Making Equal Rights Real
Conference, Montreal May 01 2010
Making Racial Justice Real
Grace-Edward Galabuzi
Ryerson University
Making Racial Justice Real
 The Case for Racial Justice
 What is Racial Justice - definitions
 Structural Racism - definitions
 Whiteness and White Privilege - definitions
 Changing profile of Canada
 Economic exclusion
 Opportunities: Power and Participation
 Breaking down barriers to participation
 Using Racial Equity Impact Assessments (REIA)
 Racial equity report cards (Colour of Poverty)
The Case for Racial Justice
 Canadian values: Racial Justice - Canadian society
values equality above all else (Justice Iacobucci)
 Legal imperative: Living up to the ideals of our
constitution - Charter of Rights Sec 15: Equality
Rights; Multiculturalism Act; Employment Equity Act
 Social cohesion: Learning to live well together
 The Business case: Economic sustainability
 Social Inclusion: Imagining a new Just Canada
project
 Who are we really?: Canada ethnic make up is
changing
What is Racial Justice - Definitions
 Racial Justice represents a process of reversing the
impact of racialization of particular groups in society
 Racial Justice is necessary because racialization
establishes a system of race-based privileges and
disadvantages for collectives within society
 ‘Race’ -acts as an organizing principle of historical
and contemporary life in North America
 Racialized outcomes manifest as racial disparities
through a variety of social economic indicators - in
employment, income, health, education, criminal justice
system, political participation and representation and life
chances
‘Race’ and Racialization - Definitions
 ‘Race’ is a socially constructed concept that is used to establish categories
of people within the human family
 Historically, it has relied on bio-cultural distinctions, such as phenotype,
ethnicity but also religion from time to time
 It enables the establishment of racial hierarchies in political, economic and
social life through a process called racialization.
 Ideologically, it is used to justify the differentiation of peoples on the basis
of socially selected physical traits for the purpose of acquiring or maintain
an advantage for one group or other.
 Objects of racialization change in time and space - Irish, Quebecois,
Eastern/Southern Europeans, Jews
 In the Canadian context, there has been a persistent focus on Aboriginal
populations and ‘Visible Minorities’
Structural Racism - Definitions
 Structural racism is defined as the establishment of a racial regime whose
outcomes are racial inequality that is built into the economic and social
structure of society
 the social order is organized along racial assumptions and norms
 institutional and social arrangements that determine distribution of societal
resources, benefits and burdens, based on racial concept
 It is dependant on the process of ‘othering’ certain racialized groups’
cultures and experiences and universalizing the culture and experience of
those in power
 One race maintains having a superior position of power and privilege,
using it to gain greater political, economic and social advantages than other
racial groups. Other groups are subject to disadvantages and burdens
 Canadian Anglo-Franco conformity as defining Canadian society –
imagined society as one of two founding peoples
Everyday forms of racism - Definitions
 Colorblind racism: the status quo is sustained by those who
pledge allegiance to race-neutral policies and shifts focus to
intent, individual actions and ignore systemic outcomes.
 Double-bind racism: those who reference systemic racism
and the racial regime or advocate on behalf of anti-racist
practices and policies are accused of being racist or “playing
the race card.”
 Dog-whistle racism: messages are conveyed on a separate
frequency through racially coded words and phrases, that
reinforce racially attuned subjective decision-making.
 Image-borne racism: Images are willfully or unconsciously
deployed to trigger deeply ingrained stereotypes - an effort
worth a thousand color-coded words.
‘Race’ and Canada: Does race matter?
