Dr Noah Schulz

POL- 2415 -001: Politics of Racism

20 July 2020

Racism has always been a part of Colonization. Canada has always been a

capitalist competitor where conquest has always been of importance to the Britain colonists.

At the same time, Canada focused on flattering its image as a beautiful economy with no

discrimination and racism. Here, Canada created a mirage where it is shown that the

communities are well taken care of, where the power lies in the hands of all with no tolerance

for racism. However, Canada maintained this self-image after refurbishing and restructuring

the geographies and economy according to whites, worked in favour and against the slaves at

the same time and suppressed the communities in different ways. They practised racism and

anti- racism at the same time, where the government stood with the Black in the front of

Americans but denied them of their basic rights. Throughout the paper, we will focus on the

Irony of Canada of being against racism but using racial prejudice as a tool to

colonialism. Firstly, we will examine the Canada’s illusion of being a democratic and anti-

racist country as discussed in Abigail B. Bakan ‘Reconsidering the Underground Railroad:

Slavery and Racialization in the Making of the Canadian State. Secondly, we will focus

racial behaviour on Blacks who have been victims of discrimination as discussed in Desmond

Cole video,’ The Skin We’re in. Furthermore, we will discuss the restructuring of history

according to whites as discussed by Katherine McKittrick,” Their Blood is There, and They

Can’t Throw It Out’: Honouring Black Canadian Geographies.

From ages, Canada has fostered a democratic image where it shows it is for the

people, a perfect monarch with its loyalty to the crown and safest place for the well beings
where all humans are taken care of. Nevertheless, as described by Bakan, “the price of this

flattering self-portrait is public lying, falsified history, and self-destructive blindness.”

(Bakan) The underground railway depicts a country free of racism and where biases based on

prejudices do not exist, albeit all of this is a mirage where a lot of slaves were used in a fight

against America. From the historical context, it has been found that Slaves were used as

pawns and all that mattered to Canadian was capitalist competition. All the laws and

measures taken in the favour of slaves were not out of Altruism but to be a winning side

against American.

Canada gave power to a particular section of a society, introduced racism and

used it as a tool. It is responsible for the divide among the society. It gave birth to elite

hegemony - white superiority and used slaves by offering them a home to live and used their

loyalty. Underground railway depicts the generosity and helpfulness of Canada where a lot of

black slaves were helped to escape atrocities by U.S authorities but in reality, slaves were

used to win against Americans.

All the Blacks were loyal to Britain, and it was used against them. Blacks were

kept as beings with no home and were not allowed to return to their owners and on the other

hand they were not treated as free people. Black slaves were used for the slavery but on the

other hand were protected from the U.S owners. Canadians first let them enter by showing

how generous they are and later back stabbed them by not regarding them as equal citizens.

They used tactics to exploit them such as taking advantage of their loyalty and depicted

themselves as anti-racist but used racism against them. The thing that mattered the most to

Britain was the competition and all they were worried about was winning by using barbarism

and anti-democratic practices. As stated by Bakan, “Colonial conquest and destruction of

Indigenous people were central to the project; this was augmented by other barbarisms,

including the kidnapping, imprisonment, branding and trading in human flesh that was the
Atlantic slave trade.” (Bakan). People were not secure anywhere where the goals were driven

by selfish motives. It was not only Black but Indigenous, Chinese and other labourer

immigrants were victims of the brutal behaviour. Such behaviour shows the level of

barbarism among Canadians as well as Americans where everyone was inhumanely treated.

Their ideologies developed an elite, dominant and ruling class which were white and referred

to Blacks as unequal. Concepts like Altruism were only shown but never practiced.

Blacks were oppressed and were kept away from freedom. Canada is a so-called

“the land of ‘Peace, Order and Good Government” (Bakan) and a democratic country which

invites immigrants over, but they do experience different behaviour where racism is

incorporated from the elite class and is passed from generation to generation. In the modern

era, we see racial attitudes towards different races and backgrounds, especially black. Blacks

were denied rights to express their feelings from years, were kept as slaves and were denied

the standard norms of living in a society. Black people slaughtering is more common in the

society in the name of racism which degrades them. There were repercussions accordingly

where they never felt a part of society anymore. They were in a state of despair and

developed an inferiority complex. Black community has a single question, that is, how can

we cope if something goes wrong? because no one other than their own people stood with

them. While the director of the documentary was making various interactions, this often

made everyone emotional because of the way Black people were being killed and tortured.

Black people in Nova Scotia were being enslaved for around 50 years before they could

escape them. Even in the small town, where they used to reside, they were often stopped on

the entry or exit for the regular checks and were asked for paperwork. Blacks were the

victims of racism and were dominated by elites. They were harassed and discriminated

against on the basis of their colour. Rules were different for them, and they were

overrepresented in each case where the rest were never asked much. Another instance is that
a Black person named Andre Loku was shot dead in his own building as he was holding a

hammer in his hands, no official reported to be responsible for the act. Video was not handed

to the public due to a confidential matter and the name of the officer was not given which

shows that justice is not being served and law was unfair to Blacks. Furthermore, there were

many incidents that were reported like a woman was found dead after a conversation with the

police officer. Black kids were harassed on the basis of their skin colour. Black people are

way more educated than 70% of the Canadians but were never given equality in any aspect.

Today they are disliked by many Canadians which depicts discrimination.

“Their Blood is There, and They can’t throw It Out” is an essay that beautifully

talks about the importance of Blacks in Canadian society. McKittrick mentions that the black

geography of Canada has held a lot of importance in society but the path to such importance

had never been easy. The white Canadians have always tried to demolish the black

geographies and tried to make “Black-less roads” (McKittrick). The replacement of the Black

roads with the present ones point out to the fact that white dominant people of Canada tried to

conceal the identities of the Black and oppress their diaspora.

Even after so many changes and developments in the society where everyone

talks about equality, Black children are still not able to equally participate and still not able to

study with the white children in the same schools. The Canadian Parliament still does not

give preference to the Blacks and keep them away from the key opportunities. The Black

geography specifies that Blacks are not new, albeit it is redesigned according to Whites. They

have been in Canada for many centuries. Clarke says that we need to recount the history of

African Canadians and law of the era of slavery in the early 21st century. Various writers also

signify that the history needs to be written from the Black perspective rather than

demolishing the original one and creating new according to whites. The black culture can be

found in various black locations, for instance, libraries that focus on the Black culture,
museums that preserve the Black history, print media that do not ignore the news of Blacks

and dance halls that demonstrate the culture of Blacks and maintain their authenticity. Nova

Scotia right now is the only place that focuses on Blacks and has preserved their history.

Across Canada, there are a lot of magazines that talk about the black conversations among

different provinces.

To conclude, Black along with communities such as Indigenous and Chinese

have faced a lot of criticism and were victims of racialization and discrimination. They were

not given equal human rights and did not have any say in any of the matters. They were

degraded up to such an extent that geographical histories were restructured, so as to eliminate

the proof of their existence. Moreover, Canada’s help in Railroad, immigration depicts a

society free of all ill behaviour and obscures the reality - a racist Canada. Finally, it is crucial

to address all the communities being oppressed, combating systematic racism and

discrimination.
Works Cited
Bakan, Abigail B. “Reconsidering the Underground Railroad:Slavery and Racialization in the
Making of the Canadian State.” n.d.: 3-29.
Cole, Desmond. The Skin We're In. 3 November 2017.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoBTIv1VqM>.
McKittrick, Katherine. “" Their Blood Is There, and They Can't Throw It Out": Honouring
Black Canadian Geographies.” n.d.: 28-36.