Racism

I found myself thinking sociologically when I realized that equality in Canada is less practiced as what the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 claims. In this constitution, it is stated that every individual should be treated equally regardless of their race, ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, age, and any disability; however, in reality, individuals experience inequality in the form of racism throughout the Canadian society. For instance, a few months ago, a black male was asked to leave the St. Laurent shopping centre by the mall securities as the position of his pants were viewed as not family-friendly but this type of fashion is normal for teenagers who are influenced by the hip-hop culture. As the man did not want to cause any trouble, he obeyed the securities but as he was escorted, the securities used unnecessary forces which caused scars and bruises to the individual. Furthermore, the black male was arrested and detained for 3 hours, then fined $65 by the Ottawa Police, and banned from the mall for 5 years. One witness stated that this was a case of racial profiling as she saw that the mall securities had no reason to assault the individual. Although many deny the existence of racism in the Canadian society, this type of inequality still largely exists. To further analyze this topic, articles written by various scholars on racial profiling in the criminal justice system and racism in the workplace in Canada will be compared and contrasted. Moreover, various sociological concepts learned from the class will be applied to explain racism. In addition, the Symbolic interactionist and Conflict perspectives will be compared and contrasted to have a better understanding of racism.
Racism has been a long-standing problem that various individuals face in the Canadian society throughout the history. Particularly, racism has been an issue observed in the workplace. In the article “Organizing Against Racism in the Workplace: Chinese Workers in Vancouver Before the Second World War” , the author, Gillian Creese, argues that before the Second World War, Chinese workers experienced working condition that were worse than non-Asian workers. The author describes this condition as "Asians were restricted to the least desirable jobs; they often worked longer hours, under worse conditions, had less job security and always received lower pay than white workers" (Creese, 1987: 44). This created social stratification, an ethnic hierarchy due to disparity in economics resources and political rights. Karl Marx’s theory would view the Chinese as the proletariat, the working class, while Canadians would be the bourgeois, the capitalist class. As Chinese workers were mainly immigrants, their only way of earning income was to sell labour as a commodity whereas Canadians own and control the means of production. As Karl Marx predicted, a class conflict occurred between the two social class on which the Chinese workers engaged in labour protest to improve the equality rights in Canada, specifically in the workplace. However, these equality rights were not achieved during this period. The author concludes that although Chinese individuals were not extensively present in that time of history, they were present in the working class confrontation in British Columbia.
After a few decades, racism is still greatly present in the workplace in Canada. In the article “Anti-Black Racism in Nursing in Ontario”, the author, Tania Das Gupta, argues that nurses’ experiences of racism were organized by the systematic management of practice of the institution they belong to. In 1990, seven Black nurses and one Filipino nurse from the hospital reported complaints with the Ontario Human Rights Commission due to racial harassment on which some cases they had been fired or forced to resign as a way of diminishing the count of Non-Canadian nurses. The author also indicates that “Historically, nurses of colour have been excluded from better paid, secure, more desirable jobs through systematic practices in the labour market and in other related institutions, such as educational system and the immigration system (Gupta ,1996: 99). Moreover, in 1940s, Canadian –born, black students were not admitted in Canadian nursing schools because of the idea that Canadian hospitals would not hire them. Thus, the author concludes that Black nurses face racism today because of the historical exclusion and segmentation in the labour market.
The authors, Gillian Creese and Tania Das Gupta, both demonstrate that equality is less pronounced than the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 states. Although these two articles were written on different time periods in history, both articles display racism in the Canadian society, specifically at a workplace. Creese focuses on the experiences of Chinese workers whereas Gupta investigates the experiences of Black nurses. However, Creese 's description of racism is more extreme than Gupta 's, which could indicate that there has been an improvement in equality in Canada. Regardless, these articles prove that there is a difference between the promise made by the constitution and reality.
Canada is known as a multicultural nation and is praise internationally for its immigration policy. However, there has been an issue of racial profiling in the criminal justice system. The article “The Usual Suspects: Police Stop and Search Practices in Canada” by Scot Wortley and Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, explores the existence of racial profiling. The authors argue that racial discrimination has existed throughout the Canadian society, predominantly with respect to the criminal justice system. Due to the restricted access to the official data of race stopped and searched by the police, the research was conducted with the use of qualitative data analysis. Respondents with the racial background of black, Chinese and white from Metropolitan Toronto were surveyed. The result indicates that black males are more likely to be stop and search by the Police. In addition, more black respondents indicated that they have close friends and family member who have experienced racial profiling. Various scholars argued that racial profiling is due to a systematic process of racialization, the classification of people into groups according to their skin colour or physical features. In the United States, young black males were perceived as “symbolic assailants”, which creates a tendency for police to stop and search young black males (Wortley & Owusu-Bempah, 2011:402). The result of the survey demonstrates that the same racialization occurs in the Canadian police environment. Thus, the authors conclude that due to the stereotypes associated with black racial origin, this particular race is more likely to attract police’s attention that could contribute to the police’s decision to stop and search the individual.