 The dominant Canadian narrative is one of exhaltation of
European culture and civilization and inferiorization of
‘others’ – leading to structural racism/race regime
 A history of colonization
Canada depicted as a nation of two founding peoples
Wars of conquest against Aboriginal peoples
Cultural genocide against Aboriginal peoples
 The Japanese Internment
 The Chinese Exclusion Acts 1883-1943
 The Hindu Woman’s Question
 The story of Africville, Nova Scotia
 Persistent discrimination against racialized and First peoples
Anti-racism Action
 Structural racism understood and addressed as a social
relation (intersecting with class, gender, etc- under capitalism)
 Anti-racism focus on racial equity: substantive equality,
equity in outcomes, commitment to eradicate racism
 Anti-racism action can extent to all other social oppressions gender, ability, sexuality, etc
 Racial Inclusion: Focus is on integrating racialized members
and Aboriginal peoples as full and equal participants in society
 It represents an holistic approach to building inclusive
ideologies, policies, goals, practices, systems, as well as
changes in power relations, commitment to empowerment,
supportive alliances and solidarity
Anti-Racism Policy Analysis
Dimensions
Focus
Questions
Ideological
Historical disadvantages,
Values, Attitudes, Climate
How has the state
historically regarded
Aboriginal and racialized
people
Structural
Entitlements/rights,
recourse and remedies
Are there effective legal
measures for dealing with
systemic racism
Participatory
Programs, services
To what extent do the
communities exercize
control over the policies
and programs that affect
them
Developmental
Opportunities and
resources
To what extent is the
potential of the groups
being realized
Why address racial inequity Changing Profile of Canada
 According to the 2006 Census data, those who self-identified as ‘Visible
Minorities’ (racialized group members) were 16.4% of the Canadian
population while immigrants accounted for 19.6%.
 By 2031, racialized groups will make up close to a third of Canada’s
population – that is one in three Canadians will be racialized. This is a
major transformation, from less than 5% of Canada’s population in 1980 to
32% (between 11.4 and 14.4 million) in the next twenty years.
 There has been a significant change in the source countries, with over 75%
of new immigrants since the 1980s coming from the global South – Asia,
Africa, Caribbean, Middle East, Latin America.
 Racialized group population grew by 27 per cent between 2001 and 2006,
more than five times the increase in the rest of the population at 5.4%.
 South Asians now account for a quarter of all racialized people in Canada,
or four per cent of the total population. Chinese comprise about another
quarter of the country's visible minority population, with some 1.2 million
identifying themselves as Chinese. Blacks, Filipinos, Latin Americans,
Arabs, Southeast Asians, West Asians, Koreans and Japanese round out the
top 10 racialized groups
Social Exclusion in the C21st
“The many varieties of exclusion, the fears of
social explosions to which it gives rise, the
dangers of social disruption; the complexity of
the mechanisms that cause it, the extreme
difficulty of finding solutions, have made it the
major social issue of our time”
(Yepez Del Castillo , 1994: 614)
Economic exclusion
“Exclusion is the greatest risk accompanying
the opportunities of the new economic era.
Significant numbers of people lose their hold,
first on the labour market, then on the social
and political participation in their
communities”
R. Dahrendorf et al Report on the Wealth Creation and Social Cohesion in a free Society
(London: The Commission on Wealth Creation & Social Cohesion, 1995:15).
Elements of economic exclusion
Racial income inequality
Racial inequality in access to employment
Higher unemployment and under employment
Lower labour market participation
Uneven conversion of human capital into
comparable occupational status
Higher exposure to low income - racialized
poverty
Employment income disparities for
immigrants
Immigrant earnings as % of Canadian born (1980-2000)
________________________________________________________________
Years in
Males
Females
Canada
1980
1990
2000
1980
1990
2000
______________________________________________________________________________________
1 year
71.6%
63.4%
63.1%
64.7%
70%
60.5%
2 years
86.9%
73.3%
71.4%
79.3%
79.8%
68.4%
3 years
93.45
77%
75.5%
84.45
84.4%
71.7%
4 years
88.8%
77.1%
77.3%
87.8%
82%
74.3%
5 years
92.7%
78.55
77.1%
91.7%
83.8%
77.4%
6 years
93.5%
81.55
76.5%
94.9%
83.3%
77.8%
7 years
95.1%
84.5%
76.6%
97.9%
87.3%
76.8%
8 years
89.9%
97.5%
75.2%
96.3%
94.6%
80.2%
9 years
97.3%
97.2%
78.3%
103.1%
93.7%
82.2%
10 years
100.4%
90.1%
79.8%
103.1%
93.3%
87.3%
______________________________________________________________________________________
Employment Earnings Comparative racialized and
non-racialized, 2000 and 2005
% change
%NR
___________________________________________________________________________________
2000
2005
2000
2005
___________________________________________________________________________________
Total Canadian
35,619
36,301
1.9
Total Non-Racialized
36,353
37,332
2.7
Total Racialized
30,451
30,385
-0.2
84
81
Chinese
32,354
32,981
1.9
89
88
South Asian
31,486
31,103
-1.2
87
83
African Canadian
28,215
28,012
-0.7
78
75
Filipino
28,542
29,393
3.0
79
79
Latin American
26,034
26,241
0.8
72
70
Southeast Asia
28,958
28,880
-0.3
80
77
Arab
30,452
29,441
-3.3
84
79
West Asian
27,101
26,279
-3.0
75
70
Korean
27,149
25,892
-4.6
75
69
Japanese
42,579
42,177
-0.9
117
113
Racialized (nie)
32,841
30,666
-6.6
90
82
____________________________________________________________________________
Poverty is not Colour Blind: The
Racialization of poverty
 The Racialization of poverty refers to the persistent
and disproportionate exposure to low income
experienced by racialized group and Aboriginal
people in Canada.
