Presented at the Youth of Colour in Consultation Against Systemic Racism
March 27-28, 2004
BCGEU Building, Burnaby , BC
“It is by challenging historical fact, necessarily, that I begin to experience my freedom.”
-Franz Fanon
Welcome to the Matrix
In the late Fall of 2003, Mao Jomar Lanot, a 17-year old Filipino high school student at Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School was beaten to death by a group of South-Asian youth during the after hours at his school grounds. Media hype surrounding his beating death zeroed in and sensationalized on the “racism” between the two immigrant groups, irrespective of the harrowing marginalized conditions and poverty both communities had been systemically forced into. This blatant disregard is not surprising for beneath Canada’s stature of equality, opportunity and respect lies a confessional of conquest, colonialism, oppression and systemic racism. Yet, this history of systemic racism has been virtually edited out from history books, erased from the collective minds of Canadians, discussed and condemned solely in pedantic abstracts when the discourse of race, class and gender becomes the academe darling. Thus, thorough investigation and critical analysis of systemic racism as an ideology and as a tool of imperialism becomes more and more imperative in this heightened era of super-exploitation and oppression to enable displaced communities of colour and indigenous populations to steadfastly and militantly eradicate systemic racism down to its core. This can only be done by conscientiously and wholly tracing the origins of systemic racism within the matrix of capitalism.
The White Man’s Burden
“The racist in a culture with racism is therefore normal. He has achieved a perfect harmony of economic relations and ideology.”
-Franz Fanon
Systemic racism as an ideology and as a sophisticated means to divide and oppress people of colour was born and likewise flourished in accordance to the rise of capitalism. Before this time, the systemic oppression of one race over another race was not practiced in an absolute, organized manner; anthropological evidence of the epochs preceding capitalism demonstrates that acts of discrimination and persecution were based on the beliefs of cultural and religious superiority. Throughout the Greek Classical period, defeated tribes were enslaved to the victor during and after tribal wars which were based on cultural differences and supremacy. The Romans duplicated these endeavours, capturing and enslaving the city states and citizens of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Central Asia just to name a few. Prior to capitalism, the discrimination and abuses that were imposed on the Jewish people was principally grounded on opposing religious beliefs—it was not until the 19th century, 300 years after the birth of capitalism, that Jews were categorically thought of as a race.
As capitalism surged forward and rapidly developed into a more advanced and ultimately profitable economic system in the 16th century, likewise was the cultivation of systemic racism as an ideology to justify the exploitation and plundering of indigenous people and their land.
We identify that Europe is the birthplace of capitalism. The very nature of capitalism is to seek further material and wealth for profit, for money thus Europe’s swelling economy could not be contained in its mainland territories; there was no other way to accumulate prosperity in the likes of silver, gold, spices and labour other than to expand and encroach into other lands and countries. For example, behind the maple leaf and the stars and stripes of what we now know as Canada and the United States dorms a colonial history in which Britain and France so violently conquered the lands of the indigenous people. In South-East Asia, Spain raided thousands of unknown islands, now known as the Philippines, ruled it with and iron fist and bounded its economy under feudal system. The incessant need of the British, French and Spanish empires for minerals, resources and cheap labour altered and displaced the lives and livelihood of indigenous populations.
In this period of colonization and conquest, the initial wealth and riches of capitalist Europe was largely fed by the slave labour from Africa and by the mineral and natural resources of the Americas. This system is known as the triangular trade: 1) Slaves from Africa were shipped over to work in the mines and plantations of the Americas; 2) Raw materials and other natural products from the Americas flowed into Europe; 3) Europe produced manufactured products that were shipped to all the corners of the world. Alongside the unbalanced relationship, was the genocide of the people of the Americas by their European masters.
To guard their assets and their source of wealth, European colonizers justified their insatiable hunger for profit through cultural responsibilities, religious manifest destiny and biological superiority. These justifications are bet emoted in the publication of Rudyard Kipling’s poem appropriately titled, “The White Man’s Burden” in which “mixed exhortation to empire with sober warnings of the costs involved.” The philosophy behind the “White Man’s Burden” has been used widely to assume the racial responsibilities of a “new-caught sullen people/Half devil and half child.” These justifications nullify and alienate people of colour from their experiences with racism, thus detaching people of colour from the marginalization. It is impossible to divorce one from another as both capitalism—the dominant economic and political system—and racism flawlessly compliment, strengthen and sustain each other. 500 years after the advent of capitalism in which it reared systemic racism to perfection, youth of colour continue to experience the acrimonious stigma of racism.
