Sunday March 21, 2010
When sub-surface racism wells up
By Jim Taylor
If it weren’t for Nova Scotian rednecks, we Canadians might start believing we had conquered racism. After all, we pride ourselves on being a model for tolerant multiculturalism.
Back in 1938, author John Murray Gibbon first applied the term “mosaic” to Canadian society. John Porter expanded that concept with his 1965 study, Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada.
Both saw “mosaic” as an alternative to the American “melting pot.” Instead of blending all metals into a uniform alloy, we could celebrate our unique origins. We could make diversity a strength, rather than a weakness.
To some extent, we have. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal thrive on distinctive neighbourhoods – Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek….The prairie provinces celebrate the Ukrainian heritage they once despised. Quebec pushed the whole country into bilingualism.
But the record has not been uniformly proud. The Jane-Finch area in Toronto remains a festering sore of black anger. Many aboriginal people still live in invisible squalor.
Histories we’re not proud of
All provinces have some shameful histories of racial discrimination. Newfoundlanders once hunted the Beothuck tribes like game. Toronto parks had signs, “No dogs or Jews.” British Columbia levied a punitive head tax on Chinese immigrants, and forcibly deported the entire Japanese population from the coast to internment camps in the province’s interior.
Nova Scotia has known over two centuries of prejudice against black people who fled north from the U.S. in search of freedom.
The freedom they found was limited. With few exceptions, they lived in ghettos like Africville or North Preston. Halifax ruthlessly razed Africville in the 1960s to build a bridge across the harbour.
Sometimes, those old prejudices still flare up.
In recent years, the Black Loyalist Heritage Society in Shelburne was burned to its foundation. Firebombs were thrown at the office of the Black Cultural Society in Preston. A confrontation between police and black youths in Digby sparked accusations of racism.
And on Sunday February 21, Shayne Howe and Michelle Lyon – he’s black, she’s white –were wakened by shouts of “Die, nigger, die!” Two young men had jammed a flaming cross into their lawn, with a noose hanging from it.
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter called it “a terrible racist act.”
More optimistically, he went on, “The difference in that incident happening now as opposed to years ago was the overwhelming public outrage and condemnation it received. It was heart-warming to see the outpouring of support to the family.”
Carol Aylward, associate professor at Dalhousie Law School, disagrees: “The cross-burning is just an open sign of what is under the surface.”
The mask of friendliness
Fortunately, racism in Canada is rarely as blatant as cross burnings. It can even masquerade as friendliness.
Richard Chung, a United Church minister in Kelowna, describes total strangers asking him, “So, where are you from?”
“They may think they’re being friendly,” Chung says. “But they would never accost a white person in a restaurant and ask that question.”
I remember a meeting in Toronto of youth workers. A woman at a nearby table turned to a black woman in our group. “I’ve been listening to you,” she said, presumably as a compliment. “You don’t seem to speak with any accent at all.”
“Thank you,” said my colleague.
“How long have you lived here?” demanded the stranger.
“All my life,” came the reply.
“I mean, where were you born?”
“Here.”
The stranger was getting flustered. “But which island are you from?”
“Montreal Island,” she replied.
“I know the Caribbean fairly well,” said the woman, puzzled. “I don’t think I’ve been to that one.”
“Just take Highway 401 and drive east for about six hours,” my associate explained. “You can’t miss it.”
The stranger left, looking affronted.
Racism used as a club
The flip side of the racism coin is its use to quell legitimate debate.
An example — KAIROS, a justice organization backed by 11 Canadian denominations and 21 partner organizations overseas, recently had its $7 million federal funding cut off.
KAIROS had criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney specifically linked the de-funding to combating racism.
In the Harper government, only one view of Israel is permissible. Anything else is labeled anti-Semitism.
Another example — a group spent years rehabilitating a salmon stream. But one residence treats the stream as a garbage dump. Volunteers, wading up the stream, can see an oily sheen leaching from the debris on the bank. They can smell acrid chemicals. They can touch human feces floating by.
But they tell me they don’t dare speak out. Because the house is within an Indian Reserve.
And no one wants to risk being branded as racist.
Today is the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. If we’re serious about eliminating racism, we need to do more than condemn cross burnings. We need to become conscious of the unconscious racism that lurks behind poor manners. And we need to stop using our opposition to racism as a means of stifling open debate of contentious issues.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Your Turn
In last week’s column about Toyota’s troubles, I wondered why people found it so hard to deal with unintended acceleration – assuming it is genuine – when there was an obvious solution: turn off the ignition key!
