|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
ARTICLES ON ANTI-RACISM
Canada's apology worth remembering on Solidarity Day
North Bay NuggetProject to encourage city's diversity
Sudbury Star'Genteel' racism still with us, speaker says
Sault StarNorthern newspapers monitored for racism
North Bay NuggetAboriginal education spreading, Switzer says
Baytoday.caCommon Portrayals of Aboriginal People
Media-awareness.caNative Names and Imagery in Sports
Media-awareness.caStereotyping in Schools
Research in Ontario Secondary SchoolsDebwewin anti-racism project update - June 18, 2004-06-18
By Maurice Switzer____________________
Canada's apology worth remembering on Solidarity Day
By Maurice Switzer
North Bay Nugget, June 19, 2004Imagine trying to gather public support for a campaign to combat poverty, or homelessness, or diabetes, and constantly running up against people who refuse to admit that these problems exist, or worse, that if they do, dealing with them should not be a priority.
That's what fighting racism is like.
It took the fire-bombing of a Jewish school in Montreal to prompt Paul Martin to promise a national anti-racism strategy for Canada, a pledge apparently forgotten in the hubbub of an election campaign. But it doesn't take an explosion for ethnic minorities or aboriginal peoples to understand that racism is a daily fact of their lives, as much a reality as being the brunt of off-colour jokes, or seeing one's ancestors referred to as savages in school textbooks.
For the most part, the responsibility for fighting racism is left to stubborn individuals or slimly-funded non-government organizations fortunate enough to tap into the occasional grant to support a local or regional initiative. One such NGO is Communitas Canada, a dedicated little group of socially-conscious citizens who stage an annual Evening of Applause in North Bay to celebrate diversity.
Communitas staff member Don Curry and Donna Vendramin of Canadian Heritage got together to secure financial support of the Multiculturalism Program to conduct an anti-racism audit of three Northern Ontario communities - North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Timmins. Looking for a label that would accurately describe the project's work, organizers agreed on using the eastern Ojibwe word Debwewin , which is usually translated into English as "truth", but which literally means "to speak from the heart."
Debwewin involves a number of related components, including the distribution of a survey in the project's three centres to solicit examples of racist conduct, behaviour, or attitudes. Thousands of copies of the questionnaire were distributed, hundreds were completed and returned, and a number of them have been followed up by personal interviews before the results are compiled into a final report.
Over 100 North Bay-area residents took the time to complete the nine-page survey, and while statistics never tell a complete story, it is significant that nearly half of them agreed that "problems related to race make North Bay a less desirable place to live." Almost 60 per cent of survey participants say they observed discrimination based on race against someone in North Bay in the past year.
They mentioned bullying and teasing in schools, and rudeness by store clerks, and suggested that teachers, the media, police, merchants -- everyone has a responsibility to recognize that racism exists in North Bay, even thought it may be subtle.
"North Bay people believe that because they are not burning crosses or beating up people or using violence, they are not racist," wrote a native woman, one of many who mentioned being made to feel uncomfortable when claiming tax exemption in local stores. "North Bay's racism is subtle…but very powerful."
What should really concern us all is that one in five respondents said racism is a personal, not a community problem.
It will not come as a surprise to the area's aboriginal residents that natives account for 40 per cent of survey responses, and that their experience with racism is the most significant, involving incidents in hospitals, schools, stores, and in dealing with police officers and social workers.
Skeptics who deny that racism exists in North Bay should meet the gentleman who wrote on his survey that: "There is not enough racism in North Bay for it to be an issue. If anything, it has gone the other way. Natural-born working Canadians pay for everybody else. Aboriginal people get too many handouts. Racism would disappear if government favouritism would stop."
There was a clear consensus on the best way to deal with racism, best summarized by the young woman who urged: "Educate us at work. Educate our children at school. The more we talk about it the better it will be."
Specifically, there was praise for community efforts like the annual Evening of Applause, and suggestions that the annual Heritage Festival is an ideal platform to celebrate diversity in the area.
The Nugget's weekly Niijii Circle Page on native issues was frequently singled out for praise. North Bay's daily was one of a dozen Northern Ontario newspapers involved in a second Debwewin project component - evaluating the coverage of aboriginal issues to present a unique snapshot of media accuracy and fairness. The final report will show that regional media usually demonstrate more balance in coverage of native issues, while national newspapers tend to focus on negative stories and use them to stereotype aboriginal peoples.
Cross-cultural training was also recommended as an anti-racism tool "…for front-line people - teachers, police, medical staff, the retail sector" - and the Debwewin project staged well-publicized workshops in the three participating communities. Hundreds of invitations were extended around North Bay for a May 14 Aboriginal Awareness Summit at Canadore College. Some 50 city residents took the opportunity to learn more than they already know about Anishinabek culture, historic reasons of mistrust between Natives and non-Natives, treaty issues, and contributions made by indigenous peoples around the world.
