Edited by Amanda Gebhard, Sheila Mclean, and Verna St. Denis. Fernwood Publishing: Winnipeg, 2022.
This penetrating look into racism in Canada has 16 essays plus a conclusion by the editors focussing on treatment of First Nations by professionals in education, social work, health care, and justice. There are 22 authors; 10 are white and 12 are people of colour of which eight are Indigenous.
Much of the exploration is based in the prairie provinces. The racism is at times deep, systemic, subtle, and often involves stereotypes perpetuated by professionals, entrenched attitudes, laws, and rules. Racism is rarely addressed in professional curricula and as a result there is little awareness. At times, professionals who raise the issue when they witness racist actions are blithely told that they are overreacting, that the perpetrators mean nothing by their comments and that their only intention is to help.
Often, the concept of being there to help is patronizing, as the professionals assume what help is needed and that they know the answers based in the “correct” white paradigm. So consultation is not done. One of the egregious manifestations of this is the child welfare system in which social workers remove Indigenous children to foster homes at a much higher rate than in the population at large. One essayist remembers that they and their friends lived in fear of visits from social services because it meant they might be taken away from their families. Foster families are usually white, with the rationale being that they have extra income. Removing children from their own culture is another blatant example of forced assimilation into white culture and denigration of First Nations culture, beliefs, and languages. The foster care system and the high imprisonment rates of First Nations citizens are not-too-subtle replacements for residential schools.
A “game” discussed in one essay is that of nurses betting on the blood alcohol level of incoming First Nation patients. Another stereotype is that people in emergency care are “only” seeking medication to get high. There is a recounting of a man seeking care in an ER. He was ignored for the better part of 34 hours and then died while needing a simple medical procedure.
In the field of education, it is a racist trope that Indigenous students have little interest in education or have lower ability. Education is Eurocentric with no regard to First Nations culture. Students are subtly and systemically encouraged to leave (called “school push out”).
Racism is deadly, often by sheer neglect, systemic poverty, and poor housing over long periods of time. The life expectancy of Indigenous people is seven to nine years shorter than non-Indigenous. This gap has increased and life expectancy has decreased with the arrival of fentanyl and COVID-19.
The deadliness of racism is manifest in the handling of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
A young man in Saskatchewan with a stalled car was seeking assistance from a farmer. He was shot and killed because it was assumed the occupants of the car were coming to steal. The RCMP investigation into the death was seriously botched. Evidence was destroyed due to a delayed investigation with most attention paid to the other occupants of the car, not to physical evidence, which was ignored. Racism in the law enforcement and justice systems led to the shooter being acquitted.
A First Nations woman in Quebec sought emergency care in a hospital. She was ignored as malingering for drugs and she died during the wait time in the hospital. There are many examples.
We need to educate ourselves to a greater degree about the deep racism in our country. It is mostly ignored by the hegemony of white professionals and rarely acknowledged. It is a serious blight on our self-professed egalitarianism.
From the book cover:
White settlers have a responsibility to understand the colonial history of their professions and their complicity in ongoing violence, be it over-policing, school push out, child apprehension, or denial of healthcare. What is needed is radical anti-racism, solidarity, and relinquishing the power of white supremacy.
