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Chapter 13: Summary and Conclusion: Inconvenient Truths/Comforting Fictions
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
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263 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION INCONVENIENT TRUTHS/COMFORTING FICTIONS he possibility that as the world changes, so too does racism, cuts to the core of this book. Racisms in a Multicultural Canada has argued that racism is not disappearing despite glibly worded claims that Canada is basking in the balm of a post-racial milieu. On the contrary, racism in Canada was shown to persist and propagate by virtue of assuming different forms and diverse dynamics whose intent or effects continue to deny, exclude, or exploit. The book is formed accordingly: Just as race is not simply a set of categories but a system of control, so also is racism more than a slew of individuals with bad attitudes; it is structural rather than incidental because it is deeply embedded in the structural and systemic at institutional and societal levels. Racism is as much a matter of interests as that of attitudes, of property as of prejudice, of structural advantage as of personal failing, of whiteness as of the “other,” of discourse as of discrimination, and of unequal power relations as of bigotry. The multi-dimensionality of racism has proven consequential: Gaps between Canadian ideals and Canada’s realities create a theoretical space with which to pose questions over the what, how, where, when, and why of contemporary (or postmodern) racisms. This slippage also complicates the challenge of formulating anti-racism strategies capable of advancing the complex yet slippery nature of living together with differences, equitably and in dignity. Employing a critical framework that puts politics and power at the centre of analysis, the overriding theme of this book points to a pervasive Canadian paradox: How to account for the seeming proliferation and persistence of racisms in a Canada that abides by the principle of multiculturalism while being committed to postracial principles. To address these issues, Racisms in a Multicultural Canada does not flinch from asking some unsettling questions CHAPTER 13 T 264 Chapter 13 about the workings, challenges, and contradictions of postmodern racisms. Five questions (or themes) were raised that secure the content and organization of the book, including: 1) What does racism mean in the twenty-first century? 2) Why is racism perceived to be proliferating? 3) How do postmodern racisms work in a contemporary Canada? 4) In what ways have discourses (how we think and talk) about racism shifted in recent years? 5) How do we account for the persistence of racisms in multicultural Canada? What is racism? What does racism mean within the context of a so-called post-racial world? There is no agreement among scholars or activists over a definition of racism (even the UN refuses to define racism, preferring instead to use the term “racial discrimination” [Taylor, 2011]). Most Canadians are understandably confused and frustrated about racism—what it is, how it works, how to frame it for discussion purposes, what to do about it and how. Much of the uncertainty arises from an indisputable fact: Racism no longer possesses a foundational meaning rooted in the concept of race, with its corresponding notions of (1) a world divided and ranked into inferior and superior races; (2) race as a determinative of thought and behaviour; and (3) differential treatment of people because of their racial pedigree. Without race to anchor the concept, racism appears to be reconfiguring in ways that elude consensus yet elide conceptualizing, while generating controversy and contradictions. Complicating the uncertainty are the diversities within racism. Many group-specific racisms are known to exist, for example, antiblack racism or anti-Muslim racism, each with its own histories, manifestations , and consequences. Not surprisingly, no definitive definition of racism is possible since it arrives in different forms, is opportunistic and relational to other social processes, and possesses a transformative dynamic that mutates over time and across space (Anthias, 2007). Under the circumstances in a world of many racisms, who can be surprised that the notion of a singular definition has given way to the idea that racism is whatever people want it to mean based on the interplay of context, criteria, and consequences? Do we live in a world of spiralling, out-of-control racisms? Or is it more accurate to say that racisms appear to be snowballing in number and kind because more actions or inactions are defined as racist in an increasingly inclusive Canada? As widely noted, old-fashioned racism has lost so much of its legitimacy that it borders...