Intolerance: a general survey

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 32; no. 2; p. 175
• Main Authors: Noel, Lise, Vickers, Jill
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto University of Toronto Press 01.07.1997
• Subjects: Attitudes; Cultural identity; Minority & ethnic groups; Racism; Silence; Social history; Theme; Tolerance
• ISSN: 0021-9495; 1911-0251

In Part One of the text, Corinne Mount Pleasant-Jette, a member of the Tuscarora nation and a professor of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University, identifies the key problem anti-racist activists face in Canada: the wide-spread belief of Canadians that our country has a non-racist history and a culture of peaceful co-existence among different races. She asserts this is a damaging myth because: "A society that does not admit to its racism is in some ways more difficult to contend with than one where such attitudes are openly and publically displayed" (41). She concludes that many professionals who are gatekeepers in Canadian institutions actually foster racism by denying its existence or minimizing its severity. This theme runs through all of the essays in this text and also through Dei's text on Anti-Racism Education. As [Lise Noel] shows, denial is the common response to those who challenge oppression and question discourses which mystify it. But Canadians' propensity to deny or minimize the existence or significance of racism may be especially strong because our collective identity was developed mainly in opposition to the US with its long history of bitter, open and violent racism. In differentiating ourselves from the US, we constructed an image of ourselves as more tolerant, and of Canada, as free of racism.(f.5) As a consequence, the authors suggest, Canadians are at least as likely to be punished for breaking the silence about racism as for perpetuating it. While some observers consider concerns about racism in Canada exaggerated, [Carl James] lays out the consequences if our institutions continue to deny or minimize the situation in a context in which by 2001 people of racial-minorities constitute about 18 per cent of Canadians and that the racial-minority populations in major urban centres like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary will range as high as 40 per cent (3). None the less denial persists despite historical evidence such as that presented in essays by Akwatu Khenti and Valerie Bedassigae-Pheasant that show how deeply racism is entrenched in Canadian history and institutions. While James's framework directs us to consider how racism operates at three levels: individual racism, institutional racism and structural or societal racism, most of the essays focus on the norms, sanctions, and relationships that comprise the "order of things" (27) within the institutions in the human services sector. The role of these institutions in reproducing oppression and privilege is also an important focus. One of the strengths of this collection is that it includes essays written from the perspectives both of Aboriginal and race-minority peoples, conceptually linking Canada's racist colonial history with its current treatment of race minority peoples from the "Third World." The approach to anti-racism eloquently argued by Valerie Bedassigae-Pheasant, for example, reflects the teachings of the Aboriginal peoples of North America, while Akwatu Khenti draws on Afro-centric experiences. Also of note is Karen Mock's essay on why anti-semitism should be fought within an anti-racism framework. But this also points up a second weakness of the collection: while it explores the ideas and experiences of those within the anti-racism tent, it doesn't explore conflicts among them. So, while both Matras in his analysis of racism in Canada's immigration policy and Kock make conceptual links between racism based on skin colour and anti-semitism, neither theorizes anti-semitism among race-minority peoples or racism in the predominantly white Jewish community.