Welcome to the class: racism under COVID -19! I'm going to walk you through some
key ideas and concepts that you're going to
need for this module.
My objective is for you to be able to do
at least three things in relation to
racism under COVID.
One - is to identify systemic racism. Two -
identify common racist discourses
against racial minorities.
And three - understand the impact of
systemic racism
and racist discourses on racial and
ethnic minorities,
and how it's exacerbated during COVID
times.
First, can you think of an example of
racism under COVID?
Write your example in the annotations in
CLAS for this video.
To understand racism we first have to
unpack some key
terms. First and foremost we have to understand what
consists of a race.
A race is a group of people treated as
distinct in society,
based on superficial physical
differences that are made significant
by a given society (i.e: skin tone).
Race doesn't reflect consistent genetic
differences between groups of people;
rather, race is a socially and
politically constructed category.
Racial categories are often created to
justify exploitation
and disenfranchisement. For example - until 1960 according to the Indian Act quote
"Indians are not allowed to vote in
municipal provincial or federal
election". So we see here racial
category
created, and named, and placed into
law by the colonial government that has
an effect on how power and
decision-making is distributed.
Some other examples are how Chinese,
Japanese, East Indian, and South Asian
Canadians were also denied the right to
vote until the late 1940s.
Race is also culturally specific and can
change in different contexts.
One way to see how societies construct
race, is to look at the historical
experiences of particular categories of
people in the United States.
A century ago jewish immigrants and some
other European immigrants were defined
as non-White. After World War II; however,
Jewish people were redefined as White
folks.
Now, let's break this racism down further.
Racism involves both thoughts and
actions. We're going to unpack several key ideas.
Prejudice, comes from the latin words pray, meaning
before.
And judicia, meaning judgment. Prejudice
occurs when people are biased: either for
or against
members of groups even before they have
had any contact with them.
Racial prejudice specifically involves
beliefs that certain racial groups are
innately inferior to others, or have a
disproportionate number
of negative traits. Prejudicial beliefs
are often based on
stereotypes. Stereotypes are inaccurate
generalizations about the appearance,
behaviour, or other characteristics of
members of particular groups.
For example, why are police officers more
likely to stop
men of colour? Here, we can see racialized
stereotypes connected to
perceptions of danger crime and so on.
All stereotypes are hurtful, but negative
stereotypes are particularly harmful to
members of minority groups.
Discrimination occurs when prejudice and
stereotypes are put
into action.
Discrimination is defined as: actions or
practices of dominant group members or
other representatives that have a
harmful impact on members of a
subordinate group.
There's two basic forms of
discrimination. De jure discrimination,
is legal discrimination which is encoded
in laws.
Examples of this in the Canadian context
are the Chinese head tax
and parts of the Indian Act. De facto
discrimination
is informal discrimination which is
entrenched in social customs. It's not
legally sanctioned, but it happens
anyways.
So what is racism then? Racism, is a set
of ideas that implies the superiority of
one social group
over another on the basis of perceived
biological or cultural characteristics.
Plus, the power to put these beliefs into
practice
in a way that controls, excludes, or
exploits
members of minority groups.
And, the power to transform prejudicial
attitudes and discrimination
into structures of oppression that
function independently
from the intentions of individual actors.
Racism therefore involves not just
different treatment,
but different treatment in
colour-conscious context of power.
These contexts often limit opportunities
or privileges.
So, we have talked about prejudice,
stereotypes, discrimination,
and racism. However, there is a difference
between
individual racism and systemic racism.
The latter
is often more invisible than the former.
A good example of how racism can be
independent
from the intentions of individual actors,
but
rooted in our structures and systems is
the 'bad cop' versus 'good cop' discourse -
in responding to police brutality.
When it comes to police brutality, there
is a common framing of
bad apples in public discussion. In this
article called "Policing is Doing What It
was Meant to Do.
That's the Problem",  Todd May and George
Yancy write quote
"on June 6, one of us attended a memorial
vigil for George Floyd.
The opening speaker first thanked the
local Police Department for keeping the
vigil safe and then went on to
distinguish between the majority of
police officers
who do their job helping and protecting
people and the few who are racist and
violent".
Even in Barack Obama's public statement
on the killing of Mr.Floyd on May 29th,
we can see the same discourse of 'bad
apples' or 'bad cops' versus the majority
of 'good cops'.
However, blaming racist violence on 'bad
apples'
misses the point. We have to first that
recognize that racism can be rooted in
our police structures, and it can be
independent from individuals' intentions.
