An Important Story About Demanding Equity and Justice from a Historically White University Institution
In the summer, as I thought about wearing traditional Filipino garments and cultural items to my fall convocation, I emailed the convocation team at my school to seek their approval to wear these items. I was aware of the school’s rigid protocols and policies prohibiting the use of cultural items at the ceremony but I reached out as a courtesy. I did not want to cause a fuss at the ceremony.
When I emailed the convocation team, they swiftly denied my request and provided little explanation. I cited my master’s research focussing on Filipino diasporic community music studies and how my graduation stole would help to celebrate my academic achievement and Filipino-Canadian identity. Though they empathized with my research interests and plea, they stated “It is not official policy of the university for cultural items to be worn at the ceremony.”
I took my issue to the Office of the President of the university and was referred to the Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. This VP advocated on my behalf to the convocation team. The convocation team responded by saying “We appreciate this concern and will work toward amending policies to allow for cultural items to be worn in future convocations. However, due to our [slow, unnecessary, and colonial bureaucracies], we are unable to provide this change in time for your convocation ceremony.”
I cited that last year, students of Indigenous ancestry received a graduation stole from an Indigenous community member on stage at the ceremony. I was asking to bring my own. Where was a member of the Filipino-Canadian community on stage to greet me with a stole? Why was this historically marginalized group being given preferential treatment over the historically marginalized group that I am a part of? I later found out that the Association for Black Students would also be giving out stoles to Black students. Why are White administrators at my school uplifting two racialized groups and not recognizing that all racialized groups have faced injustice, and continue to face injustice, at the hands of White people?
In short, I now have preferential approval to wear my stole bearing the Philippine and Canadian flags. I suspect that my query to the President’s Office has made them aware of their own blind spots. How unnecessary it was to put up such a fight to defend oppressive institutional policies, historically implemented by their White, male predecessors, only to now give me singular, preferential treatment. An email should be sent to the entire graduating class declaring that all students are permitted to wear cultural items to their convocation, if they so choose, to honour their ancestry at this momentous event. The admin were not amenable to this suggestion.
No one is free until we are all free (Martin Luther King Jr.).