Allen MacKenzie wrote, “Or the other obvious solution: Shift the transmission into neutral!”
Paul Smith offered the same alternative: “I recall a CBC interview a few weeks ago with a driver instructor who advised not to turn off your ignition as it locks the steering wheel and you lose your power steering and power brakes. He recommended placing the gear shift into neutral, thus retaining both your steering and power brakes.”
Robert Smith, pastor at Sheffield Lake, Ohio, dispelled the concern about locking steering: “On modern cars, you cannot fully turn off the ignition and lock the steering wheel until the car is placed into park (although this may not apply to autos with a standard shift transmission). Simply bumping the gear shifter into neutral would accomplish the same goal — the car would coast to a stop, but you would not lose steering assist or your power brakes.”
As an Ohio resident, Paul also wondered, what makes a car “domestic”?
“A year ago or more ago I posted on my Facebook page the question, if Honda manufactures cars in Ohio using Ohio workers, is it still a foreign car? Unsurprisingly, no one responded to my question.”
Several writers mentioned the man in California whose Toyota Prius was apparently racing down the I-5 with a stuck accelerator – all caught on television, of course. The sequence seemed too slick, they thought.
Dawne Taylor bought a new Prius last summer. “To Toyota’s credit (or the credit of the local dealership), I received a call the day after the recall was announced to advise me to bring the car in. They fixed the problem in about an hour. Certainly can’t fault that service. I agree there’s probably some xenophobia especially as the US government has such an investment in seeing the US car manufacturers succeed, even if that means trumpeting problems with the competition.”
Jim Henderschedt told about an episode of unintended acceleration, but not with a Toyota. “Last December, Christmas Week, I had a minor accident. My 2005 Hyundai Sante Fe would not stop. Even though I was braking hard, the car kept going. It did not accelerate yet it did not return to idle when I took my foot off of the accelerator. Human error?
“I lived with that possibility for a couple weeks until a Sunday morning after church. My wife and I were returning to our car. Because the passenger side tires were in deep snow I suggested that Betty wait until I pulled out of the snow. I had to apply more power than usual to get out of the snow. When I was free, took my foot off the gas pedal and applied the brakes … same thing. Had Betty been standing where I suggested I would have run her over. This time I had the sense to move the gear shift into neutral. The car then returned to idle.
“I took the car to the Hyundai dealer and a faulty accelerator positioning sensor was discovered. Something inside of me places more trust in mechanical linkage than in computerized sensors.”
Dona McGilvary shared my suspicion about a media vendetta: “You hit the nail on the head! Someone, or some organization, is trying to ruin Toyota. They have done it before, as you pointed out, and will do it again. Not only have they ruined companies, they have ruined the lives and careers of many people. The media, and whoever is behind it, are vicious. God help all the gullible Americans who fall for this tripe!”
Dona added, “I am on my 3rd Toyota, which outlast American cars by decades!”
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About My Books
Over the years, I think I have written (or ghostwritten) about 17 books. Several of them (mercifully) are no longer available from any source. But here’s a listing of those that are still available. The ones marked “WLB”, you can order from Wood Lake Books, either on-line at http://www.woodlakebooks.com, or call Wood Lake Books directly at 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-654-5129 (Pilgrim Press) in the U.S. The ones marked “JT only” are now available only directly from me — as collector’s items, I price them all at $25 Cdn.
- Everyday God: Insights from the Ordinary
- Two Worlds in One
- Last Chance
- Seeing the Mystery: Exploring Christian Faith through the Eyes of Artists,
- Surviving Death
- Everyday Psalms
- Everyday Parables
- Letters to Stephen
- A New Understanding of Virtue and Vice
- Precious Days and Practical Love: Caring for an Aging Parent
- John for Beginners
- Spirituality of Pets
(1981 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1985, JT only)
(1989, JT only)
(1990, with William S. Taylor, JT only)
(1993, JT only)
(1994 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1995 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1996, WLB, $17.95)
(1997, WLB, $19.95)
(1999, WLB, $19.95)
(2001, WLB, $11.95)
(2006, WLB, $39)
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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For other web links worth pursuing, try
- Charlene Fairchild’s United Online site,
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- The Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity home page
- Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not terribly religious, but they are fun; write [email protected] to get onto her mailing list.
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