Blog Post 9: What type of racisms specifically target Asians and people of the Middle East?

Hyunh (2014) discusses the notion and approach of studying Asians in Canada. The author states that the idea of 'Asians' as 'model minorities', and an 'invading' foreign labour force stereotypes those that are seen as Asian to their ability to work and privileging the group because of it. Minority groups are unable to speak out against racism because it is seen as the racialised group unable to solve their own issues, as multiculturalism in Canada is conceptualized as ideal and equitable. Hyunh also argues against Bonilla-Silva's (2009) tri-racial models of race relations, where some 'Asians' are 'honourary Whites', as it advantages some groups of Asians, while ignoring those who are not advantaged. Hyung also points out the higher-skilled workers are recruited from White, or White settler-states, while low skilled workers are brought in from Asia-Pacific region and Central and South America.

Philipupillai (2014) discusses the role of education in colonialism, through analyzing how children who were on the MV Sun Sea, a vessel that transported Tamil refugees across the Pacific Ocean to Burnaby, British Columbia. While children were under illegal detention, Teachers from Burnaby provided instruction on how to conduct themselves in Canadian society. The B.C. teachers magazine put a positive spin on the work done by their teachers, stating 'The children were housed with their mothers', when they will illegally detained, essentially normalizing violence against children and families by Canada through Canadian educators. The teachers were essentially patting themselves on the back for a job well done in 'improving' the behaviour, demeanour, and obedience of the children, as well as the positive reception from students and teachers (voiced by the teachers, not the children or their families). Philipupillai calls for anti-racist and anti-colonialist pedagogy to intervene to combat the notions of white supremacy and the white settler state, starting with community-oriented social and political change or actions in educational institutions.

Marcotte (2010) summarizes findings from a study on Muslim women in Canada – how Islam is manifested and how Canadian women's experiences are shaped. The author makes it evident that Canadian Muslim women must negotiate their religious, ethnic, gendered and national identities in the Canadian context while constructing their own identity. Full integration of Canadian Muslim women can be achieved through exchanges with Canadian Muslim men and Canadian society. Muslim communities and Muslim women are diverse, and to fight ignorance, we need to celebrate the diversity of all.

This week's readings made me think of a post I came across months ago: The Schrodinger's Immgirant; The one who lazes around on benefits whilst simultaneously stealing your job. It is important to understand my position in this topic – I came to Canada as a refugee with my family from Sri Lanka in 1989. Through my years of formal education I found myself losing my 'Tamil' identity, and forming one that was more inline with the West. Once I was about 19 or so, I began to realize how problematic this was and wanted to learn more about my roots. That being said, going through the education system as a student and with my limited experience as a classroom teachers, I find the system focuses on behaviour of non-White students, and on learning the colonizers' language, raising identity concerns. Tamil is the minority language in Sri Lanka, and one of the reasons for the crisis was language rights. The irony is that while fighting for language rights in Sri Lanka, Tamils arrived here, only to forget their language and lose the Tamil 'identity'. This is a result of colonization, where even in Sri Lanka, where the British ruled until 1948, English was seen as a means to success, and that has translated to the West, where to get ahead, we must learn the colonizers language and way to behave.

I agree with Hyunh and Marcotte that we cannot group all Asians together and all Muslims. We live in a world where each person has their unique experiences and ideals. We must celebrate the diversity. In response to this week's question, Asians and people of the Middle-East are targeted with racisms as the 'Other', those that have difficult integrating into 'Canadian' society, those that hold different values and ideologies, those who can only be employed in certain areas.

Question:

How can we, as anti-racist and anti-colonist scholars, help newcomers to Canada negotiate their linguistic and cultural identity?

References:

Huynh, K. (2014). To speak, know, live and feel 'Asian': For an anti-racist appraoch on the study of Asians in Canada, p. 149-161. In. Dei, G. & McDermott, M. (Eds). Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In search of strategies for transformative learning. New York: Springer.

