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This study examined the everyday experiences of racism among Chinese immigrants in Canada. Data came from nine virtual focus groups comprising 48 participants of diverse genders and ages taking place in December 2021 and January 2022. We conducted our qualitative analysis by drawing on Essed’s conceptualization of everyday racism and Crenshaw’s conceptualization of intersectionality. Thematic and content analysis showed that racism against Chinese immigrants is more pervasive than previously recognized. Three-quarters of the participants disclosed instances of racism across various settings, including workplaces, schools, shops, airports, banks, hotels, restaurants, streets, and online. Some gender and age groups reported more incidents than others. Young men, on average, encountered the greatest number, followed by young and middle-aged women, while older men reported the fewest. Types of racist incidents also varied by age and gender. Young and middle-aged women encountered unsolicited intimate remarks and racism related to gender division of labour, while older adults, both men and women, faced racism associated with service provision. Younger men reported online racism. Some older participants remained unaware of the racist nature of their encounters, and middle-aged and older men tended to deny having experienced racist encounters. Given these findings, we suggest the need to raise awareness, establish empowerment initiatives, and adopt intersectionality approaches to address and combat racism against Chinese immigrants in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, banned the entry of Chinese people to Canada and required all Chinese in Canada, including the Canadian born, to register with the government. The act devastated Chinese Canadian lives and communities. This paper applies two of Hannah Arendt’s insights into the social organization of totalitarianism to understand how anti-Chinese racism has been structured. Focusing on the discourse of Asian/Chinese exclusion in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate in 1922 and 1923, the paper shows that the idea of Chinese exclusion was closely linked to the white supremacist vision of Canada that its land and resources were and should be the monopoly of people of European origins. As such, anti-Chinese racism was not just an ideology, or individual prejudices or ignorance, but it was a social structure that was integral to the making of the country, and whose invention can be traced historically. The historical activity of the Chinese in trying to stop the passing of the act brings the functioning of this social structure into sharp relief. The consequences of this structure continue today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note examines the intersections of xenophobia, racism, and gender-based violence. It particularly focuses on forms of everyday woman-to-woman violence in the Canadian context. This exploration is based on an incident narrated to the author in a recent conversation with D.Š., a 42-year-old woman who emigrated to Nova Scotia in 2014 from Bosnia and Herzegovina with her husband and young son. I read the episode as paradigmatic of how gender informs interactions rooted in prejudice, discrimination, and the 'fear of the other.' Drawing upon intersectional feminist heuristic, my analysis contributes to the investigations of the complex network of power relations operating across the same gender (woman). These woman-to-woman power dynamics are shaped by racial, immigrant, and various other social identities that intersect with gender. This research shows that the relationships resulting from these interactions are, in fact, asymmetrically formed and reconstructed at the micro-level of experience through the exercise of xenophobic expressions of relative sociocultural power and privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of Black faculty members in Canadian universities have not been adequately explored and given the attention needed. Employing an exploratory descriptive design, we interviewed five Black faculty members in a mid-sized university in Western Canada and used thematic analysis and critical race theory to gain deeper understanding of the participants’ experiences. Findings revealed that most participants have positive feelings despite overt or covert experiences of racism. The most significant highlight was the covert power struggle in the setting particularly between Black faculty members and students, and Black faculty members and some of their colleagues. The empathy and support from some deans, colleagues, and staff, along with resources in the university, have helped participants to remain in their position, make their presence known as professors and succeed in their work. Participants’ key coping strategies were faith in God, resilience, and hard work. Many participants