Racisms in a Multicultural Canada: Paradoxes, Politics, and Resistance

Chapter 3: The Riddles of Race

55 THE RIDDLES OF RACE Introduction: Racializing Race, Racialization as Racism The past is never dead. In fact, it isn’t even past. —William Faulkner, “Requiem for a Nun” Race remains a factor in society. —President Barack Obama, July 24, 2009, responding to the high-profile police takedown of a prominent black academic ew will dispute the significance of race in shaping intergroup dynamics (Goodman, Moses, & Jones, 2012; Tattersall & DeSalle, 2011; Comack, 2011; Brace, 2005). References to race historically permeated Euro-American society in its encounters with the largely non-Christian “other.” Nineteenth-century Europeans justified colonization by conferring a pseudo-scientific legitimacy on an ideology that pigeonholed people into stratified categories. The classification of colonized peoples into racialized “others” secured a simple yet self-serving explanation (McCalla & Satzewich, 2002). Race “mattered” for various reasons, but primarily in conjunction with religion and class as (1) a tool for justifying domination, control, and inequality; (2) an excuse for doing the inexcusable such as enslaving people; (3) a framework for explaining human differences; and (4) a rationalization for salving/absolving guilty consciences over mistreatment of the cultural other. Over time, perceptions of race became embedded in dominant forms of representation across society, while assuming increased significance in shaping social patterns, societal organization, government policy, and state functions (Goldberg, 2002). CHAPTER 3 F 56 Chapter 3 That race “mattered” in the historical past is beyond doubt (Wallis & Fleras, 2008; Fleras, 2012). The term was applied originally to the breeding of domestic animals and plants. From the 1500s to 1800s, however, it began to denote cultural distinctions such as lineage or religion. References eventually shifted focus to biologically grounded classification systems based on the paired criteria of locality and physicality (Durodoye, 2003). Both the United States and Canada openly endorsed an essentialized vision of race as real: that is, as natural and static, universal and immutable (Dalmage, 2004). Over time, the ontological status of race shifted from objective to constructed, from real to fiction. But while the race concept may have been little more than a socially constructed fabrication in defense of white domination, its capacity to inflict injury was anything but fictional. Odious practices from the transatlantic slave trade to the colonization of indigenous peoples around the world attest to that. Many are dismayed that race continues to matter at a time when people should know better (Goodman, Moses, & Jones, 2012; Fredericko & Luks, 2005). Perceptions and social patterns associated with race remain one of the most powerful signifiers for engaging with the world “out there” (Brown, 2009). The race concept constitutes a negative lived experience for many, with the result that a person’s racial(ized) location in society will influence opportunities and outcomes (Dei, 2005a, 2005b; Free & Ruesink, 2012). Furthermore , neither race nor racism can be theorized in isolation from gender and class; after all, systems of domination, power, and control tend to be mutually constitutive in reinforcing each other (Joseph et al., 2012). Finally, race exerts a pervasive influence at varying levels of expression and organization , from where people live, to who they hire, to what they can expect from life. It can do so not because race is ontologically real—because it isn’t—but because people believe it is real and (re)act accordingly, often with discriminatory consequences (also Tattersall & DeSalle, 2011). Race as social construction has also proven socially controlling (Alexander , 2012). As an instrument of social control, race restricts and regulates the behaviour of specified racialized groups, sometimes deliberately, often unconsciously. The fact that race continues to “matter” for precisely the same reasons as in the past—namely, to explain or rationalize for purposes of control or exploitation—provides a sobering reality check. Race and inequality are no less linked. Racialized minorities continue to bear the brunt of negative treatment, ranging from polite snubs and blatant barbs to both overt and covert discrimination. Patterns of social exclusion are preserved in the process, as are stark socio-economic disparities involving barriers to participation and access to power (Coates, 2008; Dei, 2007; Galabuzi, 2006; Hier & Bolaria, 2007; see also King, 2011; Hunt & Wilson, 2011; Evans & Feagin, 2012). Social rewards remain divvied up on the basis of perceived racial The Riddles of Race 57 affiliation, while public participation and political decision making reflect prevailing stereotypes and racial prejudices (Fernando, 2006). Moreover, as long as racism...