The Epistemology of the Encounter: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Racism for Social Justice and International Education

Informed by a phenomenological methodology, this paper employs the works of Husserl and Fanon to analyze the lived experience of racism in Canada, as articulated through anecdotes as an international student. The experience ranges from overt dehumanization and casual slurs to systemic neglect and cultural exclusion. This article reflects on these experiences, not as a complaint, but as a pedagogical moment to examine how to tackle issues of social and racial justice and their internalization. The article argues that these encounters are not isolated to Canada, but a global experience of racialized people. Understanding and addressing this issue is crucial for academics, researchers, and students. Through these encounters, the article exposes the systemic, historical, and epistemological failures inherent in our social, family, and educational structures, and demonstrates that racism operates as a learned behaviour, a manifestation of a historico-racial schema, and a form of cultural and structural violence. The paper concludes that social justice and international education must move beyond a pedagogy of tolerance toward a decolonial, transformative praxis, inspired by Freirean conscientization. Such a reorientation is imperative to dismantle the ideologies that produce race and to forge a global humanity where, as Kant posits, individuals are treated as ends in themselves.Keywords: Phenomenology, Racism, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Social Justice Education, International Education, Lived Experience, Conscientization.