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• Piecing together some of the public details about his background and activities paints a picture that helps us appreciate the textured landscape of Black Canada today.
• Abel was born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrant parents and raised in Scarborough — a neighbourhood with diverse Black communities.
• When we zoom in to individual stories like Abel’s, we can appreciate the multifaceted nature of Black Canada and the connections between contemporary and historical processes and events.

Black Canadian histories

• Black Studies scholars Peter James Hudson and Aaron Kamugisha remind us that “despite Black Canada’s apparent marginality,” it exists and matters as it relates to our histories, cultures, ideas and politics as a country.
• The new edited volume Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History by history professors Michele A. Johnson and Funké Aladejebi underscores this point and demonstrates that we can trace Black people to every corner in Canada, across both space and time.
• There are many historic Black communities in Canada established by people brought by, fleeing and descended from the transatlantic slave trade, including Africville, a Black settlement in Nova Scotia.

New waves of immigration

• Demographics have shifted considerably, owing in large part to new waves and patterns in immigration trends.
• This is also shifting broader national demographics, as Africa is now the second largest source continent representing recent immigrants in Canada.

These migration patterns are more than footnotes in Black Canadian history. This diversity intersects with vastly different migration pathways and immigration statuses, class differences, unique cultural and linguistic influences, a multitude of religious traditions, as well as a variety of local and transnational social and political practices.

Diversity of Black experiences

• For example, experiences and insights coming from the Somali diaspora community in Etobicoke are likely different than long-established Black communities in Halifax.
• If we care to make Black communities more visible and amplify their voices and demands for change and belonging, it is critical we also tune into these diversity of experiences and perspectives.
• From an academic perspective, Black Studies in Canada also needs to make note of and engage with this diversity of experience.

Alpha Abebe has received funding from the the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for previous research that has informed this article.

• However, many issues in the history of Black Americans can get lost in a focus on well-known historical figures or other important events.
• Today, communities are using “restorative mapping” as a way to tell stories of Black Americans.

Maps as a visual storytelling technique

• While most people think of maps as a useful tool to get from point A to point B, or use maps to look up places or plan trips, the reality is all maps tell stories.
• Like many marginalized groups, Black people have used maps as a visual story-telling technique for “talking back” against their oppression.
• They have also used maps for enlivening and giving dignity to Black experiences and histories.
• The SNCC research department’s maps and research on racism played a pivotal role in planning civil rights protests.

Maps for restorative justice

• Restorative mapping is an important part of the Living Black Atlas: It helps bring visibility to Black experiences that have been marginalized or forgotten.
• An important example of restorative mapping work comes from the Honey Pot Performance, a collective of Black feminists who helped create the Chicago Black Social Culture Map, or the CBSCM.

While engaging Black Americans in the effort, the CBSCM map tells the story of Chicago through a series of artistic movements that highlight African Americans’ connection with the city. After years of gentrification and urban renewal programs that displaced Black people from the city, this project is helping remember those neighborhoods digitally. It is also inviting a broader discussion about the history of Black Chicago.

Restoring a sense of place

• This connects with the broader restorative justice movement that seeks to address historic wrongs by documenting past and present injustices through perspectives that are often ignored or forgotten.
• Thus, the map helps highlight how this geography is still present in Chicago in archives and people’s memories.
• Through this digital representation of Black Chicagoans’ deep cultural roots in the city, the mapping aims to restore a sense of place.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• The portion of mortgaged homes that was equity-rich in the fourth quarter of 2023 decreased from 47.4 percent in the third quarter of 2023, marking the second straight quarterly decline.
• The latest figure also was down from 48 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
• The portion of mortgaged homes considered seriously underwater rose nationwide from one in 40 during the third quarter of 2023 to one in 38 during the fourth quarter.
• Seventeen of the 20 counties with the smallest share of equity-rich homes in the fourth quarter of 2023 were in the South.

• They could rapidly tighten monetary policy at the risk of fuelling financial distress after years of ultra-low interest rates and balance sheet expansion.
• Quantifying financial stability trade-offs therefore requires a way to gauge the three-way interaction between monetary policy, financial stability conditions and tail risks to the economy.