Marcotte, R. (2010). Muslim women in Canada; Autonomy and empowerment, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 30(3), 357-373. DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2010.515816

Philipippillai, G.G. (2014). You make ourlives better: Education and the detention of Tamil refugee children, p.. 111-120. In. Dei, G. & McDermott, M. (Eds). Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In search of strategies for transformative learning. New York: Springer.

Blog Post 8: Is Multiculturalism Anti-Racism?

Yawching writes of a personal incident that occurred in multicultural and diverse Toronto, downtown, near the University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, bustling traffic, and countless people, and high end shops. The author uses the experience to showcase the realism of the city – where 'traditional Canadian' would never reveal their true thoughts in public spheres, but when given the opportunity to be anonymous, their true colours come out. Yawching writes that this may be a result of 'traditional Canadians' not having attention brought to their concerns. Rather than be politically correct, the author concludes that we have conversations and educate the population.

O'Connell argues that celebrations of rural whiteness sustains and approves of the frontier narratives, where the homogeneity of rural areas re-affirms the myth that White European settlers were the original inhabitants of Canada. The author states that even though ethnic groups exist, rural White communities feel they have limited knowledge or experiences in dealing with diversities. The article focuses on The Redneck Games, essentially a celebration of White, Canadian culture, and how it is used to further the Canadian settler myth. The term 'redneck', was used to identify White working class or poor people who have rural and southern U.S. roots. Those who support The Redneck Games state that the term 'redneck' is transformed into pride, by embracing, instead of rejecting the label. This celebration of White, Canadian values is linked to a hate-crime committed near Minto, and the assault of Asian-Canadian anglers.

Yawching shares an experience all to common in the urban Ontario (Toronto), while O'Connell researches the going-ons in rural Ontario (Minto). Many people would brush off Yawching's experience as a 'one-off' incident – a singular bad apple, in an otherwise good batch. I would argue otherwise. I was walking downtown Toronto with a friend an Asian friend a few years ago, when we got into a discussion on whether Toronto is truly diverse as it makes it seem. We discussed how very rarely, do we come across a diverse group of friends.

Reflecting on that conversation, allowed me to recall a conversation with a White friend of mine. I asked him if he wanted to come to the Caribana festival, to which he replied, every White person in the city leaves when Caribana roles around. My friend said it in jest, but there was a lot of truth to his words. For all it's diversity, Toronto has ethnic pockets in the city – Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Italy, Little Portugal, Little Jamaica, and so forth.

In rural Ontario, areas that were once just as diverse as urban settings, Whites have essentially driven out the other groups. While reading about The Redneck Games, I was at first intrigued – it sounded like any other cultural festival I've gone to: interesting games, some songs and dance, food, drink, and so forth. What irked me was how the games were looked at by attendees as “good clean Canadian fun”. I bolded and italicized the word 'Canadian'. What about bobbing for pig's feet is Canadian? I don't know any Canadians who toss toilets, or serenade people with their armpits. Maybe they should refer to it as 'good clean rural fun'.

I somewhat disagree with O'Connell drawing links from The Redneck Games to crime against minorities. I feel I should hate myself for saying this, but it felt like more of a random hate-crime, then a byproduct of The Redneck Games. Making connections like these implies there is hate-mongering going on at this event – and I cannot fathom a Klan rally taking place without something major happening. And the term 'redneck', I agree with the sentiment of attendees, where they felt proud of the term, taking it back for their own use, reminded me of Black people taking back the n-word.

Urban or rural, the same problem exist – non-Whites are yet to be accepted into 'Canadian' society. We are seen as stereotypes, the Other. Yawching and O'Connell state that we should not simply accept this, but hold conversations, challenge the histories we are taught, and become better educated on the issues. I think the best way to do this, is to learn about each other through actual multiculturalism. Go to various events celebrating different cultures, make friends and interact with people of various cultures, get different viewpoints, and most importantly, have an open mind. In this regards, I think that multiculturalism is anti-racism, or at the very least, a start.