Feedback from workshop participants was excellent, but that's because those who attend such events aren't usually part of the racism problem. The people who most need this information are the ones who don't show up. The Debwewin session in North Bay was not attended by the college instructor who taught his class that Adolf Hitler was an "effective" leader, by the franchisee who stopped honouring my treaty rights to tax exemption, nor by the two police officers who manhandled me out of his store.
Perhaps the most instructive part of these workshops is the revelation of how little even the best-educated Canadians know about aboriginal history, culture, and contemporary issues. We met college graduates who had never heard of residential schools, and only encountered one person who was familiar with the federal government's 1998 Statement of Reconciliation, a cabinet-approved public apology for this country's history of state-sanctioned racism against aboriginal peoples.
A good way for Canada to observe National Aboriginal Solidarity Day this June 21st would be to re-issue the Statement of Reconciliation, to avoid it from becoming just another nicely-framed broken promise hanging on an Indian Affairs office wall. It should be an annual event, an excellent launching pad for the prime minister's promised national anti-racism strategy.
The contributions of First Peoples to Canada's history should be compulsory learning for every teacher and student in this country, every new immigrant, every beat cop and game warden, every journalist, store clerk and corporate vice-president.
The recognition of human rights - and treaty rights are human rights - is not an option in a democratic society. Initiatives like the Debwewin anti-racism project are, at best, patchwork attempts to make up for major shortcomings in Canada's classrooms and workplaces.
We don't need more patches - we need new tires.
____________________
Project to encourage city's diversity
By Pamela Crich
Sudbury Star, May 20, 2004Diversity is not only here in Sudbury, it's thriving. At least that's the goal of the Mayor's Community Multi-cultural and Race Relations Working Group, which has launched a new initiative, Diversity Thrives Here!
Chaired by Ward 4 Coun. Ted Callaghan, the project plans to address five issues to encourage the city's continuing diversity:
People of Colour
"We used to consider the Italian and Polish communities diverse, but frankly, it has changed to people of colour," Callaghan said."This plan is intended to address these needs and help those communities the best we can."
Callaghan said the city's focus is on the aboriginal, multicultural and francophone sectors, as well as new immigrants.
From now until September, the working group will be organizing various events and forums to hear the voices of the different sectors.
Events include conversational cafes, native dialogue and youth leadership training.
"We'll hear about their concerns and experiences with racism and discrimination and discuss civic policy," said project coordinator Nancy Beynon.
Upon completion of the forums and discussions, a final report will be presented to the Diversity Summit scheduled for October 19-30.
For more information contact Nancy Beynon at 671-2489, ext. 4250.
____________________
'Genteel' racism still with us, speaker says
By Michaek Purvis
Sault Star, May 7, 2004The abuse of Canada's aboriginal people may have been more "genteel" than it was south of the border, but racism against natives today is "not fiction" says Maurice Switzer.
"People have horrible memories, and a lot of the social issues that impact on native communities now, different kinds of abuse, were really side effects, direct results of the residential school system, which was an official government policy," he said.
Switzer, director of communications for the Union of Ontario Indians, was a facilitator at the Aboriginal Awareness Summit Thursday evening and this morning in the Algoma University College auditorium.
"Most people don't know, that this building we are sitting in, Shingwauk Residential School, there were students tortured here," he said.
History is the key, Switzer says, because it's a big part of why racism against natives exists. It's based on a lack of knowledge, and he says Canada's education systems don't do a very good job of dealing with it.
"The very first page of most textbooks that I've seen refer to native people in North America coming originally from Mongolia or some place on the other side of the Bering Strait," he said.
"That's not our history at all, we don't believe that happened. (Anishinabek) history tells us we came from the other direction, we came form the East Coast of Canada."
A nation history that doesn't address the point of view of aboriginals and things like sports logos showing "distorted caricatures of what native people are supposed to look like," combine to marginalize and dehumanize native people, he said.
The seminars are part of the Debwewin Three-City Anti-racism Initiative, which focuses on the Sault, Timmins, and North Bay, and is run by North Bay-based human rights group Communitas Canada with funding from Canadian Heritage.
Surveys went out last fall, asking about experiences with racism in the three Northern Ontario cities. The results of those surveys, and of media tracking done by AUC students this year, will be released in a report some time in June.
The report and the Debwewin (which mean truth in Ojibwe) project focus on all forms of racism, not just aboriginals, and will include language issues, said Cecilia Fernandez.
