The advocacy group highlights the difficulty of advocating on the university’s terms
Photo via socccollective.com.
In February, UVic’s Students of Colour Collective (SOCC) backed out of a social media takeover for the university’s Instagram account after UVic requested that a segment of SOCC’s provided content be removed — or that the Reel be re-recorded — because it went against UVic’s Instagram Takeover Guidelines.
On March 22, SOCC issued a statement via their own Instagram identifying the incident as an issue of performative allyship and tokenization. According to SOCC, UVic requested that the content they created for the takeover be edited to remove discussion of Black and Palestinian liberation, and as such, SOCC chose to back out of the Instagram deal altogether.
In their statement, SOCC says that the takeover was planned in light of February being Black History Month, and it was an opportunity for the collective to “speak to the significance of [the] month” and also share SOCC with the student community.
As for the reason why the Reel wasn’t posted, the statement continues, “SOCC drew connections between the history of resistance to colonialism and imperialism that exists within both Black and Palestinian communities.”
A University of Victoria spokesperson says, in an email to the Martlet, that SOCC was asked to remove a one-minute and 14-second segment of their Reel because they violated previously agreed-upon guidelines for university social media takeovers as “(geo)political” content must be pre-approved for posting.
According to the UVic spokesperson, SOCC had agreed to these guidelines, but their content submission did not comply. SOCC identifies the segment in question as “discussing Black and Palestinian resistance and strength.”
On the morning of the takeover, SOCC received an email from UVic’s associate director of public affairs that read, “UVic is home to students, staff and faculty with family, cultural and personal ties to the region. We have a responsibility to care for all members of our community — including for those on both sides of this conflict. … As such, unfortunately, we cannot share [Redacted]’s statements on Palestine on our central channel.”
The university suggested three alternatives:
- That the segment in question be trimmed;
- That the segment in question be removed;
- That SOCC re-record their reel for the agreed-upon day or any other day in the future.
Because SOCC has chosen not to share the Reel, the exact content of the segment in question is unknown. A SOCC spokesperson tells the Martlet in a written statement that this is because it is important for SOCC to prevent the singling out of the collective member who was speaking in the video. They have no current plans to release the Reel.
Besides, for SOCC, there is a larger significance to this incident than the specifics of what was said in the Reel. “This experience of being invited to engage for a particular commemoration/significant date but having our engagement policed/controlled by the institution is emblematic of the history and modern day practice of how colonialism enacts assimilation,” says an emailed statement from a representative.
The collective’s Instagram statement communicates the same sentiment: “This tokenization asks us to be there but only on their terms.”
In their email to the Martlet, the UVic spokesperson is clear that the university does not censor its advocacy groups or any of its social media channels, and supports SOCC’s freedom of expression — and the freedom of expression of all students — to post any content on their collective or individual social media pages. But, they add, “the institutional social media channels are not always the right place for all content that is submitted.”
SOCC was paid in full the originally agreed-upon amount for the takeover, despite the fact that it was not posted. But, according to a SOCC representative, UVic did not engage with their offer to collaborate should UVic “change their stance on Palestine/posting ‘political’ matters.” The university declined to comment on this matter.
A UVic spokesperson also declined to comment on SOCC’s comments that the university is “performative” in its decolonial and reconciliation efforts toward Indigenous peoples of Canada “when they refuse to actively take a stand against the colonization of Palestine.”
UVic maintains that their primary focus is the needs of their community — including the safety, security, and support of all community members. When asked if they plan to change their policies regarding the sharing of “political” content, a spokesperson declined to comment, but said that they will review their takeover policies to ensure the explicit clarity of their expectations.
In the meantime, SOCC hopes for accountability from UVic in “the way they treated SOCC” in this interaction, and they maintain that “if we act together we can find strength in the collective and support each other if we face further harm and suppression by institutional bodies, our employers, and others in power.”