Questions:

I have an idea of what the answers for these questions would be, but...

What IS White, Canadian culture? What are White Canadians really celebrating?

Why is it difficult for people to celebrate those who are different?

Sorry if the blog post seems like more of a ramble. There were a lot of thoughts going through my head, that I wanted to get down, and hopefully, get across. All this being said, I may check out The Redneck Games in the near future, mainly for entertainment purposes, and some educational reasons as well.

References:

Yawching, D. (2013, October 27). The silent racism of 'post racial' Canada: Canada's multicultural rhetoric is skin-deep illusion. The Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/10/27/the_silent_racism_of_post_racial_canada.html

O'Connell, A. (2010). An exploration of redneck Whiteness in multicultural Canada, Social Politics, 17(4), 536-563

Blog Post 7: How are the New Racisms challenges?

Song argues that we should keep the term 'racism', but we must more clearly differentiate 'racism' from individual concepts of racial prejudice – by using different terminology to define various instances of racial hostility. Song draws upon various examples, questioning whether the actions were racist or acts of racial hostility – in sports and in politics. Omi and Winant (1994) argue that for something to be racist, it must draw upon racially essentialist categories (beliefs about racial differences and stereotype) and create or reproduce structures of domination based upon these racial categories and generalization. Rattansi (2007) argues against the binary of 'racist' versus 'non-racist'.

Perez discusses the history of racism in comedy. The article states that humour was used to force immigrants to 'Americanize' through ridicule of language and customs. I would like to discuss this statement in particular. This reasoning probably makes sense to many researchers. The practice is still evident in various television sitcoms and animated shows – The Big Bang Theory, American Dad, Family Guy, The Simpsons, the list goes on. Minorities are still being ridiculed through comedy. Have we not reached the point where we assimilation is complete? Moreover, do we not live in a globalized world, where people are no longer seen as the 'Other', and diversity is real in many parts of the West?

Perez writes that it was during and after the civil rights period that ethnic and racial minorities began to openly engage in anti-racist comedy, or 'reverse discourse as a form of resistance to oppression. For years, we've had to endure ridiculous portrayals of minorities, but I think we are finally starting to see minorities fight back against these portrayals. Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Alan Yang are the new generation of comedians, taking ownership of their culture and changing the ways minorities are portrayed in Hollywood.

References:

Song, M. (2015, March 4). Challenging a culture of racial equivalence, DiscoverSociety, 6. Retrieved from http://discoversociety.org/2014/03/04/challenging-a-culture-of-racial-equivalence/

Perez, R. (2013). Learning to make racism funny in the 'color-blind' era, Discourse and Society, 24(4), 475-503.

Blog Post 6: What factors shape the new racisms of a post-racial world?

Van Dijk describes 'old racism' as slaver, segregation, apartheid, lynchings, systematic discriminaton, White superiority, clear exemptions in public discourse and everyday conversations. 'New racism', the author describes as democratic and respectable, denies that it is racism, minorities are not inferior – but different. Societal practices have a cognitive dimension, on beliefs people have regarding knowledge, attitudes, ideologies, norms and values. In the system of racism, this explains how and why individuals engage in discriminatory practices – believing Others are inferior, less intelligent, less competent, less modern, and so forth – thereby Others should have fewer rights, or taking a 'We' first attitude and approach.

Media elites are responsible for the continuation of this discourse. This is because there is a lack of alternative sources, opponents to mainstream media are weak, allowing media to abuse their power, creating the 'new racism'. Minorities are rarely asked to speak along in media, and a White person is typically there to essentially validate or reject the minorities' opinions; opinions of minorities are less asked for or found less credible. Furthermore, the 'new racism' avoids racist labels, but it uses negative words to describe minorities.

