Article content

The director of Ryerson University’s School of Social Work has stepped down amid a hue and cry that he committed “a violent act of anti-Blackness, misogyny and misogynoir (a newish term for misogyny directed at black women)” by walking out of an anti-racism meeting last month.

Dr. Henry Parada will remain at the school as a teacher and researcher, says a recent email to students from Dr. Lisa Barnoff, dean of the faculty of community services that includes social work.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Christie Blatchford: Incident behind Ryerson anti-racism protests hardly black and white Back to video

The short email is dated Nov. 16.

But the incident which sparked the outcry and appears to have led to Parada’s quitting the director’s job occurred Oct. 27 on the downtown Toronto university campus.

According to the Black Liberation Collective Ryerson branch, Parada walked out of the meeting “at a time when Black folks were giving praise to a young Black woman professor at a critical and vulnerable time …”

According to several screeds on the BLC Facebook page, his actions “perpetrate anti-Black racism … indicated … you do not value anti-Black racism scholarship, Black women, Black educators or education, Black experience, Black life and ultimately Black students…. You chose to violently disrupt the speaker and the space.”