A rchive Date
[ 05-07-2020 ]
Category
[ Mindworks ]
sub-Categoy
[ Narratives ]
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[Racism In Canada: It's Not What You Think It Is
Notlimah Hsineved 05/07/2020
Yes, Black Lives Matter. But when I say that it's not in the politically charged sense that currently permeates all public discourse on the subject of Blacks.
Who speaks for me, a black man, Trinidadian by birth and a naturalised Canadian by choice? Certainly not people like Michaëlle Jean (Former G.G) who has the added advantage of being labelled Franco-Canadian. If you're either Anglophone or Francophone, and Canadian born, no one appends anglo or franco to their identity but they themselves. Everyone else gets an ethnic-hyphen attached to their Canadian identity. Is this to ensure that no one confuses you with a real or true Canadian?
Just when did Black become an ethnic group?
Indo-Canadian (India), Chinese-Canadian (China), African-Canadian (Africa, though not all Africans are black). Not all blacks are from Africa; and not all West-Indians are black. Black is not a nationality or ethnicity
Don't confuse ignorance with racism
While I'm black and proud, I self-identify, first, as Trinidadian or West-Indian. When travelling outside of Canada, I identify as Canadian. I have had people say to me when I respond to their query about my country of origin as Canada - 'No, where are you from originally?'. When, within Canada, someone asks where I'm from I automatically respond with Trinidad. Neither question is racist.
Africans don't append Afro to their national identities
I have never identified myself as Afro-Trinidadian/West-Indian. The fact that I'm visibly 'black' negates the need to append my skin colour to my nationality. And so, I strenuously object to the appellation Afro-Canadian when it's used to identify or classify me as a Canadian citizen.
Yes, racism does exist - even in Canada. I'll let the politicians, intellectuals and activists debate whether its' systemic or institutionalised. Personally, people like Trudeau and Michaëlle Jean (so-called progressives) do very little for the cause of Minorities (another political label) within Canadian society. When they insist on placing labels on us they are, in fact, the ones who are, officially, racialising the population.
In North America, especially the U.S.A, stating that one is Black amounts to it being a political statement. And, as we have clearly seen, that very same racially and politically charged attitude has permeated Canadian society and thinking.
What the Black Lives Matter movement (and 'progressives likes' Trudeau) fail to grasp is that the problem they're trying to address: racism (physical traits originating with the notion of race) is being confused and conflated it with ethnicity (nationalism).
Consider this:
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canadians)
Black Canadians, a designation used for people of full or partial Sub-Saharan African descent, is used to describe citizens or permanent residents of Canada.
The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though the population also consists of African American immigrants and their descendants (including Black Nova Scotians), as well as many native African immigrants.
Black Canadians often draw a distinction between those of Caribbean ancestry and those of other African roots.
The term African Canadian is occasionally used by some Black Canadians who trace their heritage to the first slaves brought by British and French colonists to the North American mainland.
Many Black people of Caribbean origin in Canada reject the term African-Canadian as it ignores the uniquely Caribbean aspects of their heritage. Instead, they identify as Caribbean-Canadian.
Unlike in the United States, where African-American has become a widely used term, in Canada controversies associated with distinguishing African or Caribbean heritage have resulted in the term Black-Canadian being more widely accepted here.
Caribbean-Canadian refers to Black Canadians of Caribbean heritage, although this usage can also be controversial because the Caribbean is not populated only by people of African origin, but also includes large groups of Indo-Caribbeans, Chinese-Caribbeans, European-Caribbeans, Syrian or Lebanese-Caribbeans, Latinos and Amerindians.
The term West Indian is often used by those of Caribbean ancestry, although the term is more of a cultural description than a racial one, and can equally be applied to groups of many different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The term Afro-Caribbean-Canadian is occasionally used in response to this controversy, although this term is not widely in common usage.
The Black presence in Canada is rooted almost entirely in voluntary immigration.
Despite the various dynamics that may complicate the personal and cultural interrelationships between descendants of the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, descendants of former American slaves who viewed Canada as the promise of freedom at the end of the Underground Railroad, and more recent immigrants from the Caribbean or Africa, one common element that unites all of these groups is that they are in Canada because they or their ancestors actively chose of their own free will to settle here.
Yet, my children, Canadians by birth and citizenship, are referred as Black-Canadians. What does it take to be be a 'true' Canadian'? Anglo/Franco heritage?
Racists
Is the racist someone who is of a certain race, a supporter of people of other races, someone calling attention to the existence of different races Or is racist something that refers to a policy or way of thinking?
Racism - “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”.
Prior to the 1970 -1980 decade the word prejudiced was in common use to imply a person and their judgment. As such, you would not say that a person is 'prejudiced'. That is, people would be prejudiced while society would exhibit racism.
Racism is now often used to mean things such as societal racism and institutional racism and to refer to structures of society that disadvantage people of sub-ordinated races. This is the collective effect of bigoted or racist attitudes.
So, for example, many people would say that the fact that, on average, black students do not perform as highly on standardised tests as white students. This is, in itself, racist as it places black students at a disadvantage. To argue that black people lag behind white people in health because of inadequate access to health care is racist.
Racism refers to a societal state. Prejudice refer to attitudinal bias.
So, listen to politicians and employers and ask yourself if they do not exhibit racist attitudes that prejudice their attempts to eliminate racism from society, the workplace or social institutions. They speak out of both sides of their mouths, do they not?
Think about that the next time you see them on television spouting their sanctimonious crap about the need to do something about racism in Canada.
Ask yourself why the difference in responses:
English rugby to review ‘Swing low, Sweet chariot’ chant over slavery link
The Banana Boat Song
Wasn't it Trudeau that famously stated that "A Canadian is a Canadian", regardless of ethnic origin?
So how about the media, politicians, academics and race activists deal with the elephant in society - racism - by eliminating their reliance of ethnic labels such as Afro-Canadian, Indo-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian in public policies, discourses and educational systems.
How very progressive is it when politicians pander and solicit the ethnic votes at election time and then attempt to decry racism when it comes around to bite them in their collective arse?
Apparently, politicians are not interested in black voices that are not steeped in protests like the BLM movement that currently has a stranglehold on society's collective conscience.
In fact, it seems to me, Canadian politicians only become engaged when it is politically expedient to 'take a knee' in solidarity.
The Canadian media latches on to the bumper-sticker and vapid sloganeering of radical activists who seem determined to whip the population into apoplectic and frenzied states of agitation.
Just how do news articles like this help in eliminating racism?
Is this not just a perpetuation of the problem being pounded into the impressionable children’s heads?
Is this not another example of the expectation bar being set even lower by racialising them against the White people they’ll encounter in life?
Would ‘the talk’ go something like ... well, the white folks think they’re better than us. But we know better. Incubators for black supremacists?
Conversely, are we to encourage the white folks to have ‘the talk’ with their children? You know, well son/daughter, the non-white folks think they’re like us. But we know better.
And if they do, wouldn’t non-white folks scream about white supremacists?
Isn’t it likely that this is how this whole racism shit-storm got started and continues to be perpetuated?]
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