shared that mentorship and training on responding to students’ evaluations will be beneficial in retaining Black faculty members, which will, overall, increase the number of Black students in Canadian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada and the United States have long histories of racism that permeate every institution and structure in our societies. While anti-racism movements have gained strength in recent years, we know very little about current rates of discrimination in the two countries or the impact on communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed by critical race feminist theory, this paper examines levels of discrimination experienced by survey participants from Canada and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic with a cross-sectional survey conducted during October 2021. We then assessed the broader impact of experiencing discrimination on depressive symptoms using logistic regression analysis. In both Canada and the US, multivariate logistic regression maintained that experiencing discrimination resulted in higher probabilities of reporting moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Other important factors included age, financial insecurity, and comorbid health conditions. Overall findings suggest that Indigenous, Black, and other racialized communities who experienced discrimination reported higher rates of depressive symptoms despite controlling for other factors. From a comparative perspective, discrimination rates were similar in Canada and the US, and had similar proportions across racial/ethnic groups. Discrimination rates did not vary significantly by gender, nor was gender a statistically significant risk factor for depressive symptoms. Further research, including qualitative studies, could fully assess the impact of gender on experiences of racism and depressive symptoms during the pandemic. The paper concludes with policy and public education suggestions to combat racial discrimination and highlights the need for added government action during times of crises. Le Canada et les États-Unis ont une longue histoire de racisme qui se retrouve dans toutes les institutions et structures de nos sociétés. Bien que les mouvements antiracistes aient gagné en force ces dernières années, nous savons très peu de choses sur les taux actuels de discrimination dans les deux pays ou sur l'impact sur les communautés pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. S'inspirant de la théorie féministe du racisme critique, cet article examine les niveaux de discrimination subis par les participants du Canada and des États-Unis pendant la pandémie de COVID-19, à l'aide d'une enquête transversale menée en Octobre 2021. Nous avons ensuite évalué l'impact plus large de l'expérience de la discrimination sur les symptômes dépressifs en utilisant une analyse de régression logistique. Au Canada comme aux États-Unis, la régression logistique multivariée a confirmé que le fait d'avoir été victime de discrimination entraînait une probabilité plus élevée de signaler des symptômes dépressifs modérés ou graves. Les autres facteurs importants étaient l'âge, l'insécurité financière et la comorbidité. Les résultats globaux suggèrent que les communautés indigènes, noires et autres communautés racialisées ayant été victimes de discrimination présen-tent des taux plus élevés de symptômes dépressifs, malgré la prise en compte d'autres facteurs. D'un point de vue comparatif, les taux de discrimination étaient similaires au Canada et aux États-Unis, et présentaient des proportions similaires dans tous les groupes raciaux/ethniques. Les taux de discrimination ne varient pas de manière significative en fonction du sexe, et le sexe n'est pas un facteur de risque statistiquement significatif pour les symptômes dépressifs. D'autres recherches, notamment des études qualitatives, pourraient permettre d'évaluer pleinement l'impact du sexe sur les expériences de racisme et les symptômes dépressifs pendant la pandémie. L'article se termine par des suggestions de politiques et d'éducation du public pour lutter contre la discrimination raciale et souligne la nécessité d'une action gouvernementale supplémentaire en période de crise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused on Barbara Sapergia's Blood and Salt (2012), one of the first book-length works of fiction to engage with Canada's First World War internment operations, this paper examines the ways in which the novel grapples with discourses of class, ethnicity, and race during, and after, the first decades of the 20th century. Discussion of Sapergia's text is prefaced by historical background on the internment, including discussion of the widespread fear of "enemy aliens" which led to the incarceration, between 1914 and 1920, of some 8579 immigrants from empires (Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German) (an estimated 5954 of them ethnically-Ukrainian) at war with the British empire and Canada. The analysis itself is informed by debates about Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1981), long-viewed as breaking the silence around the Second World War internment of Japanese Canadians but, in recent years, critiqued for its complicity in constructing that "dark chapter" of the nation's past as a forgivable anomaly. While the first four of Blood and Salt's seven parts, grounded in meticulous historical research, trace Ukrainian Canadian protagonist Taras Kalyna's (and his fellow internees') suffering at the Castle Mountain, Cave and Basin camps near Banff, the last three sections of the novel seem to narrate his triumph over trauma. Consequently, the essay addresses the possibility that Taras might be (mis)taken as a character who performs the part of an ideal immigrant or model minority: in exchange for gaining entrance into the prospering, white middle class, he turns a blind eye to historical instances of xenophobia and racism. Does his fictional narrative align with prominent Ukrainian Canadians' aggressive support in the 1960s for the problematic politics and practices of multiculturalism, as well as their acceptance of a disappointing compromise, in 2008, vis-à-vis redress for the internment operations of the First World War? Via close readings of the novel's protagonist (and his unresolved trauma), his wife's persistence in writing about the internment (and the reasons for it), and the tragic absent-presence of several minor, yet crucial, characters (some radically left-wing, others Indigenous), the paper argues that Blood and Salt, in fact, refuses to forget or forgive. Read alongside complex developments in Ukrainian Canada, between the First World War and the 1960s (and beyond), the text offers complicated perspectives on the historical actions of the government, their aftermaths, and all Canadians' shared responsibilities in contending with past and ongoing "dark chapters" of the national narrative. En analysant Blood and Salt (2012) par Barbara Sapergia l'une des premières oeuvres de fiction à s'intéresser aux opérations d'internement du Canada pendant la Première Guerre mondiale cet article examine les façons dont le roman aborde les discours de classe, d'appartenance ethnique et de race au cours des premières décennies du XXe siècle. L'étude du texte de Sapergia commence par un examen du contexte historique sur l'internement, y compris une discussion sur la peur généralisée des « étrangers ennemis » qui a conduit à l'incarcération, entre 1914 et 1920, de quelque 8579 immigrants venant des empires (austro-hongrois, ottoman, allemand) en guerre avec l'empire britannique et le Canada (environ 5954 parmi ces immigrants étaient d'origine ukrainienne). L'analyse elle-même est éclairée par des débats sur Obasan (1981) de Joy Kogawa, roman qui a été longtemps considéré comme texte brisant le silence autour de l'internement des Canadiens d'origine japonaise pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, mais qui a subi une critique, ces dernières années, pour sa complicité dans l'interprétation de ce « chapitre sombre » du passé national en tant qu'anomalie pardonnable. Alors que les quatre premières parties de Blood and Salt sont fondées sur une recherche historique méticuleuse et retracent les souffrances du protagoniste ukrainien canadien Taras Kalyna (et de ses camarades internés) dans les camps de Castle Mountain et de Cave and Basin près de Banff, les trois dernières sections du roman semblent raconter son triomphe sur le traumatisme. Par conséquent, l'article s'occupe de savoir si Taras pourrait être (à tort) considéré comme un personnage qui joue le rôle d'un immigrant idéal ou d'une minorité modèle : en échange de son entrée dans la classe moyenne prospère et blanche, il ferme les yeux sur des exemples historiques de xénophobie et de racisme. De manière tout aussi inquiétante, son récit fictif s'aligne-t-il sur le soutien agressif des Canadiens réputés d'origine ukrainienne dans les années 1960 aux politiques et pratiques problématiques du multiculturalisme, ainsi qu'à leur acceptation d'un compromis décevant, en 2008, concernant la réparation des opérations d'internement pendant la Première Guerre mondiale ? À travers des analyses du protagoniste du roman (et de son traumatisme irrésolu), de la persistance de sa femme à écrire sur l'internement (et des raisons derrière cette décision), de la tragique absence-présence de plusieurs personnages mineurs mais cruciaux (certains appartenant à la gauche radicale, d'autres Autochtones), l'article souligne que Blood and Salt refuse, en fait, d'oublier ou de pardonner. Prenant en compte des développements complexes au Canada ukrainien, entre la Première Guerre mondiale et les années 1960 (et au-delà), le texte offre des perspectives nuancées sur les actions historiques du gouvernement et leurs conséquences, ainsi que sur les responsabilités partagées de tous les Canadiens face aux « chapitres sombres », passés et actuels, du récit national. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a game against Red Deer College in February 2020, Gwich'in and Inuvialuk hockey player Davina McLeod of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Trojans was the target of an anti-Indigenous racial slur wielded by an opposing player. The incident made national headlines. In its aftermath, McLeod has worked to build public recognition of the prevalence of racism in hockey—both its blatant manifestations and the myriad microaggressions that sustain white supremacy—thereby endeavouring to push Canada's national winter sport toward becoming actively antiracist. Among McLeod's work in this regard has been both participating in and conducting interviews for the Indigenous Hockey Research Network. The following conversation occurred between McLeod and Sam McKegney via Zoom on September 17th, 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews with Indigenous and settler players on the Beardy's Blackhawks Midget AAA hockey team, as well as with those players' parents, unanimously acknowledge racism directed at Indigenous players during the team's most recent season. More insidiously, the interviews register social pressures within hockey culture that discourage reactions to such racism and thereby condition acquiescence to and potential reproduction of oppressive colonial conditions. As one First Nation parent states, "you just kind of get used to it and... either shrug it off or retaliate. We've really chosen to shrug it off for the most part." This paper ruminates on the manufacture of compliance in order to interrogate the internalization of various tropes in hockey culture that, we argue, conspire to sustain racialized oppression in the game. In doing so, we advocate for the implementation of decolonial anti-racism strategies at all levels of the sport. Des entrevues avec des joueurs autochtones et allogènes du club de hockey Beardy's Blackhawks Midget AAA, ainsi qu'avec les parents de ces joueurs, reconnaissent unanimement le racisme envers les joueurs autochtones au cours de la dernière saison de l'équipe. Plus insidieusement, les entrevues enregistrent des pressions sociales au sein de la culture du hockey qui découragent les réactions à un tel racisme et conditionnent ainsi l'acquiescement et la regénénération potentielle des conditions coloniales oppressives. Comme le dit un parent authochtone, « on s'y habitue en quelque sorte et... soit on l'ignore, soit on riposte. Nous avons vraiment choisi de ne pas en tenir compte pour la plupart. » Cet article retourne la question du façonnage de la conformité dans le but de scruter l'inhérence, de divers clichés dans la culture du hockey qui, selon nous, conspirent pour soutenir l'oppression racialisée dans le match. Ce faisant, nous plaidons pour la mise en œuvre de stratégies antiracistes décoloniales à tous les niveaux du sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schooling and education, in general, are perceived as a means of integrating children of new immigrants into Canadian society and preparing young immigrants for their future careers. High school education and the subjects taken prepare these young immigrants for postsecondary education and entry into the labour market. However, these newcomer students, particularly those of African origin, are discouraged by systemic structures from pursuing school curricula that may lead them to their aspired careers. This is, for a major part, the result of the role played by teachers and school career counsellors as gatekeepers. Research shows that teachers and career counsellors have preconceived negative, racist and prejudicial stereotypes about African students and their abilities for educational performance and success. Further, Canadian schools promote linguistic structures, authority patterns, and types of curricula that alienate African immigrant students. We contend that schools need to implement culturally appropriate career guidance programs that are conducted by professionals trained in cultural sensitivities. As such, this paper argues for the inclusion of teachers and counsellors who appreciate the culture and learning styles of these students, and who can serve as identity models for the students. In addition, we advance the need for inter-school-community mentorship programs that facilitate minority students' aspirations into the careers of their choice. L'école et l'éducation en général sont perçues comme des moyens pour intégrer les enfants des nouveaux immigrants dans la société Canadienne, mais aussi pour préparer les jeunes immigrants à poursuivre leurs carrières. L'école secondaire, à travers les sujets enseignés, prépare ces jeunes immigrants à l'éducation post-secondaire et à leur entrée dans le marché du travail. Cependant, ces