The racism of Canada, once you manage to spot it through the maple-syrup coated denial, has a very 'there is no war in Ba Sing Se' character to it. People will deny left and right that racism in Canada, if it exists at all *wink wink* is just "not as bad as that of America". The number of white Canadians I've met who came to this conclusion because they personally haven't witnessed racism is nothing short of astounding. They either don't realize or are in denial that it happens a lot behind 1/?
Closed doors. And because it mostly takes place behind closed doors, there are always other excuses for racist acts to be found in abundance: the 'it's just business, they have a right to fire inadequate employees' excuse, the 'nobody understands the way they speak' excuse, the 'we can't just let people stop working to pray ten times a day, nothing will get done' excuse... And when someone DOES witness overt racism, they assume it's a fluke, a one-off, not something that happens a lot
They NEVER ask the people on the receiving end of racism if this happens a lot. NEVER. It's mindboggling at times, how badly people are invested in it not 'being as bad as America'. And depending on where in Canada you live, different groups of people are on the receiving end of the racism: in the province of British Columbia, Asians tend to get a lot of flack since immigrants from various Asian countries get in through there and are often labeled 'chinese', regardless of their real origin
In the eastern part of the country, especially in Quebec and Ontario, Muslims are often the targets of racism, especially after 9/11. Honor killings are the usual excuse provided to imply that Muslim=middle Eastern=uncivilized, with one particular incident of it that happened years ago involving a conservative Muslim father killing his wife and two daughters 'because he didn't like western influence on them'. The case was widely publicized as a cautionary tale to women in particular to avoid
... anything middle Eastern to protect themselves from such violence. But in all of Canada, no group is more looked down on than the indigenous First Nations people. If America looks like it hates black people in particular, then Canada's biggest beef is with the First Nations. They are pitied, held in contempt and dismissed all at once everywhere here. They're perceived as drunkards, swindlers and too self absorbed in their own suffering to be able to 'improve their own situation' themselves
This is often used as an excuse to keep control of their land and financial power firmly in the hands of the federal government's agencies instead of letting them organize themselves, and they pay for it with appalling poverty, high mental health problems incidences and often violent clashes with police. I have reblogged some of the most obvious conflicts between indigenous peoples and the Canadian gov. before, so feel free to peruse my #canada tag if you want to get a decent sense of it
I would also recommend the blog @allthecanadianpolitics to get more info on various topics related to racism in Canada. They have reliable sources and post regularly, and have a much better tagging system than me. Hopefully this wasn't too long a read!
First, I would like to thank you for speaking your thoughts and helping me understand! It wasn’t a long read actually lol Tumblr’s character limit is a nuisance tbqh
I have heard.. or like have seen both sides of the argument of the ‘existence’ of racism. Obviously, I am not Canadian nor do I reside there so its often hard for me to ask without sounding ignorant or pick a side, of course, without fully understanding the situation. Haa.. America is always so .. full of something at any given moment. I had just hoped that America wouldn’t be really used as a baseline on which is acceptable for racism— no racism is the accept level of racism. I wish I can say something about Canadian racism (like.. the not believing its real because it hasnt happen to you is just bad lol) but I cannot
I’ll definitely check out your tag and that blog after work!
Also, thank you for allowing me to post this on my blog! I’m sure that I’m not the only ones with questions so I hope this helps those as well. Thank you!