Law enforcement is a powerful
institution rather than a personal
presentation.
It has become (quote) "an unprecedented
powerful
cultural and political force protected
by unions,
Officer Brotherhood, Police Service Acts,
and
it enjoys increased authority, lacks
prosecution,
and qualified immunity from prosecution
and so on.
Therefore, the point is not about how
many cops are 'good' or 'bad';
rather, Mill's Sociological Imagination
allows us to see the police are part of
the state's
organs of repression, that maintain the
social order based on a long history of
racism
and inequality between White and Black
communities.
Before we jump to the next slide, let me
ask you two questions.
What do you think people would say if we
were to ask them,
one) do they think they are racist? And
two)
do they think the education system in
Canada treats Black students differently
than White students?
The first question,
concerns the idea of individual racism.
Individual racism refers to an
individual's racist assumptions, beliefs
or behaviours
and is (quote) "a form of racial
discrimination that stems from conscious
and
unconscious, personal prejudice". That is
from Henry and Tator (2006).
Individual racism can be overt and
obvious,
polite and subtle, or subliminal and
unconscious - that is prejudices which
individuals are unaware of but that
display themselves
in discriminatory beliefs and behaviours.
Individual racism is connected to and
learned from
broader socioeconomic histories and
processes, and is supported and
reinforced by systemic racism.
I'm going to talk now
about an example of systemic racism in
relation to Indigenous communities in
Canada.
If that is a triggering topic for you,
then you're welcome to tune
out and join us again in three slides.
Join us at the slide that says: racism is
more than an individual issue in a few minutes. So our example,
a non-Indigenous individual might learn
from the Hollywood films about
cowboys and Indians, and accumulate some negative stereotypes about Indigenous
people such as
(quote) "that Indigenous people have more
problems with addiction"
(unquote), or the highly offensive
stereotype and slur
of 'drunken Indians'.
These harmful racist views held by
individuals are connected to the social
consequence of residential schools
and genocide against Indigenous
communities.
Particularly, this is connected to the
racist myth of: Genetic Alcoholism.
For decades, scientists have tried to
prove that drug addiction and alcoholism
are innate
to Indigenous people, and many people
have believed that
Indigenous bodies are more susceptible
to addictions.
However, research has shown that the high
prevalence of alcohol use，
and its consequences among Indigenous
communities
are attributed to a number of factors.
Including the influence of the European
colonists
who first made large amounts of alcohol
available to Indigenous communities,
and the intergenerational trauma
associated with
residential schools - where families were
broken by the state,
the deprivation of land, the sense of
dislocation and social exclusion;
as well as the multiple forms of
physical, sexual, spiritual,
and psychological abuse during childhood.
Now I'm going to read part of a speech
given by
St John's Native Friendship Centre
cultural support worker:
Amelia Reimer, on the colonial roots of
mental health and addiction among
Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Reimer states to put it in perspective,
(quote) "imagine if your daughter,
your wife, your sister, your mother turned
up missing - 
how would it impact you if the
authorities couldn't bother to do a
proper investigation?
How would you react if those in power
around you merely shrug their shoulders
refused to take action,
and even taunted you with hurtful words
over what type of person your loved one
must be?
Next month, your cousin is found dead
and you get the same inaction and cold
shoulder again."
(unquote)
So we see here, the use of
drugs and other substances as
self-medication in a colonial
intergenerational
trauma context. So to reiterate,
the racist myth of 'drunken Indian' has to
be traced back to the history of
colonization and socioeconomic processes
that led to poverty and isolation among
Indigenous communities.
The reasons for the increased likelihood
of addictions are multiple,
and result from a combination of
influences related to
European colonization. These include but
are not limited to:
lack of recognition of Indigenous
cultures, traditions, and languages;
government policies,
racism, discrimination, and stereotyping.
Breakdown in family structure, poverty
isolation, and residential schools
cycles of dysfunction, and
intergenerational
trauma. So in the last example, we saw
that racism
is more than an individual issue.
While many Canadians as individuals
might answer 'no' to the question "do you
think you are racist?",
many Canadians might answer 'yes' to the
second question about differential
treatment in institutions like the
education system
by race. It is important to recognize
that individuals may not see themselves
as racist,
but they can still benefit from systems
of privilege and oppression
because there is systemic racism.
So what is systemic racism? Let's first
watch a video
on this idea.
