ARW350 Research Paper: Racism in Canadian Residential Schools

This essay delves into the pervasive racism within Canadian residential schools and its detrimental effects on Aboriginal students. It highlights how these schools, operated by religious institutions, subjected students to inequality, language restrictions, and physical abuse. The research question focuses on the impact of racism and humiliation on students, arguing that the legacy of discriminatory policies led to significant disparities in education, health, and social representation. The essay presents evidence from former students who recount experiences of mistreatment, comparing the school environment to prisons and emphasizing the long-lasting psychological damage. It concludes that exposure to racism in these schools contributed to a cycle of abuse and criminality among the affected individuals, hindering their ability to form healthy relationships and integrate into society.

Running head: RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Racism in Canadian History
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Table of Contents
Topic:...............................................................................................................................................2
Research question:...........................................................................................................................2
Thesis claim:....................................................................................................................................2
Thesis reasons:.................................................................................................................................2
Combining the reason of thesis statement:......................................................................................4
References:......................................................................................................................................5
Bibliography:...................................................................................................................................6

2RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Topic:
Racism is one of the most crucial practices, being followed in Canada during 18th and 19th
century. According to Canadian ideology, it is important to divide human species based on their
skin color and cultural characteristics. In the Canadian History, the aboriginal people were
mostly the subject of racism. Aboriginal people are one of the major marginalized class in
Canada, who are mostly the subject of racism since 18th century. Dubinsk, Perry & Yu (2015)
observed that, in the residential schools also becoming the subject of racism. The schools were
being operated by Anglican, Presbyterian along with Methodist. This is the reason, for which the
aboriginal people in the residential schools were facing such cruel practice. The school life was
highly difficult for the aboriginal people in Canada as they faced extreme inequality by the hand
of French and English students. Restrictions were there in terms of speaking in native language.
Even, the aboriginal people have faced physical assault for speaking in native language. Based
on the gender, these students were mainly taught labor skill such as cooking or laundry (for girls)
and carpentry or farming (for boys). Despite governmental intervention, rigid social system,
were creating barrier for them to access their fundamental rights and thereby enjoy equal social
practices.
Research question:
Setting research question is very much needed in accomplishing the fundamental goals and
objective of the research: Question of the current research is as follows:
 What The impact of racism and humiliation among the students of the residential
schools in Canada?

3RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Thesis claim:
The residential schools are the most racism affected parts in the Canadian history and that
left major detrimental effects on the life of the students.
Thesis reasons:
The legacy from the school, political and legal policies along with different mechanisms
are the main reason behind the intense racist behavior towards the aboriginal people of Canada.
The proof was visible with the notable differences in the education, health, income and social
representation of the aboriginal and the other Canadians (McElhinny, 2016). Along with that, the
imperil status of the major aboriginal languages provide a significant evidence of the racism in
the residential schools (Bailey, 2016). The systematic and the other forms of the discrimination
that the aboriginal individuals of the school are facing portrays the condition of the residential
schools in this case.
One of the student of the Beauval Residential School, Joseph Martin Larocque, was able
to express the brutal behavior that the students had to face in the residential schools. Joseph
confirmed that they were treated like criminals in those residential schools. Being small age kids,
Joseph and the other students of the schools were in significant need of love from the parents.
But instead of that they had to take harsh discipline and were subjected to an environment like
prison at such early stage of their life. Along with that the racist behavior towards the aboriginal
kids were observed to be affecting the mental condition of those kids.
The effect of the treatment that the students faced in the residential schools was long-
lasting even in their life. The abusive behavior towards the students was able to create a
personality among the students where they started to replicate the behavior to others (Clark et al.,

4RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
2014). The students of the residential schools were observed to confirm that the addiction
towards the treatment was the only means to cope up with the treatment that they experienced in
the schools. This made majority of the students a criminal or a racist individual in their own life.
Another student of the same school, Mervin Mirasty, was observed to admit that the brutal
treatment of the school was significant in making the students a thief at times and that too be at a
very short age. Mervin acknowledged that the students were ready to do anything may that be
stealing or any other criminal offences in order to gather the money for drugs and drinks.
Combining the reason of thesis statement:
It was evident that the students who were exposed to the treatment of the residential
schools in Canada, were racist in their adulthood as well. Apart from that it was observed that the
students of the residential schools were unable to become a loving parent as well due to the
reflection of the strict and regimented discipline that they faced in the residential schools along
with the brutal and racist behavior.

5RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
References:
Bailey, K. A. (2016). Racism within the Canadian university: Indigenous students’ experiences.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(7), 1261-1279.
Clark, D. A., Kleiman, S., Spanierman, L. B., Isaac, P., & Poolokasingham, G. (2014). “Do you
live in a teepee?” Aboriginal students’ experiences with racial microaggressions in
Canada. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 7(2), 112.
Dubinsky, K., Perry, A., & Yu, H. (Eds.). (2015). Within and Without the Nation: Canadian
History as Transnational History. University of Toronto Press.
McElhinny, B. (2016). Reparations and racism, discourse and diversity: Neoliberal
multiculturalism and the Canadian age of apologies. Language & Communication, 51,
50-68.

6RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Bibliography:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for
the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada.