An Analysis of Racism In Canada. Is Canada a Racist Country?

This article analyzes the existence of racism in Canada, particularly towards the Aboriginal people. It discusses the Indian Act, residential schools, and the benefits of racism to the state and privileged individuals. It also explores the harmful effects of stereotypes and the lack of multiculturalism in Canada.

An Analysis of Racism In Canada. Is Canada a Racist Country?
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Introduction
Racism plays a significant role on economies throughout the planet. The effect of racism
on economies can be viewed to be both positive, and at times negative. Conversely, racism plays
a predominantly negative effect on the lives of those who are being discriminated against. By
definition, racism can be defined as the act of discrimination directed against individuals who are
viewed to belong to a different race, tribe or with different skin color (Allan and Smylie,
2015).
The United States has been viewed to be predominately a racist country due to the
utterances that have been heard from the president. Unlike the united states, Canada and
Canadians have denied on various occasions, that indeed racism exists within the confines of
Canada- but this is not the case. Racism does exist in Canada. This can be seen by the way in
which cases of missing persons of the Aboriginal people are handled unlike those of the
"ordinary" people within Canada. Another direct representation of racism is the way in which
people interacted with various studies. Individuals were more comfortable at eliciting empathy in
cases where people of the same color were brought forward in these experiments. There was
more pronounced eye contact when individuals looked at photos of people who had the same
skin color as themselves unlike when they had different ones (Kubota, 2015).
The Indian act is an act that was established to control the Aboriginal people. The act
holds that individuals in the leadership of communities have to be answerable to the state. The
communities facing control from the act were basically the Aboriginal people. Over five billion
dollars are allocated for the act. The state uses this act to control the Aboriginal people. This can

be viewed as a form of racism in Canada. Within the act, the Aboriginal people are headed by
chiefs, their land is communal and the chiefs are answerable to the state (Leyland, 2016).
Besides the act, the Aboriginal people were placed under residential schools whose main
purpose was to subdue their culture and beliefs. They were placed in the residential schools so
that they could end up viewing their culture as inferior -thus it was a form of racism to place
them in the schools other than inculcating them with an education that addresses and supports
their culture and way of life. The schools were a way of assimilating the Aboriginal people,
hence racism was stressed in this case.
The state is found to have benefited from racism since it cabs easily control the
Aboriginal people. The rich and more privileged individuals also benefit from racism.
Stereotypes are harmful because they end up creating a label for a particular group that
ultimately leads to racism.
Multiculturalism is a state in which people of diverse culture live in harmony in a state.
Canada is not a state that fosters multiculturalism because of what has been viewed over the
years. According to Neil Bissoondath's definition of racism, racism can be viewed as a factor
brought out by people’s discrimination of each other based on sex, age, skin color or any other
factor used to separate individuals in various groups (Sheppard, 2017)
References

Allan, B., & Smylie, J. (2015). First Peoples, second-class treatment: The role of racism in
the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Wellesley Institute.
Kubota, R. (2015). Race and language learning in multicultural Canada: Towards critical
antiracism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(1), 3-12.
Leyland, A., Smylie, J., Cole, M., Kitty, D., Crowshoe, L., & McKinney, V. (2016). Health
and health care implications of systemic racism on Indigenous peoples in
Canada. Fact sheet. Mississauga, ON: College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Sheppard, C. (2017). Challenging systemic racism in Canada. In Race and
Inequality(pp. 57-76). Routledge.