âWe often lump groups together when there is a lot of diversity within those groups.â
Jason Chatman, a psychologist and faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, is speaking about the tendency for broader society to perceive people of African descent, as well as other minority populations, as members of a single homogenous group.
As Dr. Chatman points out, this lens isnât merely reductive â itâs simply not true.
âNova Scotia has the oldest population of black people in Canada,â he says. âItâs old but itâs also very diverse, because thereâve been these waves of people of African descent who have moved to Nova Scotia.
âPaying homage to that is important.â
Sharing stories
Paying homage to the variety of identities within the African-Canadian communities is Dr. Chatmanâs motivation for sharing his own perspective at African People in Halifax: Embracing Our Diversity, an event hosted by the Black Student Advising Centre (BSAC) on Tuesday, February 7, in room 307 of the ±«Óătv Student Union Building. He is one of three speakers who will tell stories about their individual identities and the impact these identities have had on their lives.
As a biracial man, Dr. Chatman will speak to how his connection to two ethnic heritages has often left him feeling disconnected from both.
âBeing biracial, you kind of grow up outside of these two groups and youâre never really a part of one or the other,â says Dr. Chatman, who grew up in a small Ontario town with his mother, who is white. âI think because of that there were some unique challengesâ.
âI had teachers who would touch my hair and would always be very interested in my hair. And they werenât touching anyone elseâs hair but mine. My mom, despite her great efforts, really just wasnât equipped to deal with some of those things.â
Dr. Chatman describes his relationship to his biracial identity as an evolving process. âGrowing up, I identified as black. Thatâs the way society saw me and to a large extent thatâs how I saw myself. It wasnât until we had another Black student in my class who was not biracial that I had to start to make some changes in how I viewed myself, because my âblacknessâ came into question by people.
âI was âblackâ until Dwayne showed up,â laughs Dr. Chatman. âAnd then people were like, âwhatâs going on? Are you still black?ââ
Context and history
In addition to telling stories about searching for his identity in the confusion of adolescence, Dr. Chatman also plans to discuss biracial history in contexts ranging from slavery to interracial relationships to his own work as a psychologist.
âIn my work, I meet a lot of youth who struggle with their identity because they have not had any contact with their black relatives,â says Dr. Chatman, who was able to maintain a connection with his father as he grew up.
âDuring adolescence, we all try to figure out our place in the world, our identity. If youâre biracial thatâs quite difficult because youâve got all these different elements of your identity, but when you look at the media or you look at history, thereâs very little about us.â
Dr. Chatman will be joined by fellow speakers Robert Wright, a social worker and member of Halifaxâs LGBTQ+ community, and artist Tyler Simmonds, who will discuss his battles with depression and anxiety.
âTalking about identity is not what we usually talk about as Black people in general, so I felt that this was an opportunity to do that,â says Oluronke Taiwo, the director of the Black Student Advising Centre  and the organizer of Tuesdayâs event.
âI hope our audience will take away that itâs okay to be proud of whatever identity you belong to, whether youâre black or biracial or LGBTQ+ or going through a mental health situation, and that they will leave with strategies to more fully embrace diversity as African people.â
"African People In Halifax: Embracing Our Diversity" takes place Tuesday, February 7 at 6 p.m. in room 307 of the Student Union Building. For more African Heritage Month activities in February, visit Dal's African Heritage Month webpage.