nouveaux étudiants, particulièrement ceux/celles d'origine africaine, sont découragés par la structure du système, et ceci les empêche de poursuivre un curriculum qui peut les conduire au choix de carrière dont ils aspirent. Cela est en grande partie le résultat du rôle joué par les enseignants et les conseillers scolaires en carrière. Les recherches démontrent que les enseignants/es et les conseillers en carrière ont une préconception négative raciste, et des stéréo-types préjudiciables sur les étudiants africains quant à leurs habiletés de performance éducationnel et de succès. En plus, les écoles canadiennes promeuvent une structure linguistique, des rapports d'autorité, ainsi qu'un curriculum qui aliènent les étudiants immigrants africains. Nous estimons que les écoles doivent mettre en place un système de guide en carrière culturellement approprié, conduit par des professionnels formés à la sensitivité culturelle. Nous estimons dans cet article le besoin d'inclure des enseignants/es et des conseillers qui apprécient la culture and le [End Page 67] style d'apprentissage de ces étudiants, et capable de servir de modèle identitaire pour ces étudi-ants. En plus, nous affirmons le besoin pour des programmes de mentorat entre écoles et communautés qui facilitent l'aspiration des étudiants issues des minorités dans les carrières de leur choix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article fills gaps in the literature about transnational migration and Sub-Saharan Africans in Canada and their strategies of resistance, by interrogating transnationalism among South Sudanese refugees who resettled in Alberta, Canada. Using a qualitative research methodology that consisted of 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews1 conducted in Calgary in 2017 and 2018, and a theory that posits transnationalism as a "type of consciousness", an agency that subjects invent to enhance social justice, we assert that the refugees engage in numerous economic, sociopolitical and cultural transnational activities. Their initiatives benefit the refugees themselves and the sending and receiving countries. They serve as anti-racism and development tools against the backdrop of racism that they endure in Canada, the trauma of war and displacement, as well as war-related destruction in the sending country. They also strengthen awareness and better understanding of multiculturalism among Canadians. In the process, the subjects drew on scarce resources and overcame atrocious difficulties in order to improve their lives and create uplifting stories and actions. Though transnational migration also generates problematic impacts, these barriers could be overcome if the benefits of transnational migration are extended. Thus, we draw on the subjects' resilience to expand conceptions about transnational migration in order to turn it into a most fruitful avenue in the twenty-first century. Cet article comble une lacune majeure dans la littérature sur l'immigration transnationale et les Africains en provenance de l'Afrique subsahariens qui sont installés au Canada et les stratégies qu'ils développent pour surmonter les barrières qui surgissent dans le contexte de l'immigration transnationale. Nous explorons les pratiques transnationales chez des réfugiés du Soudan du Sud qui demeurent en Alberta au Canada en nous appuyant sur une méthodologie de recherche qualitative qui consistait en vingt-six entrevues semi-structurées approfondies menées à Calgary en 2017 et 2018. Nous nous servons également d'une théorie qui considère le transnationalisme comme un «type de conscience», une capacité que les acteurs sociaux inventent afin de renforcer la justice sociale. Nous montrons que les réfugiés participent à de nombreuses activités transnationales économiques, sociopolitiques et culturelles. Leurs initiatives profitent des réfugiés, les pays d'origine et la société d'accueil. L'immigration transnationalisme est un outil de développement et de lutte contre le racisme qui permet de combattre le racisme qu'ils subissent au Canada, le traumatisme de guerre, la migration forcée et les destructions de la guerre. De plus, les réfugiés aident les Canadian à acquérir une sensibilisation et une meilleure compréhension du multiculturalisme. Les réfugiés ont bénéficié des ressources limitées pour améliorer leurs vies et fournir un exemple remarquable de réussite. Bien que la migration [End Page 27] transnationale donne également lieu à des effets problématiques, ces obstacles pourraient être surmontés si les avantages de la migration transnationale sont étendus à une échelle plus large. De ce fait, nous nous appuyons sur la compétence des réfugiés pour enrichir le débat conceptuel sur la migration transnationale et en faire l'un des mécanismes les plus efficaces au XXIe siècle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that Canadian immigration law, policy, and practice have historically