Battling everyday, casual racism in Canada
The effects of stereotyping versus outright discrimination
Janice Tinio was having a standard phone conversation with a client when things took an uncomfortable turn.
“I was working on his account when he said to me, ‘Oh, you have an accent. Where are you from? You French?’ … I said, ‘Oh, I’m from Jamaica.’ Then he said, ‘Really? You’re not like regular Jamaicans. You’re smart,’” recalls the Toronto-based technical sales expert.
Tinio was offended by what her client was implying, though she says she’s grown used to hearing these kinds of “dumb comments” as they happen “all the time.”
Henry Huang, who moved to Canada from China as a child, can relate. From what he does for a living to his communication skills, he says, “People just make assumptions about the way I live or the type of person I am.”
Huang, who works at a university in Ontario, remembers one instance in a workshop when he told the administrator that he is a graphic designer, but was still later referred to as an IT employee. He also recalls times when people have asked him to read Japanese or Korean, while knowing that he’s a Chinese Canadian.
“It’s just assumptions and general ignorance,” he says.
Tinio and Huang both say they’ve had many encounters with this casual or everyday racism, which is described by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) as “the many and sometimes small ways in which racism is experienced by people.”
Other examples include the slight movement away from a person of colour in an elevator and the extra attention paid to a Black customer in a store. According to OHRC, “sometimes it is not even consciously experienced by its perpetrators, but it is immediately and painfully felt by its victims.”
Does intent matter when it comes to racism?
In this era of overt racist confrontations going viral on social media, some may think the everyday type of racism is not that harmful — at least it isn’t meant to be purposefully harmful. After all, doesn’t every community have its assumptions and jokes about other cultures?
Iman Bukhari.
“But, in the end, they all lead to the same thing,” says Iman Bukhari, CEO of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation, a Calgary-based non-profit organization that works to mitigate racism through education, technology and the arts.
“Subtle forms of racism really build up and can cause a lot of frustration, depression and anxiety because it keeps coming back to you on a daily basis, and you are constantly reminded of the fact that you’re different than others.”
Bukhari adds that such common assumptions and stereotypes in the mainstream community can lead to policies and practices that negatively impact diverse people.
An example of this, according to the Canadian Labour Congress, is that employers are 40 per cent more likely to interview people with “English-sounding names” among candidates who have equivalent resumés.
“When you apply for a job, if people have these [stereotypical] ideas, it’s not intentional, but they ignore you,” says Goli Rezai-Rashti, a professor at Western University in Ontario whose expertise includes anti-racism, race and education.
In a school setting, Rezai-Rashti says that teachers’ subtle comments to students — like assuming some children are from Canada while asking children of colour where they’re from —can communicate a message that some kids don’t belong.
“It affects children in a dramatic way,” she says. Especially when these experiences of everyday racism start at a young age, it causes people to “function differently in society.”
READ MORE: Dealing with anti-immigrant sentiment
Battling stereotypes
For Huang, he says the stereotypes facing Asians have given him a heightened need to be accomplished in certain areas. Pointing to the assumption that “all Asians should be smart,” he says many feel pressure living up to this ideal, lest people will think there’s something wrong with them.
“We’re working our butts off trying to meet these expectations put on us,” he says. “And we are held more accountable than others for having to accomplish those things.”
In contrast to Asian stereotypes, Tinio says, “The stereotypes about Black people are more along the lines of gangs and drugs and violence. Delinquency.”
Having had false assumptions made about her in the past, she says it has affected how she meets new people. “When you expect that someone’s going to treat you unfairly or unkind, even if it’s in a casual way, I’m going to prepare myself,” she says. “It’s almost like a subconscious protection of yourself and of your feelings.”
With expectations coming from both ends, she says, “It becomes a vicious cycle.”
So, how can this cycle be broken?
While there is no easy solution to this complicated and multifaceted matter, Rezai-Rashti and Bukhari agree with the OHRC that one of the most important strategies is education.
“We have to really engage people more in a reflective kind of thinking,” says Rezai-Rashti. “[Help people] to think about their own ideas and attitudes and how we can change them.”
Some ideas they suggest include: informing people that race and genes do not determine a person’s skills or behaviour; increasing programming about anti-racism and multiculturalism; teaching people to celebrate differences; and encouraging others to look at immigrants in a positive light.
Another way to address everyday racism, and racism in general, is to call it out.
When it comes to everyday racism, Bukhari acknowledges that it can actually be more difficult to address than more overt kinds of racism.
“It’s hard to call out because people might not be aware [they’re doing it],” she says. “It is so subtle, and people may say, ‘Oh, you’re pulling out the race card, you’re getting too sensitive, you’re getting too politically correct.’”
To this end, Bukhari helped create Language De-Coded, an app that lists racist, sexist and other potentially harmful terms that lend to everyday racist language.
Huang’s personal strategy is to be empathetic. He thinks about how society may have groomed someone to have uninformed beliefs, and then he approaches the situation with kindness.
“I think what works for me is just being invitational. I’ll say ‘Here’s some stuff about Chinese culture if you want to know more. I’m always here to talk about it,’” he says. “It’s making yourself available and making it feel welcoming [for people to] want to talk about those things.”
It’s not always easy and requires some patience, but Huang says important changes take time. And he’s optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction in Canada.
Tinio remains hopeful as well, and she looks forward to a time where new people can be looked at with a blank slate, where opinions are formed after people get to know each other, not before.
“Stop forming conclusions in your head because someone eats different types of food or dresses a different way than you do,” she says. “Ignorance blocks us from being able to get to know all the awesome things that we have in common. Let’s take down these barriers, take down these walls and get to know people.”