Minority within a Minority: Black Francophone Immigrants and the Dynamics of Power and Resistance (review)

Amal I. Madibbo's work, Minority within a Minority: Black Francophone Immigrants and the Dynamics of Power and Resistance, is part of a Routledge series on the study of social inequality, social change, and social justice edited by Nancy A. Naples. The book, using an ethnographic approach utilizing countless interviews, investigates the racial experiences of Black Francophone Africans and Haitians who constitute a racial minority within the official linguistic (Francophone) minority of Ontario, Canada. Drawing on how anti-racist and Black feminist thought conceptualizes "power, race and racism, resistance, equity, and the intersection of race, gender, and language" (29), the work highlights the forms of resistance and power exercised by this double-minority (Black Francophone) to counter what is perceived by Black Francophone social actors to be the racist hegemonic discourse of the state and White Francophone communities in Ontario. Essentially, the work "explores the situation of African and Haitian Black Francophones...in the distribution of and access to the economic and political resources that are attributed by the Canadian State to Francophones as one of its official linguistic communities in a minority situation" (1).

The short introduction highlights the crux of the work, the struggle of Black Francophones for access to power and their resistance to different forms of oppression such as colonialism, patriarchy, racism, and homophobia (4). The six subsequent chapters historically and statistically contextualize the Black Francophone community (2), offer theoretical (anti-racism and Black feminism) and methodological (the principles of critical ethnography) considerations for understanding the struggles of the Black Francophone community as a double-minority (3), investigate how Black Francophones face structural racism from the Canadian State (4), discuss Black Francophone perceptions and experiences of racism within Francophone communities and mainstream institutions (5), and offer examples of varieties of strategies of resistance in Black Francophone communities (6). The book concludes with a summary of its contents.

After introducing an historical and statistical outline of the Black Francophone community in Ontario, Madibbo offers the anti-racist and Black feminist paradigms within which to examine the perceived functioning of systemic and institutional racism in Canadian institutions. Madibbo argues that anti-racism and Black feminism are not only theoretical and discursive epistemological frameworks, but they are political projects that aim for social change and justice because, epistemologically, the theories emerge from the struggles of racial minorities against imperial, colonial, and neo-colonial experiences (29).

Having set out this theoretical frame, Madibbo turns to the analysis of her ethnographic data to explore "the situation of Black Francophones in the distribution of the financial resources allocated by the State to Francophones as an official language community in a minority situation" (117). Madibbo argues that the failure of the Canadian State to recognize the Black Francophone community as a community distinct from its white counterparts is tantamount to racism. She demonstrates how "state funding agencies' criteria contribute to limiting the access of Black Francophones to material resources" (117). She further points to State racism towards Blacks in their underestimation by Statistics Canada and the underfunding of Black Francophone organizations.

Madibbo goes on to demonstrate the perception of racism in Canadian society by discussing how Black Francophones perceive racism within Francophone communities and mainstream institutions. She argues that the perception of racism within Francophone communities and mainstream institutions is related to inequitable power relations among Francophones, whereby Black Francophones feel they are used by their White counterparts to obtain political gains vis-à-vis the state; to institutionalize practices such as under-representation in mainstream organizations; and to the silence of White Francophones over perceived racism in mainstream organizations and institutions.

Black Francophones, as a double-minority, are not passive agents of the discriminatory effects of perceived institutional racism. Madibbo demonstrates the strategies of resistance employed by three Black Francophone organizations, the Anti-racism Forum, Solidarity, and a pan-Africanist organization. She argues that the achievement of these organizations — ties built among Black...