Whiteness Invented Discussion PDF

Meme Assignment Discussion What makes a good meme? § Element of absurdity § Interplay between image and text § Subversion of a societal expectation § An unexpected conclusion § Connects to the world in a way that makes sense § Makes a point § Relatable to the audience § Cultural or subcultural speci...

Meme Assignment Discussion What makes a good meme? § Element of absurdity § Interplay between image and text § Subversion of a societal expectation § An unexpected conclusion § Connects to the world in a way that makes sense § Makes a point § Relatable to the audience § Cultural or subcultural specificity Whiteness Invented Sociology of the Everyday 27 February 2024 biologically, there is only one human race Race and Whiteness but race exists as a social practice, in ways of acting, common throughout society, that produce racial hierarchies performatively white supremacy is the privileging of white people in all or most aspects of social, political, and economic life whiteness is a fuzzy concept and has varied historically, but whiteness has implied superiority since the 1700s The Paradox of Equality § race is performative, produced through power relations and supported by dominant discourses § however, acting as if race does not exist will not make it go away § to abolish racism, it is necessary first to acknowledge the realty of race in contemporary society Image source: https://torontolife.com/city/editorsletter-cost-police-carding-just-high/ § marked bodies: people set apart from normal in a given social context § unmarked bodies: the normal and expected identity § white privilege: social advantages that an individual experiences passively (without having to actively claim them) by virtue of having a white social identity Marked and Unmarked Bodies Discussion: what features of everyday life in Canada today work to keep whiteness as the normal, unmarked identity, and treat non-White Canadians as the exceptions? § § § § Police practices like § carding, what gets treated as crime or crime-adjacent, § overpolicing, brutality and unfair treatment towards people of colour “international” food sections What is considered “international” or “exotic” or “ethnic” Having “ethnic” hair Who gets taken seriously as products etc. a victim § What are “ethnic” features Who gets the benefit of the doubt in conflicts § In pop culture, the prevalence of all-white casts in settings where there would be racialized people Non-Racism vs. Anti-Racism Non-Racism vs Anti-Racism § https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm5 DWa2bpbs § non-racism – an individual practice of not discriminating, not holding prejudicial views, etc. § anti-racism – engagement with a collective practice of actively opposing racism Dialectics § dialectic: a dynamic process in which opposing forces produce and transform identities through continual contestation and supercession § To employ a dialectical analysis, (i) start with two opposed identities, (ii) look for the contestation between them, (iii) look at how that contestation shapes each identity, (iv) track that process backwards in time, and (v) project it into the future § Dialectic analysis implies that society is always changing, and that directing that change requires mobilizing some kind of social force To do during the lecture § As you take notes during the lecture, consider the difference between non-racist and anti-racist practice, in practical terms Origins of Racism Colonialism and Slavery § there are important differences between the racisms experienced by Indigenous peoples, Black folks, and other people of colour § however, all modern racism has common roots in European imperialism, colonialism, and slavery § racism is a global social order § racialization or racial formation: the production, maintenance, change, and dissolution of racial categories Settler Colonialism § colonialism has been a global process deeply involved in shaping the modern world § colonialism was legitimated by the claim that white Europeans were culturally superior to non-white peoples, either for biological reasons or historical reasons or both Image: “Nationalism and native land” by Marcus Johnstone, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 The Atlantic Slave Trade § By the 19th century, the European slave trade in Africa was massive. § Estimated 50 million Africans were enslaved or killed through the slave trade by the year 1800. § Abolished in 1807-1834 (Britain); 1865 (US); 1888 (Brazil). Scientific Racism § theories of human races appear only in the late 18th century § by the 19th century this is incorporated into scientific thinking § scientific consensus rejects racial biology by the 1940s § but racist ideology lingers today in subtle ways Canadian Racism: Settler Colonialism Indian Residential Schools § 1820s-1990s § about 30% of First Nations children were placed in schools, about 150,000 individuals § emotional, physical and sexual abuse; starvation, disease, and injury; high mortality § designed and intended to erase Indigenous culture; “kill the Indian, save the child” § part of a wider strategy to erase Indigenous cultures, to establish Canadian sovereignty and control over resources John A. MacDonald § “When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. … Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” Sir John A MacDonald, 1879 United Nations Genocide Convention (1948) § Article 3: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: i. ii. iii. iv. v. Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Clearing the Plains § in the 1870s, the Canadian government under John A. MacDonald implemented a policy of starvation against Indigenous peoples in the prairies, to force them from their land, to make room for White settlers § Indigenous communities were given rotten meat and diseased animals, and food was withheld § thousands died destruction of means of economic support dismantling of Indigenous self-governance forced relocations away from traditional territories Other genocidal policies imposition of European gender and family norms suppression of the Sun Dance, potlatch, and other community and spiritual practices coercive Christian evangelization denial of First Nations status to Indigenous women who married settler men, and their children underfunding of municipal infrastructure and social services on First Nations reserves Racism in Canada: White Supremacies Image source: https://www.wlu.ca/news/spotlights/2020/nov/vancouver-antiasian-riots-of-1907-and-the-parallels-to-canadas-modern-day-racialdivide.html Slavery in Canada slavery of Black Africans and Indigenous peoples was made legal in New France in 1709, and continued under British rule until 1834 under the Code Noir, any children born to an enslaved woman was also enslaved the small numbers of slaves in Canada relative to the US and other countries in the Americas reflects different economic bases of different settler societies anti-Black racism § Black persons in Canada faced governmentsanctioned housing segregation, and separation and refusal of services in restaurants, theatres, and recreational facilities, at least until the 1960s § one example: in 1946 Viola Desmond refused to leave the whites-only seating area of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia; she was convicted of ‘tax evasion’, appealed, and lost § in the late 1960s, after decades of denials of services and other pressures, the city of Halifax condemned Africville and forcibly scattered its residents across the city anti-Chinese racism 1880s: brutal/dangerous work and inadequate food & housing on CPR construction immigration for men only, wives & children prohibited sexual regulation of the ‘yellow menace’ wage discrimination, supported by unions provincial and municipal disenfranchisement in BC confinement to certain sectors of the service industry rejection from military service in WWI anti-Japanese racism discrimination in wages, employment, voting, housing, education, and public space formation of Asiatic Exclusion League in 1907 restriction of fishing licenses in 1920s internment and forced relocation of 23,000 Japanese Canadians during WWII anti-South Asian racism § discrimination in wages, employment, voting, housing, education, and public space § disenfranchised in 1907 § stereotyping, called “ragheads” § immigration restriction by continuous passage rule § in 1918, the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru, carrying 376 passengers from India, was stopped at the border for two months, without being allowed to disembark its passengers, and eventually forced to leave anti-Semitism § anti-Semitism was normal in Canada as in other European countries and colonies § in 1933, Christie Pits was the site of a riot between a Swastika club and Jewish and Italian baseball players § Canada did less than other Western countries to take in Jewish refugees during and after the Holocaust, turning away almost all of the 800,000 Jews seeking refuge, including 900 Jews on the MS St. Louis in 1939 § Frederick Blair, Minister of Immigration, when asked in 1939 how many Jewish refugeed Canada would take, replied “none is too many” Racism Today Image source: https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/racial-wealth-gap the language of Whiteness became embarrassing after the 1940s and the revelations of the Nazi Holocaust Official White Supremacy in Canada 1940s 1970s nevertheless, immigration policy was still oriented to the UK and Europe until the 1970s, and social policy did little or nothing to address structural racism Multiculturalism § implemented in the 1970s and 1980s § response to two trends: § 1. decline of immigration from the UK and Europe, need to a more global immigration strategy\ 2. assertiveness of Francophone nationalism and Québec sovereigntist movement rooted in a colour-blind ideology, multiculturalism aims to be non-racist but not anti-racist Colour-Blind Racism § official attitudes began to change in the 1970s with the policy of multiculturalism § however, severe racial inequalities persist in every area of institutional life — policing, education, employment, health care, etc. § colour-blindness provides a way of claiming to be non-racist while ignoring structural and cultural racism Racism: Personal and Systemic personal racism — individuals’ anxiety, hostility, prejudice, discrimination, etc. towards others on the basis of racialized perceptions systemic racism — racialized inequalities which are produced through the regular functioning of an institution or a society, which may or may not result from conscious intent Image source: https://www.vox.com/2015/2/18/8051345/blackwhite-hispanic-wealth-gap nominally free Black Canadians experienced official discrimination in land grants, employment, wages Blacks targeted by mob violence; Canada’s first race riot was in 1784 AntiBlackness in early 1900s, immigration policy discouraged Black Americans residential segregation, and separation and refusal of services in restaurants, theatres, and recreational facilities Colour-Blind Racism § severe racial inequalities persist in every area of institutional life — policing, education, employment, health care, etc. § colour-blindness provides a way of claiming to be non-racist while ignoring structural and cultural racism Image source: https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2019/12/10/putting-somenumbers-on-racism-in-canada/ Exercise: Identify forms of systemic racism, and non-racist vs anti-racist responses Racism Non-racist response Anti-racist response