She is the project coordinator for Unity and Diversity Sault Ste. Marie, the local volunteer group which administered the survey and has been coordinating the media tracking.
Fernandez moved to the Sault when she was six-years-old, when her family immigrated from Malaysia, and said she has seen racism in this city.
"I think most of it stems from misunderstanding of cultures," said Fernandez. "I think (natives) are a very misunderstood group in the Sault."
____________________
Northern newspapers monitored for racism
By Nugget Staff
North Bay Nugget, November 26, 2003LOCAL NEWS - Racism in North Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie will be studied over the next six months.
The project, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Multiculturalism and Human Rights Program, will wrap up with a report in June.
A three-month newspaper-monitoring program is a component of the overall study, led by North Bay's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination committee and the Union of Ontario Indians.
Advisory committees and facilitators in each city will help direct the project.
Susan Church, co-chairwoman of the North Bay Human Rights Hall of Fame committee, chairs the local advisory committee.
"We have anecdotal evidence about racism in North Bay, but no hard data," Church said in a news release.
"This project will help us determine if our efforts over the past 16 years have had the desired effect, or if we have to do more."
Questionnaires will be distributed to groups, schools and agencies throughout the city, and will be available in The Nugget for the general public to complete and return.
Co-chairman Don Curry is the three-city project director and Maurice Switzer, director of communications for the UOI, is leading the newspaper-monitoring component.
"This is not a 'gotcha exercise,' but an opportunity to let newspapers know how they're doing and how they can do better," Switzer said.
____________________
Aboriginal education spreading, Switzer says
By Phil Novak
BayToday.ca, May 15, 2004Aboriginal education is spreading to beyond just single Native Studies courses, says Maurice Switzer, director of communications for the Union of Ontario Indians.
Switzer, who was speaking Friday at an aboriginal awareness summit held at Canadore College, says school boards are beginning to pick up the ball on the issue.
"I understand that the Rainbow District School Board is introducing a new curriculum which has aboriginal components in all subjects," Switzer said.
"And I hear of other initiatives out west like in Alberta, where native populations are higher. So by having the native perspective taught this way, we can really share information in a way that's going to have a more substantive effect. Summits like today are wonderful, but we can only reach so many people with these voluntary efforts."
Stereotypical views
Friday's summit is part of the Debwewin" (Ojibwe for 'truth') Three-City Anti-racism initiative, that's being put on in North Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie.Topics include sessions on Anishinabek culture and history, aboriginal coverage in the media, stereotypes, and treaty and treaty rights.
During one part of the summit, Switzer displayed a number of media and pop culture images of natives and asked participants which of them reflect what an Indian is.
Among the images was one of native leader Ovid Mercredi wearing a traditional head dress and the oft-printed photo from the Oka stand-off of a young Armed Forces soldier staring nervously at a masked Mohawk warrior wearing camouflage fatigues.
Switzer said images like those bolstered stereotypical views of Indians.
Surrender our tradition
At the same time, Switzer added, even natives are sometimes feeding those stereotypes, "whether it's our young people showing up for protests with masks and camouflage, or whether its native leaders always wanting to wear the traditional Plains head dress.""We shouldn't feel we have to surrender our tradition or look or sound or act like other people," Switzer said, "and I think those things are changing."
____________________
Common Portrayals of Aboriginal People
Credit: Media Awareness Network
www.media-awareness.caFor over a hundred years, Westerns and documentaries have shaped the public's perception of Native people. The wise elder (Little Big Man); the drunk (Tom Sawyer); the Indian princess (Pocahontas); the loyal sidekick (Tonto)-these images have become engrained in the consciousness of every North American.
Hollywood's versions of "how the West was won"
relied totally on the presence of Native tribes, who were to be wiped out or reined in. "And, for the longest time," says Canadian Ojibway playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, "there wasn't a real 'Indian' to be seen on the movie sets: Native 'representation' was taken care of by Italians or Spaniards-anyone with dark enough skin to save on makeup."
As the portrayals of Native characters-either as primitive, violent and deceptive or else as passive and full of childlike obedience-extended to TV, novels and comics, they became familiar, comfortable signposts for much of Western civilization whenever it needed to acknowledge the Aboriginal presence. Since few people, especially in larger urban centres, actually came into contact with Indigenous populations, these portrayals, however inaccurate, had all the more impact. Though popular U.S. films rarely looked north of the border, these stereotypes etched themselves just as deeply into the Canadian psyche.
"We were well into the second half of the 20th century before it occurred to filmmakers that Native people were still around, and even leading interesting lives," says Taylor. "Groundbreaking films like Pow Wow Highway, Dance Me Outside and Smoke Signals provided fresh and contemporary-though still romanticized-portrayals of the Native community."
