• In total there are 27 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 27 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Racism in Canada

A forum dedicated to friendly and civil conversations about domestic and global politics, history, and present-day events.
Forum rules
Do not promote books in this forum. Instead, promote your books in either Authors: Tell us about your FICTION book! or Authors: Tell us about your NON-FICTION book!.

All other Community Rules apply in this and all other forums.
User avatar
ant

1G - SILVER CONTRIBUTOR
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 5935
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:04 pm
12
Has thanked: 1371 times
Been thanked: 969 times

Racism in Canada

Unread post

Is Canada less racist than America or just less vocal about it?

Did Canada engage in slavery and would their racist slave history lasted longer than America's if historical circumstance and geographical circumstances been different?
It's a common myth that Canada didn't have slavery. It did. As historians like Brett Rushforth, Marcel Trudel and Charmaine Nelson point out in their scholarship, thousands of Indigenous people and enslaved Africans were held captive in Canada by merchants, traders and settlers.
Canada had slavery. But because of the colder climate, it did not have the conditions to grow profitable crops that relied on slave labor, including sugar, rice, tobacco and cotton. Consequently, Canada never developed a slave system akin to the entrenched and all-encompassing institution that many Americans implemented and protected for so long.
Canadians have a tendency not to be less racist than Americans, but less loud about it. As Charmaine Nelson, a professor of art history at McGill University, wrote recently in the Walrus, Canadians are "more insidious and covert" in their racism. This is where the notion of exceptionalism fails.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countr ... -americans

What do Canadians have to say about racism in their country

1 in 5 experience racism

https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2019/12/10/put ... in-canada/


Canada's post racial image is a myth

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ack-racism


Here is a summary of racial segregation in Canada

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ ... -in-canada


And who can forget Justin Trudeau photos of him wearing black face,

Not once
Not twice
But THREE TIMES..

Justin doesn't even know how many times he painted himself black!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... d-incident


Shame on Canada!
Shame on you!
User avatar
LevV

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
Agrees that Reading is Fundamental
Posts: 275
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:45 pm
13
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Has thanked: 117 times
Been thanked: 202 times
Canada

Re: Racism in Canada

Unread post

ant wrote:Is Canada less racist than America or just less vocal about it?

Did Canada engage in slavery and would their racist slave history lasted longer than America's if historical circumstance and geographical circumstances been different?

With your bit of research you probably have a better grasp of our history of slavery and the current level of racism in Canada than most Canadians. Our history of slavery is barely mentioned in the history books. I have had to do a lot of digging to get closer to that aspect of our history.

These days, more attention is being given to the despicable policies of our past governments in their relations with our Aboriginal peoples. As recently as the 1950's, in order to strengthen claims on the far North, one particular group was moved by plane to the far North with unfamiliar terrain and game and virtually no support. The government officials even shot their dogs to prevent any of them from returning to their homeland. An attempt to address some of the issues of Aboriginal people was a Royal Commission report of 4,000 pages completed in 1996. Some of the recommendations are slowly being implemented.

I lived in Toronto for twenty- five years where I saw my share of racism. But, it was my close friendship with a very politically active African Canadian where I became aware of the hidden racism that was alive and well in our fair city. My friend chaired a support group to Black families in Toronto for about three years. This is where I first heard about "the talk" that parents in the Black community give their children about encounters with the police and other people in authority. He would tell me about mothers who were in tears relating encounters with their sons because they would not allow then to use the family car after dark for fear of what could happen.

In a talk with my friends son (in his early 40's) a few years ago he opened up to me about some of his experiences. What stands out in my memory was the way in which he felt he had to act in stores. On entering a store, he would always open his coat completely and make sure that both hands were always visible to any store employee. He also said that he had never gone into a changing room in a clothing store. I know this isn't the story of all Black kids in Toronto, but it is the likely story of many other kids and young adults.

No, we have nothing to be proud in that area of our history. And both of our countries are populated, more or less, from the same stock of immigrants. As you stated, if our geography and climate were a bit different we might very well be looking at a history with even greater levels of racism.

But hey, we did give Jackie Robinson his start in professional baseball. :lol:
User avatar
ant

1G - SILVER CONTRIBUTOR
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 5935
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:04 pm
12
Has thanked: 1371 times
Been thanked: 969 times

Re: Racism in Canada

Unread post

Great reply.

Thanks
Post Reply

Return to “Current Events & History”