Cause for change: lessons for Black liberation

• Date: 26 September 2023
• Pages: 230-242
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2023-0044
• Published date: 26 September 2023
• Author: Christopher Stuart Taylor

Cause for change: lessons

for Black liberation

Christopher Stuart Taylor

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

Abstract

Purpose –Using the examples of Grenadian-born Jean Augustine, the first Black Member of Parliament in

Canada, and Barbados’Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the piece argues that the ethos of the Emigrant

Ambassador—the collective empowerment of Black feminism, liberation, and radicalism—ushered in a new

era for change abroad and in Canada, as transnational and international change was driven by Black women

from the West Indies.

Design/methodology/approach –The author used historical research and social science theoretical

frameworks to formulate conclusions, lessons learnt and steps forward for current equity, diversity and

inclusion (EDI) practitioners.

Findings –Black women born in the West Indies in the mid-twentieth century were the catalysts for social

justice movements in the 2010 and 2020s. Many methods used for social change in the twentieth century are

applicable in the 2020s and beyond.

Research limitations/implications –Research is focused on Canadian and West Indian relations but will

have implications for those across the British Commonwealth.

Practical implications –Practitioners and students of EDI will have a new tool on how to approach and

confront anti-Black racism, particularly after May 25, 2020.

Social implications –This article provides opportunities to support the dwindling efforts of anti-racism to

support the lives of Black people across the Black Atlantic.

Originality/value –This is an original article built on previous scholarship of the author.

Keywords Gender, Women, Equal opportunities, Black people, Racial discrimination, Anti-Black racism

Paper type Viewpoint

This piece, written in the haze and malaise of the “Negro-Apocalypse,”the months following

the receding tide of the “racial awakening”wave of the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020,

positions mid-twentieth century migratory Black West Indian women as foundational and

diachronic change agents (Rai, 2022). The neglected history of these Emigrant Ambassadors

contributed to the Militant Millennial mobilization characterized by movements such as

Black Lives Matter of the 2010s and 2020s and Barbados’removal of the British Monarchy in

2021. I, a cishet able-bodied second-generation Black Canadian man, argue that the Militant

Millennial, or Millennial Militancy, is the unapologetic collective of young liberators of the

2010s and 2020s whose activism challenges historic, systemic, structural and institutional

anti-Black racism.

The argument and the concept of the Emigrant Ambassador complement the reflections

of Mandeep Rai’s“Female leadership is good for the world. Just look at Barbados.”Rai states

women leaders of Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Liberia and others of

the “developing world”are “courageously carving a path and are a brilliant example to the

world.”Through a gendered binary of “woman leadership”qualities, Rai argues that “these

women are finding solutions to pressing global challenges with purpose, passion and people

at the fore, and are improving the lives of their communities through harnessing the very

qualities that make female leaders so successful”(Rai, 2022)[1]. Black feminism and Black

Canadian feminism are the theoretical paradigms of this article, framing the activism of

Emigrant Ambassadors. Patricia Hill Collins defined Black feminism “as activism that is

grounded in women’s common histories, such as colonialism and slavery, and passed on

through practices that have improved the lives of their communities”(Wane, 2002, p. 41).

Wane (2002) argued that the emancipation and liberation are core features of Black feminisms

EDI

43,2

230

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 1 February 2023

Revised 26 July 2023

Accepted 7 September 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 2, 2024

pp. 230-242

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2023-0044