Film-maker Arthur Lamothe broke new ground in Québec from 1973 to 1983, with his 13 part documentary series La chronique du Nord-Est du Québec. The series, and Lamothe's subsequent work, puts First Nations people centre-stage and provides them with a venue to tell their own stories.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) made a real effort to improve the portrayals of Aboriginal people in its television dramas. Spirit Bay, The Beachcombers, North of 60 and The Rez used Native actors to portray their own people, living real lives and earning believable livelihoods in identifiable parts of the country. The Beachcombers and North of 60 drew substantial audiences among Natives and non-Natives alike.
Television in the United States has been slower to respond to criticism. Indigenous faces are still almost entirely absent from the small screen, except in the news or in documentaries. There have been a few efforts to change the situation, however. In the late 1990s, the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles published a directory of Native American performing arts professionals. And in 2001, after acknowledging that "Native Americans are virtually invisible on TV," CBS and NBC held talent showcases in major cities across North America to strengthen their databases of Aboriginal performers.
Misrepresentation-How Many Ways?
The new climate of "political correctness" has combined with genuine effort to counter some of the more overt forms of racism in films and television-but subtle vestiges of Native stereotyping still remain. Some of the most common stereotyping traps are various forms of romanticization; historical inaccuracies; stereotyping by omission; and simplistic characterizations.
Romanticization
Some images of Natives that have captured the imagination of the non-Aboriginal world for nearly a century are the Indian Princess, the Native Warrior and the Noble Savage.The Indian Princess
The Indian Princess is the Native beauty who is sympathetic enough to the white man's quest to be lured away from her tribe to marry into his culture, and further his mission to civilize her people. "The Indian princess is strictly a European concept," writes Native American Joseph Riverwind. "The nations of this country never had a concept of royalty. We do not have kings, queens or princesses."Gail Guthrie Valaskakis, director of research for Canada's Aboriginal Healing Foundation, agrees. In a 2000 exhibit called Indian Princesses and Cowgirls-Stereotypes from the Frontier, Valaskakis and Marilyn Burgess traced the use of the Indian Princess, from romanticized paintings intended to represent an "exotic, beautiful and dangerous New World" to gratuitous brand labels on fruit cans and cigar boxes. None of these women, says Valaskakis, remotely resemble the "powerful, competent, articulate" women she grew up with on her reserve in Wisconsin.
The Native Warrior
Surely one of the most widely used stereotypes in cinematographic history, the Native Warrior is fierce and formidable and a threat to civilized society. Bare-chested and brandishing a war lance, this warrior is the epitome of the savagery that must be courageously overcome by "progressive elements" pushing West. A more recent incarnation is the romanticized (and eroticized) figure of the strong silent brave flashing, as journalist Paul Gessell notes, "a lot of skin, [and] looking for some White woman to ravish."These images appear in many forms and in surprising places. In his photo exhibit Scouting/For Indians, 1992-2000, Jeff Thomas, from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, captured images of the Warrior in forms ranging from historical statuary, and coats of arms carved on the walls of Ottawa banks and office buildings, to contemporary book covers. Thomas says he took these photographs to raise awareness of the often unconscious "demonization and eroticization" of Indians.
The Noble Savage
In an effort to redress past wrongs, there has been an increase in another time-honoured romantic stereotype -- the mythic Noble Savage. Elevated to a sphere of goodness unreachable by those in contaminated white society and usually possessing some spiritual connection to the land, the Noble Savage (who American academic Rennard Strickland calls "the first ecologist") communes in a cloud of mysticism and places no value on material possessions. Not even the popular Thunderheart avoids the romantic brush. "That movie says that every time you get half a dozen Native people in a room, you can get a prophecy or a vision," says Canadian Cayuga actor Gary Farmer.Historical Inaccuracies
Farmer cites the successful Canadian film Black Robe, about a Jesuit missionary's quest to save the Huron's souls, as typical of the one-sided historical accounts that upset Aboriginal people. "Black Robe misses a key element," says Farmer. "Nobody explains the Iroquois Confederacy's five centuries of peace between the six nations. The Hurons saw the devastation from the alcohol brought by the newcomers as a decay that had to be rooted out. The Iroquois told the Hurons that everyone not affected should leave, and they would go in and clean the area out." Farmer contends that there's never been an understanding of why that was done-and so the story of a classic conflict between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has never been told.All vestiges of truth-and thereby of intercultural understanding-give way here before the onslaught of movieland's mythic creation.(Source: Ward Churchill, "Fantasies of the Master Race" in From A Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985-1995, 1996)
Film and TV producers have never let details get in the way of a good story. Nowhere is this more true than in depictions of Aboriginal life, where artistic license is liberally taken in portraying dress, customs, livelihoods and spiritual beliefs and ceremonies. This reduction of cultural heritage and diversity (which most audiences do not even notice) is seen by critics as both a symptom of the problem (not taking Aboriginal people seriously) and an unconscious yet systematic way of perpetuating erroneous stereotypes. What occurs in many films, says social critic Ward Churchill, "is roughly parallel to having a Catholic priest wear a Rabbi's headgear and Protestant cleric's garb while conducting High Mass before a Satanist pentagram, simply because each of these disparate physical manifestations of spiritual culture is visually interesting in its own right."
