Seeing white

It occurred to me during a discussion with a colleague just now that, although I've been processing my privilege for quite some time, the idea of explicitly considering whiteness is a fairly recent development for me.  Cognitively I know that I'm white, but I have rarely thought deeply about what that actually means for how I'm able to navigate the world as a result.  

The authors of "Decolonizing Educational Relationships" (2023) invite us to identify representations of whiteness in our day to day lives so we can begin to better understand it in the context of who is implicitly welcomed to public spaces and who is excluded.  One of the tasks in this activity is to tour an area where you live or work and identify images of whiteness.  So, I spent my lunch hour taking a wander across the campus where I work, Royal Roads University.   

I must begin by stating that this is not a critique of Royal Roads University, but merely an observation of what is.  Most other Canadian university campuses are remarkably similar.  I think our leadership team at RRU would be the first to acknowledge that our campus is replete with images of whiteness and to critically engage with the reasons why.  

With that said, let's take a look at the image posted here.  It was taken from a room called the Quarterdeck; the name is carry-over from the university's military history and made in reference to the "raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship" (Wikipedia).  There is an narrative of whiteness in the name of the room alone.  On the walls of the Quarterdeck are paintings of past university chancellors, all white males but for one white female.  You likely couldn't get more literal with these images of whiteness.  Looking west out the window of the Quarterdeck, you'll see several stained glass panels reminiscent of a Catholic church, and Hatley castle beyond that.  Yep, it's proper castle built by settler and industrialist James Dunsmir in 1908 (I'll tackle the extractive colonialism that Dunsmir was complicit in later). All of these things--the castle, the military history, and the white institutional governance--are tied up in the history of the university and create a collective narrative about who is welcomed to the space.  

In addition to whiteness there is a parallel message here about gender, one that I would wager you'd find embedded in every university in North America. White maleness is celebrated in the very infrastructure and aesthetic of the institution. Importantly, I also saw no images or imagery related to Indigenous people or people of color.  While I have long been aware of the male-dominated ethos of higher education, I have never been quite so tuned into to the whiteness exuded by our university walls.  

I have always loved universities.  While I have experienced misogyny throughout my career, I have consistently felt at home on university campuses.  I realize now that this is due to my colonized thinking, but also (or maybe more-so) to my whiteness.  I belong here, and there are plentiful messages to affirm the claim that I am welcome.  My observation of the deeply rooted whiteness at my university has also prompted me to shift my thinking about why others don't love this place as much as I do.  It is about so much more than representation.  A university campus must feel like an alien landscape to many people who come here.  A full third of the Canadian population is not white--what are we doing to counteract our representations of whiteness for these folks?