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Problems with racism in literature
Multiculturalism in Canada essay
Multiculturalism in Canada essay
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Literary text sheds light on different erasures through which a dominant Canadian national narrative of benevolence and tolerance emerges. In What We All Long For by Dionne Brand., this tolerance becomes more specific as readers are able to see a struggle in race, generational difference and identity. However, these concepts lead to the creation space negotiation in order to establish Toronto as a home. Through this negotiation there are two kinds of erasures that emerge: fictional and historical. The fictional erasures work to create an unconscious space for the characters. This means that the characters navigate spaces in an intangible manner where they face issues that are not directly impacting to them. It is brought on or is created by the issues they ‘actually’ face. The ‘actual’ issues that these characters face are then transposed into a greater erasure that presents itself as a historical erasure. The fictional erasure becomes a mirror of the historical erasure as it sheds light on how the text manoeuvre through space and time in the text. Though Brand addresses the issues of tolerance while enabling a dominant national Canadian narrative, the novel reveals the generational differences as the vehicle to the negotiation of space. The negotiation of space draws attention to the fictional and historical erasures that show white hegemony as Brand illuminate the issues of immigration, blackness and generational gaps. Mckibbin states that: “Brand’s novel focuses on the degree to which the second-generation characters are able to feel at home in Toronto. [The city is established]as a location where immigration, Blackness, racism and other social factors meet and analyzes how each character negotiates space in their efforts t... ... middle of paper ... ...urnal of Black Canadian Studies 1.1 (2006): 1-4. Book Review: What We All Long For. Random House, Fall 2006. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. . McKibbin, Molly Littlewood. "The Possibilities of Home: Negotiating City Spaces in Dionne Brand's "What We All Long For"" Journal of Black Studies: Blacks in Canada: Retrospects, Introspects, Prospects 38.3 (2008): 502-18. JSTOR. Sage Publications, Inc., Jan. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. . Sharp, Natasha. Decentring Multiculturalism: Public and Counterpublic Spaces In Dionne Band's What We All Long For and Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park. Diss. University of British Culumbia, 2009. Victoria: Okanagan, 2012. Print. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act: A Guide for Canadians. Ottawa, Ont: Multiculturalism and Citizenship Canada, 1990. Print.
Eden Robinson’s short story “Terminal Avenue” presents readers with the dystopian near-future of Canada where Indigenous people are subjugated and placed under heavy surveillance. The story’s narrator, Wil, is a young Aboriginal man who struggles with his own inner-turmoil after the suicide of his father and his brother’s subsequent decision to join the ranks of the Peace Officers responsible for “adjusting” the First Nations people. Though “Terminal Avenue” takes place in Vancouver there are clear parallels drawn between the Peace Officers of Robinson’s imagination and the Canadian military sent to enforce the peace during the stand-off at Oka, Quebec in 1990. In writing “Terminal Avenue” Robinson addresses the armed conflict and proposes
Toronto is a city that is simultaneously rich in its ethnic diversity, yet paradoxically finds itself constrained by its colonial heritage. This is important, as colonial representations of race pervade history across...
Fleras, Augie. “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Repairing the Relationship.” Chapter 7 of Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. 6th ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010. 162-210. Print.
This article study will define the important aspects of space and racial identity that are defined through Canadian Constitutional law in “When Place Becomes Race” by Sherene H. Razack. Razack (2002) the historical premise of a “white settler society” as the foundation for spatial hierarchies in the Canadian society, which reflect a racial divide in the community. The white settler society was based on the Anti-Terrorism Act, within Canadian law, which reflects the post-9/11 culture of the Canadian government that has become racialized in the early portion of the 21st century. Razack utilizes the important method of “unmapping” to reconstruct the racial histories that
In “Canadian Multiculturalism: Global Anxieties and Local Debates” Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka challenge the understanding that failed multiculturalism in Europe will follow suit in Canada. Although Canada is not immune from the challenges that can come with multiculturalism, the way in which they tackle problems are country specific and do not necessarily reflect the practice or outcomes of other nations. As UK critic of multiculturalism Trevor Phillips, observes Canada to be ‘sleepwalking towards segregation’ (44) when the dynamics are far more complicated. TRANSITION SENTENCE REQUIRED
Vancouver currently maintains an image as a sort of maternal ethnic melting pot, a region rich in cultural diversity and with a municipality that is both tolerant and welcoming of various displays and traditions. However, upon closer examination of recent history, it becomes clear that the concept of the city embracing minorities with a warm liberal hug is both incorrect and a form of manipulation in itself. The articles Erasing Indigenous Indigeneity in Vancouver and The Idea of Chinatown unravel the cultural sanitization that occurred in Vancouver at the turn of the nineteenth century as means of state domination. Through careful synthesis of primary documents, the articles piece together the systematic oppression suffered by BC indigenous
Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ...