Stereotyping by Omission
Most film depictions of Native people are set in a 50-year period in the mid-19th century. Where were Native North Americans before the coming of the white man, and where are they now? Apparently "Indians" did not survive the transition to modern society.The article "Stereotyping Indians by Omission" notes that Indians are "the only population to be portrayed far more often in historical context than as contemporary people." Considering the size of Chicago's Native population, for instance, the article asks, "why has not one Indian ever received emergency care on ER? And where are the nurses, a primary career choice for many Native women?"
The most flagrant omission in movies and television is the Aboriginal woman. When she is included, it is most often as a "sexual savage" (who cannot be tamed and must therefore be degraded and eventually conquered). In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada tried to counter this cultural amnesia in 1986 with a four-part drama series entitled Daughters of the Country -- produced to "re-open the history books" and document the evolution of the Métis people through the lives of four strong women.
Simplistic Characterizations
Perhaps most destructive to the image of Aboriginal people is the lack of character and personality accorded them by the media. Aboriginal people are almost always cast in supporting roles or relegated to the background, and are rarely allowed to speak or display a real personality. And what character they do have tends to reveal itself only in terms of their interactions with white people. Rarely is an Aboriginal portrayed as having personal strengths and weaknesses, or shown acting on his or her own values and judgements.Nor is the Native ever allowed to tell his or her own story. Most stories are conveyed through the lens of the European experience. A common device used by Hollywood to attach familiar values to Native acts has been to script a white character as narrator (Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart). While this purports to treat the American Indian sympathetically, the reality is that the Aboriginal is robbed of voice.
The Bigger Picture
A number of academics contend Hollywood's depictions of Aboriginal people are based on much broader motives than simply winning audiences. In American Indians: Goodbye to Tonto, J.R. Howard says that in the American psyche, Native people have fulfilled their purpose: "Indian resistance having served to fuel the myths of conquest and glory, and the American divine right to conquest."And there's a whole school of thought that believes that the stereotypes of Native people and the "Wild West" must still be maintained in today's society. "Somebody is benefiting by having Americans ignorant [about] what European Americans have done to them," writes Wendy Rose in her New Yorker article, "Who Gets to Tell Their Stories?"
Ward Churchill argues that the myths and stereotypes built up around the Native American were no accident. He maintains that they served to explain in positive terms the decimation of Native tribes and their ways of life by "advanced" cultures in the name of progress, thereby making it necessary to erase the achievements and very humanity of the conquered people. "Dehumanization, obliteration or appropriation of identity, political subordination and material colonization are all elements of a common process of imperialism," he says. "The meaning of Hollywood's stereotyping of American Indians can be truly comprehended only against this backdrop."
____________________
Native Names and Imagery in Sports
Credit: Media Awareness Network
www.media-awareness.ca"As a group of mental health providers, we are in agreement that using images of American Indians as mascots, symbols, caricatures, and namesakes for non-Indian sports teams, businesses, and other organizations is damaging to the self-identity, self-concept, and self-esteem of our people."
American Indian Mental Health
Association of Minnesota, 1992Long a contentious issue, the use of Native names, mascots and imagery by major league sports teams still attracts national attention. The Atlanta Braves and their famous tomahawk chop; the Cleveland Indians with their smiling Chief Wahoo; and the Edmonton Eskimos-all demonstrate the tendency to objectify Native people. And of course, this tendency is imitated by hundreds, if not thousands, of high-school and college teams across the continent. The last decade has brought improvements, but the use of Native symbols is still widespread.
Most sports teams name themselves after
inanimate objects (Maple Leafs, Red Sox, Flames), animals (Grizzlies, Blue Jays, Tiger Cats) or historically well-known groups of people (Canucks, Argonauts, Pirates). Native people are singled out as the only visible minority to be depicted in this way.
"Should any major league team decide to name their professional team, regardless of the sport, after another ethnic group or culture, there would be a public outcry," notes Canadian Ojibway playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. "Teams with names like the Montreal Haitians, Toronto Jews, Vancouver Sikhs or the Winnipeg WASPs would be rightly rejected out of hand. But Aboriginal people seem to be exempt from such consideration."