 It points to the significance of racialization as a key
structural determinant of poverty in Canada and the
differential experience of poverty
 Racialized groups and Aboriginal people are two to
three times more likely to be poor that other
Canadians
Strategic Framework for Advancing
Racial Justice (Compact for racial Justice - ARC)
 Focus on structural and systemic inequality rather
than personal prejudice
 Focus on impacts rather than intentions
 Address racial inequality explicitly but not
exclusively
 Propose solutions that emphasize equity and inclusion
 Develop strategies to empower stakeholders and
target institutional power-holders
 Make racial justice a high priority in all social justice
efforts
Action for social change: Shared
Power and Participation
 Addressing social exclusion/racial justice in a liberal
democratic society requires its victims to be an integral part of
the process of change.
 That means empowering them to be central actors in the
process of change and in the systems and structures that
govern decision making in society.
 Racialized groups and Aboriginal peoples need to confront the
lack of representation in key political, economic, social and
cultural institutions especially in the geographic communities
in which they live.
 For Aboriginal and radicalized peoples to make significant
progress in Canadian society, they need to be at the tables
where decisions are made
 Aboriginal and racialized group change relationship to power
Breaking down barriers to participation
 Breaking down barriers means making changes to our
institutions that facilitate racial justice and inclusion
in every aspect of decision making - sharing power
 Requires understanding the connection between
majority privilege and minority oppression acknowledging that racial oppression is necessary to
sustain racial privilege.
 Coalitions of progressive politics are essential to
establishing a politics of racial justice and inclusion
in the city, the province and the country.
 Progressive institutions are the key ‘switchmen’ in
the process of change
Using Racial Equity Impact assessments
 A Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) is a systematic
examination of how proposed policy action or decision will
likely affect different racial, ethnic and Aboriginal groups.
 REIAs are used to minimize unanticipated adverse
consequences in a variety of contexts, including the analysis of
proposed policies, institutional practices, programs, plans and
budgetary decisions.
 The REIA can be a vital tool for preventing institutional
racism and for identifying new options to remedy longstanding inequities.
Racial Equity Impact assessments (Applied Research Centre - ARC, Oakland, USA)
 Identify key stakeholders
 Engage stakeholders
 Identify and document racial inequities
 Examine the causes
 Clarify purpose of policy proposal
 Consider the adverse effects
 Consider equitable impacts
 Examine and present alternatives
 Ensure viability and sustainability
 Identify success indicators and monitor progress
Racial Justice/Racial Equity report cards Key areas to evaluate racial equity in the City of Toronto
(Colour of Poverty Campaign, Ontario)
1. What measures were taken by elected municipal officials in the past four years to
reduce racial disparities?
 Were racial equity and economic justice discussed as official policy goals, including in
the municipal budget?
 How do racial equity and economic justice figure into the election platforms of the
candidates?
2. Was access to services increased for members of racialized communities, for
example, education and training programs, after school programs, child care,
libraries, emergency services? Were racialized workers hired to help provide these
services?
3. Were neighbourhoods of racialized communities adequately served in the past four
years in terms of infrastructure: for example, social housing, schools and public
transport? If not, how are infrastructure needs accounted for in the election
platforms of candidates?
4. Did the police and other emergency services respond to community needs, or work
counter to them? Were elected officials helpful in resolving issues raised by the
community vis a vis policing/racial profiling, for example? Are these issues
addressed in election platforms of candidates standing for election?