Bonilla-Silva's article highlights how Whites express their racial views, while avoiding racist language, using 'semantic moves'. Using such language, the dominant party is able to project their own views to implicate the minority party, and at times become incoherent. Certain phrases, such as “I am not racist...but...” and “some of my best friends are Black...” are used to justify beliefs. The article goes on to examine President Obama, how he has become an example of a 'post-racial America', deconstructing this myth with examples of Black youth getting shop by police, and economic disparities between Whites and Blacks and Latinos.

As a person of colour, minority, Other, whatever people want to know me as, a lot of what I read was not 'new' information – most people with a critical lens can see the actions of the media, the dominant group at play. I could draw upon example after example in my own life to highlight this. I find that many Canadians believe that these issues are not prevalent in here, and look south of the border, and believe it is an American problem. This is probably because most studies on race issues come out of the States. Recently, CBC Marketplace has been doing a terrific job with their Are we racist? Series, bringing the Canadian reality to the forefront. Also, with the rise of cell phone cameras, we are now able to arm ourselves by creating our own 'media', broadcasting our experiences through blogs, vlogs, and so forth.

I don't exactly agree with Bonilla-Silva's call for mobilization of people of colour as the key to “challenging the emerging racial order” - I do believe it is important, but, to put it bluntly, no one cares when a person of colour gets shot, or arrested for protesting or anything – sorry when a person of colour protests, it's called rioting, or disturbing the peace. We have not changed much since the 1960s. Only when Whites see people that look like themselves get shot or arrested, do they take notice, so I would rather call upon our White friends to assist in the struggle. Every White person seems to have that 'one Black friend', surely, every Black person must have the 'one White friend' then?

References:

Van Dijk, T.A., New(s) racism: A discourse analytical approach.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015). The structure of racism in color-blind, “post-racial” America. American Behavioral Scientist, 59 (11), 1358-1376.

Blog Post 5: How is Aboriginal Literature Anti-Racist Education?

The first three chapters of The Inconvenient Indian, are an intense and intriguing read. In the first chapter, emphatically titled Forget Columbus, chooses to not start telling the history of Indigenous peoples with the arrival of Columbus. Columbus is mentioned, but the chapter focuses on what is not written in history texts, and how history texts came about and are viewed. North American history wants people to remember the hindrances Native people posed to Europeans. Even when contributions made by Indigenous people is brought up, they are not typically recognized nor appreciated. Furthermore, most of Indigenous history is forgotten, and what we are left with is a collection of artifacts for our entertainment. King showcases several examples of this: the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876), where Custer was re-imagined as heroic and brave, when we are unsure of the actual events; another; Pocahontas, with the White hero and dusky maiden narrative; the Almo, Idaho massacre, which never occured.

In chapter two, The End of the Trail, King showcases how Indigenous people are depicted by Hollywood. Kind writes how Native people were made for film, as they were erotic and exotic, and it was simple to collect images to place together into cliches. Three types of Natives was created by Hollywood: bloodthirsty savage, noble savage, and dying savage. Non of these portrayals were a threat, as the White heroes always won and the Natives eventually and reluctantly accepted Christianity and commerce. Natives were also portrayed as if they would not survive in a modern world. There are two Natives on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: Will Rogers and Jay Silverheels. Rogers never played an Indigenous character, while Silverheels only played Indigenous characters. Tomson Highway argued that Native roles should not be given to Native actors, as it “silences Native drama and starves Native playwrights”. King appears to satirically argue against this notion, providing an example where he played a Mexican in a Christmas commercial, and the Mexican actor played a Native, making up a term for “Merry Christmas”.

Chapter 3, Too Heavy to Lift, showcases “dead Indians”, “live Indians”, and “legal Indians”. “Dead Indians” are used as marketing devices – for sports teams, businesses, retreats, cleaning products, and so forth. For the most part, Native people do not buy any of that stuff, but then again, those products are not marketed for them, it's marketed towards a mostly White audience, who are okay with “dead Indians”. Kind writes how “dead Indians” are authentic – are seen as dignified, noble, silent, suitably dressed, and dead, whereas “live Indians” are invisible, unruly, disappointing, and alive. “Legal Indians” are Natives with legal rights as a result of treaties – the group that is most hated by North Americans, due to misunderstandings and stereotypes.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a fictional story about Arnold Jr., who leaves the reservation he was born on for a better life. Arnold goes through many trials and tribulations, is seen as a traitor by his community, his relationship with his best friend is strained, but survives and is stronger as a result.