The mascots and imagery associated with highly visible and successful sports teams are not "harmless," as some would say. They objectify Native people and render them unreal, like cartoon characters. Cornel Pewewardy, a professor of education at the University of Kansas, believes that the widespread use of Native paraphernalia such as tomahawks, feathers, war paint and drums mocks and trivializes their true spiritual and religious significance.
It would be the same as a crowd of fans using real saints as mascots or having fans... doing the "crucifix chop" to the musical accompaniment of Gregorian chants while wearing colorful religious attire in the stands.(Source: Cornel D. Pewewardy, The Deculturalization of Indigenous Mascots in U.S. Sports Culture, 1999)
As Pewewardy notes, "Indigenous peoples would never have associated the sacred practices of becoming a warrior with the hoopla of a pep rally, half-time entertainment, or being a sidekick to cheerleaders." Common as it may be, the use of Native imagery is insensitive because it reflects no knowledge of, or interest in, Aboriginal traditions, culture or history.
It's easy to make light of these symbols. Like the air we breathe, they have become invisible to most people. But such symbols are a part of a socially constructed reality that is underpinned by an unconscious assumption of superiority on the part of the dominant culture. Pewewardy calls this "dysconscious racism"-racism that unconsciously accepts dominant white norms and privileges.
____________________
By James Ryan and Erin Kelly
Research in Ontario Secondary Schools
January 1999One of the unfortunate realities of our contemporary school systems is that not all children perform equally well within them. In fact, it has become almost accepted that some students will excel in their studies, that others will get by without necessarily distinguishing themselves, and that yet others will perpetually struggle. In their attempts to understand this phenomenon, both educators and academics have advanced various explanations. For example, some scholars maintain that schools are organized in ways that may penalize students who are not of White-Anglo backgrounds. Racism may play a part in this. While racism may involve calculated and malicious acts of prejudice, and though such acts probably occur more often in schools than we would like to believe, racism also works in more subtle ways. In fact, it often works through the taken-for-granted and well-intentioned acts of educators as they attempt to do what they believe is the best for all students. Stereotypes, for example, are one common way that subtle forms of racism show up in educational institutions.
What is a stereotype? Generally, scholars have viewed stereotypes as popular, unfounded images of groups or situations. While this view acknowledges that all of us use generalizations to make sense of things, it also maintains that some of these generalizations are not only wrong but are, in fact, harmful to particular individuals and groups. In schools, for example, teachers may act upon mistaken beliefs and assumptions about groups, and in doing so, deprive students who belong to these groups of opportunities that other students may routinely experience. Proponents of this view argue that the way to deal with these stereotypes is to replace, through education and other means, these erroneous beliefs and images with more accurate and hence more positive perspectives. While this view of stereotypes has contributed much to our understanding of how racism works in schools and elsewhere, it does have its shortcomings. Some questionable assumptions underlie this perspective: it suggests that people have essences, that these essences are naturally positive, and that images of these essences can be accurately represented.
Another way of looking at stereotypes is in terms of discourses; that is, in terms of the various available patterns of words, symbols and images we have at our disposal to help us make sense of the world around us. Thus, in order to make sense of what happens in the classroom, teachers must attempt to fit their perceptions into these already existing repertoires of words and understandings. If they want to discern what the actions of certain groups of students mean, for example, they must necessarily appeal to these sense-making frameworks and adjust their actions accordingly. It goes without saying, however, that certain ways of making sense do not favour everyone equally. As a result, men, women and children perpetually struggle over which framework will prevail, and of course, this struggle is rarely equal because those who have more power will inevitably be able to make their sense of groups and situations dominate the sense of those others with less power. This struggle surfaces regularly within schools that cater to racially/ethnically diverse populations. It was evident, for example, in one large secondary suburban school in southern Ontario.
Parents, students, teachers and administrators in this school community had many, often different ways of making sense of the many groups of students that attended the school. One of the more prominent of these included the idea that students of African heritage, particularly males, had natural physical abilities. Many in this educational community interpreted the words and actions of these young men as indicators of their inherently violent natures. This belief, in turn, prompted teachers to react to these students in one of two ways. Some would respond in an overly aggressive manner, while others would go out of their way to avoid them. In addition to this belief, was the accompanying idea that students of African heritage were academically less gifted than others, particularly when compared to students of Asian heritage who were believed to be the most gifted in this respect. In turn, teachers reacted to these respective groups in ways consistent with these beliefs. Students of African heritage tell of low teacher expectations and describe having to work "twice as hard as any other kid to do well." Asian students, on the other hand, contend that it is sometimes stressful to live up to the high expectations that teachers set for them.
