Part of solution, still large part of problem By: Dan Lett Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 12, 2020 Last Modified: 10:20 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 12, 2020 Updates

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2020 (1561 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

That was the tough lesson I learned in the late 1980s, when I was a cub reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press, following a week of night shifts that involved responding to at least two reports of homicide along the city’s infamous “Main Street strip.”

In a conversation with a group of reporters the following week, I suggested the newspaper was wasting its time reporting on the murder of one poor Aboriginal person by another living in the same circumstances. It would be better, I argued, to write stories about the social issues at the root of violence.

A veteran reporter put up the stop sign. “Wait, so the murder of an Aboriginal man is not news? You know, every murder victim is important to someone. That’s racist.”

I thought about objecting but stopped. It was true; I’d devalued the life of a person largely based on their race. It was racist.

Like many well-meaning white people, I didn’t consider myself racist and largely still don’t. But in that moment, I clearly did not think through the implications of my statement.

It’s highly unlikely only one in four Canadians have racist views. Instead, the poll might confirm just how reluctant we are to admit to our own racism.

My hope has always been small moments of self-awareness can provide a lifetime of guidance. Or, put another way, when it comes to something as nuanced as racism, we need to think carefully before we speak.

That is certainly an adage white people should keep in mind as we try to wrap our heads around the Black Lives Matter movement and the accompanying debate about equality, social justice and racism. In other words, to get to a better place, we’re going to need to own our racism.

Fortunately, most Canadians are not bereft of self-awareness. A recent Abacus poll revealed more than two-thirds of Canadians believe racial discrimination is real; 61 per cent agreed racism is built into our institutions. More interestingly, the poll showed 23 per cent of respondents admitted they had “a lot” or “some” racist views.

Even so, based on what we see and hear around us, it’s highly unlikely only one in four Canadians have racist views. Instead, the poll might confirm just how reluctant we are to admit to our own racism.

Consider the recent news story about the Tuxedo Village Family Restaurant, which was vandalized in response to comments posted on social media by the owners, Dave Jones and Paulina Jojnowicz, about Black Lives Matter.

“So now white people are going around and bowing down to and kissing the feet of black people to prove their (sic) not racist?” says a Facebook post from Jones that has since been taken down. “You know what this really proves right?? You’re an easily manipulated dumbsh–t!”

Jones later argued in a Free Press article nothing he or his wife said on social media was racist. “There was no racism in the post,” he said. “I think they are taking it as a literal meaning when it’s not meant that way.”

Jones and his wife clearly do not think of themselves as racist, and I’m going to bet they would deny having racist views if polled by Abacus. However, the post was racist — and they would know that if they hadn’t lost touch with the meaning of the word.

Racism is defined in most sources as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” That is a broad definition that would catch most of us for something we said or thought.

However, to avoid being labelled, many white people set the bar to qualify as a genuine racist much, much higher.

They will argue a true “racist” is a hateful person of almost comic-book proportions who is actively seeking the oppression or eradication of an ethnic group. Think the former apartheid government of South Africa; think the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. However, limiting the definition of racism to such extreme examples prevents us from seeing the more subtle ways we re-enforce it in day-to-day life.

However, to avoid being labelled, many white people set the bar to qualify as a genuine racist much, much higher.

We know people of colour have more trouble getting jobs, renting a house and being approved for a bank loan. We know minorities, particularly women, receive substandard health care. They are more likely to be followed around by security guards in stores.

Recent studies in major cities show people of colour are four times more likely to be stopped and questioned by police. Minorities are over-represented in the justice system and drastically under-represented in most workplaces.

White folk desperate to absolve themselves of being labelled racist will argue there are legitimate reasons behind all of those trends. They will ignore the fact racism is a vicious cycle: we do not discriminate against people because they are marginalized; they are marginalized because we discriminate against them.

Some have racism baked into our world view. Others may stumble into racist views because they don’t understand exactly what racism is or how it manifests. But with the world now focused on the issue of racism, not knowing what we don’t know isn’t a legitimate excuse any more.

At some point, we must all realize before we can genuinely consider ourselves part of the solution to racism, we have to be honest about the ways in which we’re still part of the problem.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett
Columnist

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.

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