While reading The Inconvenient Indian, I almost stopped reading in the second chapter. Tomson Highway's perspective on how anyone can and has the right to play a Native person in Hollywood made me quite frustrated. As I forced my self to read on – to see where King was heading with this notion – I realized King was deconstructing this notion. Redface, Blackface, Brownface, whatever it is, having a person of another race/ethnicity play the part of a group he/she is not part of takes away from the authenticity of the story. This is what King was trying to make the reader realize. What we view while watching Hollywood movies is not factual, it is a myth, a creation made for our entertainment. However, having Natives play roles of Native characters creates employment and promotes the Native community as well. Perhaps more Native children will turn towards acting, dancing, singing, hoping to have their voices heard by mainstream society.

This is where Aboriginal literature comes in – it gives Indigenous people a venue to tell their own story, in their own way. It allows Native people to show the world that they are just like most other people in the world – having ambitions, emotions, fears, and needs. They are no longer seen as the Other, “dead Indian”, “legal Indian”, stereotypes. Questions do arise though when examining this narrative: can a Native only 'succeed' by leaving their reservation, turning their back on their community?

Reference:

King, T. (2012). The Inconvenient Indian: A curious account of Native people in North America. Toronto: Anchor Canada.

Alexie, S. (2007). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

Blog Post 4: How does anti-colonialism challenge normative research paradigms

Stanley (2014) discusses the MacDonald's beliefs and actions in the mid- to late-1800s with regards to Chinese people in Canada and the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. MacDonald wanted to create and Aryan Canada by controlling Indian Affairs and immigration. He argued the Chinese might control the vote in British Columbia, thus creating a risk for European dominance. Essentially, Stanley states that Canada was created with the 1885 Chinese Immigration Act (to limit the number of Chinese people into the country), Electoral Franchise Act (to keep Chinese people out of politics), and the pacification of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people from their land.

MacDonald used “biological racism” - alleging that ethnic Chinese people have a natural, unchangeable and inescapable racial makeup – to create the Canada he envisioned. This differed from previous racism, which was built on alleged cultural characteristics that could change over time. The idea that entire races have an inherent trait, that prevents them from adapting to various environments is, as we now know, flawed.

Dei (2013) discusses Indigenous research practices in great detail, and how it differs from conventional academic research. Conventional academic research is compromised because of its ties to colonialism, which makes it incompatible with Indigenous communities. Indigenous research stresses building relationships, developing knowledge ethically to positively affect changes in research participants.

In the past, researches would typically enter a community, without knowing much about the people, their cultures and values. I would argue that the past research practices is what led to “biological racism” - making large scale allegations against community groups without knowing any individual stories. The past method does support colonial beliefs, as it creates a White vs. Other mentality. Anti-colonialism challenges normative research paradigms this way. By acknowledging and centring local knowledge, dominant research approaches are challenged.

In almost every research article I have read discussing Indigenous peoples, the researcher has taken on Indigenous research practices – embedding themselves in the community, respecting individuals and their experiences, building relationships, and creating positive change. However, I have found that this is not the case for many articles I have come across on other historically marginalized groups. Why would one not apply these effective strategies elsewhere?

References:

Dei, G. (2013). Critical perspectives on Indigenous research. Social Studies, 9(1), 27-38.

Stanley, T. (2014). John A. MacDonald and the invention of white supremacy in Canada. Canadian Issue, 29-32.

Blog Post 3: How can we understand the impact of collective White guilt?

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nx9-nJ4QVC_F7G1rvW4ttMq6GVwxtlvZmvG4aHd2fmA/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000