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Critical and Radical Social Work • vol 10 • no 2 • 297–318 • © Policy Press 2022
Print ISSN 2049-8608 • Online ISSN 2049-8675 • https://doi.org/10.1332/204986021X16530491997004
Accepted for publication 25 May 2022 • First published online 27 June 2022
research article
‘We want our own data!’: building Black
community accountability in the collection of
health data using a Black emancipatory action
research approach
Alicia Boatswain-Kyte
1
, alicia.kyte@mcgill.ca
Shari Brotman, shari.brotman@mcgill.ca
McGill University, Canada
Tiffany Callender, tiffany@facecoalition.com
Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE), Canada
Barbara Dejean, barbara.dejean@mcgill.ca
Jill Hanley, jill.hanley@mcgill.ca
Nabeela Jivraj, nabeela.jivraj@mcgill.ca
McGill University, Canada
Thierry Lindor, tlindor@infuenceorbis.com
Infuence Orbis, Canada
Jennifer Moran, jmoran@cdnbca.org
Cote-des-Neiges Black Community Association (CDNBCA), Canada
Sean Muir, sean@infuenceorbis.com
Dinesh Puspparajah, dinesh@infuenceorbis.com
Infuence Orbis, Canada
Community accountability is a model through which to redress anti-Black racism in health care
and to create community-based participatory research about the health of Black Canadians. This
article provides a case example of a study undertaken by a Black community collective in Quebec
made up of researchers, activists, service providers, business leaders and their allies who sought
community accountability in making visible the impact of COVID-19 on local Black communities.
The principles articulated within the Black emancipatory action research approach (Akom, 2011) are
used to ground an analysis of our research-activist process in order to illuminate how knowledge
gained through the collection of data can be used to help inform Black communities about the
realities, needs and concerns of their members, to advocate for rights and entitlements, and to
work towards community accountability in research that empowers Black communities, both in
Quebec and elsewhere.
SPECIAL ISSUE • Black Lives Matter
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