The Usual Turmoil: Systemic Racism as We Understand it Today
“The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found freedom in his promised land. Whatever good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people, a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.”
-W.E.B. Du Bois
Because capitalism remains to be the dominant economic and political system, systemic racism remains embedded in all Canadian institutions such as immigration, the justice system, the education system, the work place and the media. Systemic racism as we understand it today cannot be simplified to an issue of attitude that can be effortlessly eradicated; it is an organized oppression that marginalizes, silences and divides communities of colour. Unlike personal racism which is blatant and obvious in intentions, systemic racism is deceptive, a chimera that afflicts our society. We cannot see it or necessarily feel it unless we are armed with a sharp comprehension of history and a clear analysis of systemic racism.
The Live-in Caregiver Program is a clear-cut example of the systemic racism pervading the lives of people of colour. Conceived in 1992 by Canada Immigration and Citizenship, the LCP fulfills the labour need for cheap childcare afforded only by middle class and affluent Canadian families. Abandoning its social responsibility for universal childcare, Canada utilizes the LCP to lure highly educated, highly-skilled professional women of the Third World—93% of domestic workers across Canada are Filipino women—to work and live as domestic workers in the homes of well-to-do families for 24 months. As these women remain fettered to the property of the LCP, their education and training are disregarded and devalued. Thus they are deskilled; their potential to become active participants in Canada is wasted, eventually jeopardizing their future and the future of their families. As Canada touts itself as the international champion for human rights, it continues to neglect the needs of the people who are suffering under a program it has created.
Within the education system, the implementation of Multiculturalism programs, although philosophically harmonious and with noble intentions, have proven to be ineffective and stinging in practice when it comes to facilitating understanding and unity amongst diverse communities across Canada. Coupled with this is the lack of time and resources for a student to learn about his/her own history and the contributions their community have made in construction of Canada as a nation and to its economy. Youth of colour are instead overwhelmed with the history and achievements of Europe and European men, or men of European origins such as John A. MacDonald and Alexander Mackenzie. The failure of the educational system to prioritize the histories of people of colour, for example, the history of the First Nations people, has worsened the divide between people of colour and non-people of colour, frustrated immigrant and communities of colour and has often lead to severe acts of racism.
Within the police and justice system, youth of colour are constantly targeted by police or security guards because of the systemically-backed stereotypes of the justice system. Youth of colour are often the victims of racial profiling, with this practice of being racially profiled intensifying amidst the post 9/11 hysteria and Canada’s tightening anti-terrorism legislation and initiatives. In large Eastern Canadian cities such as Toronto and Montreal, the African-Canadian community must contend with the consequences of racial profiling, whereas in Western cities such as Vancouver, Asian youth are often pulled over to be questioned of their whereabouts and activities, or even handcuffed and handled aggressively by police officers. In shopping malls, youth of colour find themselves continually harassed because they are hanging out in a large group. Youth of colour are discouraged and often humiliated in public primarily because they are viewed as threats when they congregate.
Confronting the Critical Moment
By further uncovering the history of people of colour and indigenous populations, we will collectively uncover the development of systemic racism as a tool of globalization to likewise divide and marginalize our communities. Likewise, by sharpening our analysis of the evolution of capitalism, we can best understand that racism, when organized into a multi-faceted and refined order is simply not a matter of words and stares that can be wiped out by an attitude change. This is far too infantile of a solution for a rather complex problem. In addition, when we assert that our economic displacement and maldevelopment is primarily due to the ills and waywardness of capitalism, we can then better assert and articulate with conviction that our collective marginalization as youth and as people of colour is not of our own doing nor our construction.
To quote the writer Milan Kundera:
“Forgetting is a form of death ever present within life…But forgetting is also the great problem of politics. When a big power wants to deprive a small [power] of its national consciousness it uses the method of organized forgetting…A nation which loses awareness of its past gradually loses itself.”
It is imperative that we revisit over and over again the beginnings of the ideology of systemic racism so as to not forget as people of colour our place in history and our responsibility to actively pursue a brighter future. By grasping and internalizing this history, we, as people of colour and concerned allies can better unite, educate, organize and mobilize against systemic racism.
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