excluded, race and disability, on a number of grounds, and that there is a common link between them, which is the perception of immigrants' inability to adapt and integrate into a Canadian identity. The paper conducts a historical analysis of the Canadian immigration framework situated at the intersection of identities based on race and disability, which we link through Critical Race Theory analysis; and class, which is shown through the "excessive demand" standard, the origins of which we trace in relation to the commodification of immigrants based on their economic value. This paper shows how the marking of immigrant ethnic groups as medically inadmissible--currently by imposing an "excessive demand" test on health care or social services as a class-based admission criterion--both has historical grounding in turn of the century exclusionary logic of racism and ableism, and defies equality standards in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. When we apply "interest convergence," we see how the limits to Canadian generosity or liberal tolerance are implied in current immigration restrictions. This application shows that even reforms that have now distanced immigration law from having prohibited classes and therefore do not explicitly mention race, disability or disease have only benefited disabled racialized immigrants when those reforms also aligned with the economic interests of the state. We draw upon historical exclusionary laws based on race and disability, that defined race as a disability, and more recent case law based on disability and class, regarding the denial of immigration status to persons with disabilities unless families volunteered to cover costs of care and policies surrounding immigration inspection, to show a continuing pattern of systemic exclusion. According to this pattern, ethnic groups confronting Canadian borders were read alongside and through their diagnoses of disease and disability as undesirable and unassimilable. This now confronts those with disabilities who are considered economically undesirable. The current challenge is therefore to recognize these historical, ableist (discrimination against disability) patterns, and to create policies and laws that are not based on such exclusionary understandings of difference but that instead continue to transform our definition of citizenship and identity in equitable and inclusive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a qualitative exploration of racial self-identifications as well as perceptions of race among a group of racialized public servants in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It will first argue that the fluidity in participants' racial self-identification responses points to a lack of clarity on what constitutes race. However, this absence of clarity is a folly of the concept itself, a contention that aims to further cast doubt on the tenability of race as a meaningful classificatory system. Secondly, through explicating multifaceted meanings produced about race, this article will present subthemes of this research's findings as: 1) race as an immobilizing agent; 2) race as code speak for stereotypes; 3) race as heightened surveillance; and 4) race as proxy for solidarity. Ultimately, the eclectic embodied perceptions of race along with varied racial self-identification responses further reinforce existing theoretical and empirical evidence on race as a debunked and dangerous mirage that, while conceptually illusory, continues to have an agonizing reality in racialized peoples' lives. Cet article propose une exploration qualitative des auto-identifications raciales ainsi que des perceptions de la race au sein d'un groupe de fonctionnaires racialisés dans la province de la Colombie-Britannique, au Canada. Il soutiendra d'abord que la fluidité des réponses d'auto-identification raciale des participants indique le manque de clarté sur ce qui constitue la race. Cependant, cette absence de clarté est une folie du concept lui-même, une affirmation qui vise à jeter davantage le doute sur la tenabilité de la race en tant que système de classification significatif. Deuxièmement, en expliquant les significations multiformes produites à propos de la race, l'article présentera les sous-thèmes des résultats de cette recherche comme: 1) la race comme agent d'immobilisation; 2) la race en tant que code pour les stéréotypes; 3) la race en tant que surveillance intensifiée; et 4) la race comme substitut de la solidarité. En fin de compte, ces articulations de perceptions incarnées de la race ainsi que des réponses d'auto-identification raciale variées renforcent davantage les preuves théoriques et empiriques existantes sur la race en tant que mirage démystifié et dangereux qui, bien que conceptuellement illusoire, continue d'avoir une réalité angoissante dans la vie des peuples racialisés. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]