I think it’s safe to say that our reality has shifted. In a year marked by pandemics, populism, and protests – proof alone that we are living in an era like no other – old certainties about the normal and right no longer hold sway while the future is up for grabs (Clinton, 2020). The indifferences and denials of the past have been dislodged and replaced with a bracing vigilance across all realms of society (Williams, 2021b). Debates over the politics of racism are layered in complexities and contradictions, replete with references to structural barriers and systemic biases, anchored in the discourses of white supremacy and critical race theory, and positioned against a backdrop of calling out racism by calling in a post-racism world (Appiah, 2020). And yet a paradox of perspective prevails to complicate any assessment. Many would agree that settler racism in the past played an outsized role in shaping public attitudes, government policies, and institutional arrangements. But there is far less agreement over the ‘what kind’, ‘how much’, and ‘why for’ of contemporary racisms. To the extent that many concede their presence in Canada, present-day racisms are brushed off as a historical relic whose manifestations are infrequent and erratic, relegated to the lunatic fringes, and a betrayal of Canada’s loftier principles. Canada is thought to endorse a colourblind commitment to the ideal of a post-racial society, one in which Canadians try to look past skin colour (code for ‘race’) as grounds for a tolerant coexistence (also Knight-Laurie, 2021). Canada also basks in its bona fides as a multicultural society that purports to abide by the principles of multiculturalism for living together with differences (Fleras, 2019b). Not surprisingly, it takes a very peculiar kind of Canadian foolish enough to explicitly spout those racist doctrines that positioned whites at the pinnacle of the evolutionary ladder, with racialized minorities1 ranked accordingly. Few in this age of virtue-signaling and ‘wokefulness’ want to be accused of racism. Nor do they want to be scorned or shunned for stepping outside the parameters of what is acceptable or desirable.
The year like no other ripped open the ugly scab of racism that could no longer be salved or suppressed (Ross, 2021). Just as the global pandemic laid bare racial disparities in peoples’ lives, so too did the videotaped murder of George Floyd that unfolded in front of millions of viewers expose the expression of racial oppression while initiating, for possibly the first time, a serious debate over injustices that persist along racial lines (Morris, 2022). The post-George Floyd moment and the Black Lives Matter movement contributed to
That racism as an idea is seldom conceptualized with any precision or consistency should come as no surprise. Racism may be at the forefront of many minds, as it should be, but most are confused by complexities over what it means, how it works, why it persists, what can be done about it. The idea of racism as it is articulated, debated, and challenged at present is so different from just a generation or two ago as to almost defy logic. References to racism now encompass the convoluted and contradictory, incongruities as well as absurdities, especially when attitudes and actions once deemed to be progressive are now redefined as racist and offensive – and vice versa (McWhorter, 2021c; Thorne, 2020a). Definitions of racism continue to proliferate; they range from those who define it around references to race to those who see racism in anything that perpetuates racial inequality (Kendi, 2016). Racism encompasses such a sweeping spread of ideas – from bigotry to systemic racism to white supremacy – as to confuse even the best-intentioned (McWhorter, 2022). The implications of a domain in disarray point to the necessity of problematizing3 the idea of racism as a fraught and complex concept. Yet efforts to deconstruct its nature, scope, and magnitude as well as reasons for its pervasiveness and
Debate over the politics of racisms might appear incongruent in a multicultural Canada that extols the principles of inclusion, equity, and diversity. A comparative reading suggests this is arguably true. Compared to its past and in comparison to other countries, Canada sparkles as a paragon of post-racism progress (see US News & World Report, 2022 that ranked Canada as the world’s best country). But in contrast to Canada’s constitutional principles and multicultural aspirations, a worrying gap exists that misaligns societal ideals with racialized realities. Racism and white supremacy are not an anomaly or event in Canada, neither now nor in the past, but enduring as structures and systems embedded in the constitutional order, policies and laws, and institutional practices (Thobani, 2007). Its centrality to the very ‘soul’ of this country is difficult to refute despite the gloss of multicultural platitudes to soften the blow. Not only is there is growing awareness of the racialized plight of Black people, Asian-Canadians, and Indigenous peoples as well as Jews and Muslims. There is growing willingness as well for calling out racism as systemic and institutionalized yet routine and normalized in peoples’ everyday lives (David et al., 2019). Not so much a glitch in the system or an outlier at the fringes of society – that is, a deviation from a national norm or betrayal of core principles – but a constitutive component of a Canada that conflates racial hierarchies with differentials of power, privilege, and resources (Maynard, 2017). In turn, notions of the normal, acceptable, and desirable continue to be locked into a monocultural frame of white normativity that embeds racism as a system default rather than collateral damage, systemic rather than incidental.