The reason that these ways of making sense prevail is not because they represent the way things really are, but because they predominate over other ways of making sense. While these perspectives prevailed, not everyone subscribed to these ideas about the students in question. In particular, the very students to whom these characterizations applied saw themselves in very different ways. Students of African heritage, for example, did not believe that they were inherently physical or violent. One student claimed that teachers and others simply did not understand him or his friends. He maintained that the reason for these perceptions was that these others "did not know how Black people act." These perceptions, shared by students, were not influential, however, in affecting how many teachers treated these students. The bottom line here is that educators' views counted more than the perceptions of members of this group. This is not to suggest that these perceptions were more accurate; rather, it reveals that those in positions of power within the educational system are able to use their power to make their sense making frameworks count more than those of less powerful others.
If educators are genuinely concerned about improving opportunities for all groups of students in schools, then they need to find the means to allow all ways of making sense to circulate freely. More specifically, they need to examine their own taken-for-granted understandings, help others do the same, and work with them to resist and replace oppressive ways of making sense that are embedded in harmful stereotypes. Further, such strategies must address the reality that sense-making frameworks exist within the larger context beyond schools. Therefore, educators' efforts must target not only what happens in schools but also what happens in the wider society beyond schools. This means selecting materials and topics that are rich in opportunity for examining sense-making frameworks. Exploration of the mass media, for example, can assist students in understanding how they and others play a role in the circulation of mediated sense-making frameworks, why these frameworks predominate, how they can resist them and how they might work with others to ensure that alternative voices have a chance to compete in mainstream culture. Educators might also target existing curriculum materials. While it might be valuable to remove texts that promote stereotypical discourses, the critical interrogation of these texts might prove more purposeful and educative. Students might come to understand the stereotypical sense within them allowing an alternative sense to emerge while fostering a need to circulate this alternative sense in the larger community through such means as student or community run newspapers and organized protest campaigns. Also, students might begin to examine their own education and the practices within schools as frameworks that make sense of their world. Whatever the material, whatever the text, the critical interrogation of stereotyping and the sense-making frameworks underlying them will be invaluable for students as they move toward becoming strong critical thinkers and understanding, self-reliant citizens.
____________________
Debwewin anti-racism project update - June 18, 2004-06-18
By Maurice SwitzerImagine trying to gather public support for a campaign to combat poverty, or homelessness, or diabetes, and constantly running up against people who refuse to admit that these problems exist, or worse, that if they do, dealing with them should not be a priority.
That's what fighting racism is like.
It took the fire-bombing of a Jewish school in Montreal to prompt Paul Martin to promise a national anti-racism strategy for Canada, a pledge apparently forgotten in the hubbub of an election campaign. But it doesn't take an explosion for ethnic minorities or aboriginal peoples to understand that racism is a daily fact of their lives, as much a reality as being the brunt of off-colour jokes, or seeing one's ancestors referred to as savages in school textbooks.
For the most part, the responsibility for fighting racism is left to stubborn individuals or slimly-funded non-government organizations fortunate enough to tap into the occasional grant to support a local or regional initiative. One such NGO is Communitas Canada, a dedicated little group of socially-conscious citizens who stage an annual Evening of Applause in North Bay to celebrate diversity.
This year Communitas staffer Don Curry managed to attract the interest and financial support of the Multicultural Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage to conduct an anti-racism audit of three Northern Ontario communities - North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Timmins. Looking for a label that would accurately describe the project's work, organizers agreed on using the eastern Ojibway word Debwewin , which is usually translated into English as "truth", but which literally means "to speak from the heart."
Debwewin involves a number of related components, including the distribution of a survey in the project's three centres to solicit examples of racist conduct, behaviour, or attitudes. Thousands of copies of the questionnaire were distributed, hundreds were completed and returned, and a number of them have been followed up by personal interviews before the results are compiled into a final report for release in July.
Some 89 Timmins residents took the time to complete the 12-page survey, and while statistics never tell a complete story, it is significant that 58% of them said they had observed discrimination based on race against someone in Timmins in the past year. One in four survey participants said they had been the victims of racism, and that figure jumped to 60 per cent for the survey's 35 aboriginal participants. Both "black' respondents also said they had personally experienced racism.
Responses indicate that the most likely place to encounter racial discrimination in Timmins are stores and restaurants and, astonishingly, schools.
"My kids got detentions for speaking Cree in school," a Moose Cree First Nation man told a project interviewer. "They were told Cree wasn't allowed in school. That happened twice. They phoned my girlfriend and told her it's French and English only in Canada. They said they were worried about security of the other kids. If people are speaking Cree they might be planning something. Maybe they were going to gang up on another kid …. stuff like that."