Do you know that despite Canada being called multicultural and accepting, Canada’s history reveals many secrets that contradicts this statement? Such an example are Canadian aboriginals, who have faced many struggles by Canadian society; losing their rights, freedoms and almost, their culture. However, Native people still made many contributions to Canadian society. Despite the efforts being made to recognize aboriginals in the present day; the attitudes of European Canadians, acts of discrimination from the government, and the effects caused by the past still seen today have proven that Canadians should not be proud of Canada’s history with respect to human rights since 1914.
All the world appeared hostile to Ginger Coffey when he tried to carve a niche for himself in this new country, for he felt insecure as a New Canadian—and he was faced with midlife crises to boost. As a schoolboy, Coffey had been warned by old Father Cogley that boys who didn’t settle like everyone else would sink in this world and the next, "because that class of boy is unable to accept his God-given limitations…has no love of God in him…is an ordinary, lazy lump and his talk of finding adventures is only wanting an excuse to get away and commit mortal sins." (The Luck of Ginger Coffey, 18) Coffey dreamed of a world in which "all men had reached the top of the hill; there were no dull jobs, no humiliating interviews, no turndowns; no man was saddled with ungrateful daughters, there were unlimited funds to spend…You were free." (40) Indeed, Coffey was a dreamer who longed for personal freedom.
According to conservative conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among competing social groups defined by class, race, and gender. Conflict occurs when groups compete over power and resources. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 167) The dominant group will exploit the minority by creating rules for success in their society, while denying the minority opportunities for such success, thereby ensuring that they continue to monopolize power and privilege. (Crossman.n.d) This paradigm was well presented throughout the film. The European settlers in Canada viewed the natives as obstacles in their quest of expansion by conquering resources and land. They feared that the aboriginal practices and beliefs will disrupt the cohesion of their own society. The Canadian government adopted the method of residential schools for aboriginal children for in an attempt to assimilate the future generations. The children were stripped of their native culture,...
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
To begin with, the role of Critical Race Theory provides us with the idea of “racial realism”, the idea that racism, the normalcy of white supremacy is part of the everyday life of an ‘other’, in other words, racial or indigenous minorities in Canada (Slides on Critical Race Theory). The Critical Race Theory gives an understanding of the power that can be given to a definition such as ‘race’, and how
There are many people and moments that have defined Canada’s history. Viola Desmond, a businesswoman and cardinal figure in African-Canadian history, is one of those people. Desmond was a successful beautician who opened up her own beauty school, studio, and curated her own line of beauty products. However, Desmond is regarded for more than her entrepreneurial success and achievements. After events that took place on November 8th, 1946, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Desmond challenged racial segregation and discrimination laws in the town’s Roseland Movie Theatre. She was forcefully removed and jailed for one night by a police officer. Desmond was charged and fined on the account of tax evasion. She never won her court case, but her story became
As Lehmann states, “Ondaatje’s fiction has been characterized by a concern for the lives of migrants. More precisely, it predominantly focuses on the questions of identity that result from the characters’ migrations” (281). For Ondaatje, the intranational migration of Patrick Lewis from the rural Canadian landscape to urban Toronto, and the binary view of the wealthy and poor classes he finds there, are parallels to the political and social conflicts present within the country at large.
Black Chicagoans live in a second city-Black Chicago-as a result of the persistent maintenance of social apparatuses that are mapped into and onto the landscape of Chicago that contain Blackness. This geographic positioning of the Black body led to the Black house kids asserting their "a-where-ness" as the geographic other by acting as spatial agents; not solely in response to how geography has been used against them, but in the assemblage of contrasting places that disentangle how their alleged class, gender, ethnic, and sexual differences are spatialized (Massey). Through spatial engineering, including place-branding and re-purposing abandoned spaces, I conclude that the Black house community constructed protected spaces through house music and culture such as the dance floor - "Spaces that were made for everyone, but belong to us" (Miss Priss,