The concept of racism clearly requires a conceptual reboot. Just as the pandemic is killing off old economic orthodoxies and political certainties (Krugman, 2022; Morris, 2020), so too is it unsettling the national conversation
Racism as an idea and a reality strikes at the very the core of a settler society. Intimations of racism are chiseled into the constitutional order, codified in government policies, embedded in culture and social structures, expressed through institutional practices, and lived through peoples’ everyday experiences. In that every disparity or disagreement is viewed and debated through the lens of race/racism, Canada is not exempt from this dynamic. While some believe the national narrative on race, racism, and race relations has vastly improved over previous generations (Nanos, 2021), other are not so sure. Consider how the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated a crisis of racial inequity over the quality of health care, higher patterns of chronic illness, and disproportional rates of morbidity for racialized community members (Bunn et al., 2021; Hewitt & Kapadia, 2021 for the UK). The persistence of systemic racism and structural inequalities are proof that Canada’s smug superiority as a trailblazer in multicultural accommodation does a disservice in sanitizing its troubled history of colonialism, genocide, open white supremacy, and xenophobic racism (Environics Institute & CRRF, 2021). Such a damning indictment puts pressure on decoding the concept of Canadian racism beyond the glib or superficial. More to the point, the path toward a racial reckoning addresses a quintessential 21st century challenge: how to live together with, in, and through our differences without the differences spiraling out of control (Fleras, 2019b)? Or as Michael Ignatieff (once a professor, then Liberal
Notes
The expression racialized is frequently applied as a catch-all label for categorizing non-whites. This book extends the concept of racialized to include whites as well since they, too, reflect a process of racialization (hence the expression, racialized-in-whiteness). That is, whites must be defined as if they were a race involving a number of shared characteristics related to power, status, and privilege (see Tewelde, 2020). Failure to do so is more than a rounding error. To position whites outside of a race dialogue reinforces their position as the unmarked yet universal norm that encompasses the entirety of the human experience DiAngelo, 2021). While minorities are racialized (or raced) as different and inferior, whites are universalized as normal and the normative standard by which others are judged. It should be noted that expressions such as racialized minorities or racial community are also flawed unless care is taken to acknowledge their inherent limitations; for example, the danger of homogenizing a vast range of diversities within diversities that define a community or group) (Environics Institute, 2021).
The expressions ‘calling out’ and ‘calling in’ (to a lesser extent) are now part of the racial reckoning discourse. A calling out is used in the sense of ‘to expose’. It refers to a process of publicly criticizing, shaming, or challenging others to confront difficult issues that for too long have remained hidden in plain view. Related dictionary meanings include the following: shouting to get someone’s attention, to summon into action, or to expose people’s lies. Used judiciously, it can be a useful tactic in making people take responsibility in accounting for actions and words that are no longer tolerated. Yet reference to calling out can also be used in a less flattering way, that is, a kind of bullying power to shame-and-blame others, boast of one’s ‘wokefulness’ among peers, or impose ideological purity (Loretta Ross in Baker, 2021; also DiAngelo, 2021). By contrast, reference to a calling in entails a reconnecting with others by cooperating across differences through dialogue, a shift in perspectives, and faith in a constructive engagement (Loretta Ross in Baker, 2021). Rather than shunning or shaming others because they are insufficiently ‘awoke’, the focus is on embracing and engaging those who have strayed from the righteous path (Trần, 2013). The expression can also be used in the sense of delving more deeply into an issue in advancing a cause through understanding.
Reference to problematizing is more than just a criticism or a problem expose. It’s about questioning and challenging the taken-for-granted by reframing the normal or routine as a problem in need of more transparency, accountability, or precision. Problematizing as an interpretive lens calls into question those tacitly assumed assumptions, processes, and consequences often perceived unproblematic – that is, as natural and normal – yet, in reality, concealed or unspoken. For example, consider those racist assumptions that historically