There were numerous observations about Native shoppers receiving rude treatment at the hands of store clerks when they presented status cards identifying their treaty right to tax exemption. "My girlfriend was insulted while paying for merchandise and using her status card," one respondent said. "The cashier told her in front of non-native shoppers that she should pay taxes like everyone else."
Survey results indicate that minorities and aboriginal people are also less likely to feel they are treated fairly in dealing with health care practitioners, social workers, and police officers.
"When I was younger, the police used to stop me almost every day…sometimes two or three times a day," recalled a Native man. "Sometimes they would say 'How's it going Pocahontas', or 'Chief'. When I didn't look them in the eye they would get suspicious and intimidate me. I used to feel so humiliated and ashamed. I have never gotten over this."
Not everyone agrees that racism is a problem."I have lived in this community for 38 years," said one woman. "We have all nationalities - Polish, Germans, Italians, Finlanders, Croatians, French - and I have never witnessed any racial problems." Or the retired police officer who said; "The city of Timmins has demonstrated time and time again that it's multicultural. We don't have anyone coming out painting swastikas. In the city of Timmins I think people get along quite well together. I'd say racial incidents in Timmins are quite rare.
The vast majority of respondents, including those identifying themselves as" white", thought otherwise, including the man who observed: "Open discrimination is not tolerated in Timmins' society, but the persistence of racial jokes and stereotypes indicates that discriminatory attitudes continue to exist and influence behaviour."
Many feel that classrooms are the place to start combating racist tendencies. "At school we could have an aboriginal day that would teach the staff and students something that shows how Native people contributed to Canadian society," one man suggested. "We need to educate the educators so they will help students to fight racism and learn how to cope when it happens to them," added a Native woman. "You can't teach the adults - it's the youth who will lead."
Survey participants offered a variety of racism antidotes - establishment by city council of a race relations department, setting up aboriginal school committees, getting churches more involved in multicultural issues and activities,organizing a diversity coalition to plan community events, and a centre to promote friendship between races and ethnic education.
There was praise for community efforts like the annual multi-cultural festival and outreach activities by the downtown Native Friendship Centre, but more needed to be done more often.
A role for media organizations was also seen as vital - participants wanted to see more media stories about what one woman called "the wonderful diverse nationalities in Timmins." The Daily Press was one of a dozen Northern Ontario newspapers involved in a second Debwewin project component - evaluating the coverage of aboriginal issues to present a unique snapshot of media accuracy and fairness. The final report will show that regional media usually demonstrate more balance in coverage of Native issues, while national newspapers tend to focus on negative stories and use them to stereotype aboriginal peoples.
Cross-cultural training was also recommended as an anti-racism tool. One woman said leaders needed to be "sensitized" to diversity issues in order for those values to filter down to employees and staff. This was also a component of the Debwewin project .
On May 21 over 50 people - including 12 police officers and 11 Child and Family Services employees -- attended an aboriginal-issues workshop at Northern College to learn more than they likely already knew about Anishinabek culture, historic reasons of mistrust between Natives and non-Natives, treaty issues, and contributions made by indigenous peoples around the world.
Madeline Chokomolin and her Timmins committee helped make the workshops a worthwhile experience for those who attended. Unfortunately, those who participate in such events aren't usually part of the racism problem. The people who most need this information are the ones who don't show up.
So the Debwewin sessions in Timmins were not attended by the business owner who told a black woman over the phone he had a job opening, but that it was filled when he met her in person, or by the emergency room doctor who told a patient to go to a clinic that treated Native people, or by the hotel manager who asked for cash in advance from Native guests.
Perhaps the most instructive part of these workshops was the revelation of how little even the best-educated Canadians know about aboriginal history, culture, and contemporary issues. We met college graduates who had never heard of residential schools, and only encountered one person who was familiar with the federal government's 1998 Statement of Reconciliation, a cabinet-approved public apology for this country's history of state-sanctioned racism against aboriginal peoples.
A good way for Canada to observe National Aboriginal Solidarity Day this June 21st would have been to re-issue the Statement of Reconciliation, to avoid it from becoming just another nicely-framed broken promise hanging on an Indian Affairs office wall. It should be an annual event, an excellent launching pad for the prime minister's promised national anti-racism strategy.
The contributions of First Peoples to Canada's history should be compulsory learning for every teacher and student in this country, every new immigrant, every beat cop and game warden, every journalist, store clerk and corporate vice-president.
The recognition of human rights - and treaty rights are human rights - is not an option in a democratic society. Initiatives like the Debwewin anti-racism project are, at best, patchwork attempts to make up for major shortcomings in Canada's classrooms and workplaces.We don't need more patches - we need new tires.
Maurice Switzer is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation. He serves as director of communications for the Union of Ontario Indians and editor of the Anishinabek News.
