until the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that affected Fukushima Nuclear plant. Professionally, I am an East Asian researcher, Small Medium Scale Business & Education Consultant 
During my first visit to UBC as a visiting scholar in 2009, I was very happy to hear how students, staffs, and faculties openly discussed racism on and off campus. Because this was very different from Japan. There has been lots of initiatives going on in UBC since the arrival of President Santa Ono. Nevertheless, black people in UBC need more than just talking and sympathy. As an alumnus, I felt the community’s love. I heard all the shout outs. I saw how students, staffs, and faculties were all standing with black students and staffs to fight the systematic racism on Vancouver campus. To this day, I continue to read articles and the initiatives about black awareness and inclusion on campus. I thank all these persons for helping us (blacks) carry the signs on the street, joining us to protect Black lives Matters.
However, I personally think Blacks in UBC and Canada in general, do not need sympathy. All we need, is equality and inclusion. A truly diverse campus. An equal playing field, no more moving the goal post during the game.
To have black equality on UBC campuses and fight systematic racism, the best strategy is to admit more black students, employ more black staffs and faculties across all the faculties and introduce a Black studies program. My discussion with a faculty friend of mine who told me, he came to UBC in July 1995, but has never worked or collaborated with any Black faculty. Because according to him, Black academics hardly conduct research in medicine.
One thing that came to my mind was, this has to change. We need more black faculties. UBC needs Black studies major program where black faculties and students can freely interact and share knowledge about the black race within UBC research. As a Convocation senator, who represent UBC alumni in the Vancouver Senate. In February this year, I introduced the following motion;
- That the Senate recommend to the Board of Governors that the University provide funding to hire at least 10 to 15 Black academics to be spread across all faculties and that this hiring should be coordinated by the Provost’s Office;
- That in addition to expansion of awards to be made available to Black Canadian students, the University develop annual awards (fully covering tuition & accommodation) for between 10 – 15 students specifically targeting only Black International students;
- That the Senate refer the following matter to the Faculty of Arts for review, encourage the Faculty to consult with the Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence, and direct the Faculty to report back to Senate by May 2021 with its views: an expansion of African Studies to include on a multi-disciplinary, west coast Black Studies Initiative across the UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses.
Finally, my hopes after passing the Black Inclusion motion in the UBC Vancouver senate is that I will one day see a university that is not only diverse with all races equally represented on campus, but a university community that includes black management staffs, black faculties, staffs, and students. As an alumnus and a member of the senate, I am ready to work with the school’s management and all the initiatives presently going on in the community and will continue to make the case for black inclusion and equality both on and off UBC campus simply because I strongly believe there is no black, brown, white, or yellow race. There is only one race – Human Race.
Google Scholar:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c7w4jF4AAAAJ&hl=en
Academia:
https://independent.academia.edu/AustinUzama
Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Austin_Uzama2