On October 2002, the Toronto Star began publicizing articles that state “black Torontonians are highly over-represented in certain charge categories – including drug possession” which lead to the controversial issue of racial profiling (Wortley & Tanner, page 367; 2003). In the article “Data, Denials, and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto”, the Toronto Police denied the Toronto Star’s accusation and called its analysis “junk science” (Wortley & Tanner, page 367; 2003). As a result, Chief Fantino hired Edward Harvey, the University of Toronto Sociology professor to conduct a research on the Stat’s data. Harvey concluded that Toronto Star’s statement is invalid as there is no evidence of racial profiling being practice by the Toronto Police. However, the authors, Scot Wortley and Julian Tanner, argue that Harvey’s conclusion to disprove the Star’s allegation of racial bias is invalid. The author indicates that the method used by Harvey to re-analyze the Star’s data was inaccurate and there was a problem in interpretation of the data. For instance, the authors indicate “the fact that Harvey only focuses on police division with a greater than 6% black population completely distorts his analysis” (Wortley & Tanner, 377; 2003). Therefore, the authors conclude that racial profiling is an unsolved issue and that a more thorough investigation is needed in order to create an accurate conclusion of the existence of racial profiling in the criminal justice system of Canada.
The articles by Scot Wortley and Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, and Scot Wortley and Julian Tanner, both validate the argument that individuals in Canada are facing inequality as they portray the presence of racial profiling in Toronto. Wortley and Tanner state that Harvey’s conclusion to deny the accusation by the Toronto Star is invalid; however, this was not based on empirical statistic and the authors recommend a deeper research on the issue. But in the later years, Wortley and Owusu-Bempah performed a qualitative data analysis through a survey, and the results illustrate that black individuals are more vulnerable to police stop and search, supporting Wortley and Tanner’s argument. With this, it could be stated that there is discrimination occurring in the Canadian society.
Racism is a combination of prejudice, ethnocentrism, stereotyping and discrimination. In the case of racial profiling, the minorities, individuals who are disadvantaged and have less rights in the society, experience prejudice and stereotyping. Stereotyping is the exaggerated belief of the appearance and behaviours of certain groups whereas prejudice is the act of negativity towards other individuals based on stereotypes. Black males are more vulnerable to be stop and search by the police than white males due to the stereotype associated with black males as criminals. In comparison, in the event of racism at a workplace, the minority encounters discrimination, the unfair treatments on which have negative impact to the subordinate group. Before the Second World War, Chinese individuals were discriminated by Canadians which resulted economic disparity. However, both forms of racism involve ethnocentrism, the belief that one culture is more superior to others. Sociologists use theoretical perspectives to help interpret reality in a distinct way. Symbolic interactionist examines racism in the micro level contacts of individuals of different race. According to the Symbolic interactionist, the contact between individuals of opposing race known as the contact hypothesis, may lead to positive attitudes when particular factors are present. Members of each group must have equal status, share goals, cooperation and positive feedback; however, if one of the members of a particular group does not confirm to this condition, hostility can occur. For instance, in racial profiling, when a police, usually a white individual, stops a black male, there is feeling of hostility invoke in the situation as the condition mentioned above is not attained. In the Canadian society, although the Constitution Act of 1982 indicates that every individual should be treated equally regardless of their race; different races are seen not to have equal status. There is still a tendency of seeing white individuals of having a higher status than other races. As a result, individuals treat each other as stereotype not as individuals. In contrast, conflict theory focuses on the power and economic disparity between the majority and minority groups to examine racism. Conflict theory uses “The Split Labour Market Theory” to explain racism in labour market. Split labour is the segregation of the economy into a primary sector, made up of higher-paid dominant group, and secondary sector, made up of lower-paid subordinate group who works in a hazardous environment. According to this theory, the dominant group uses racism to protect their position as they feel threatened by the subordinate group who are hired to reduce labor cost. This is evident as Canadians discriminated Chinese workers to keep their superiority in the labour market by paying Chinese workers with lower wages and not providing a safe working condition.
With this in consideration, the Symbolic interactionist provides the best explanation of racism. Symbolic interactionist offers a perspective on which could be applied in general situation of racism whereas the conflict theory revolves around economic and power differences. For example, the Symbolic interactionist can be applied to the racism that occurs at school; however, conflict theory is not suitable to evaluate this form of racism. For instance, it is less likely for students to have economic and power disparity but there is a possibility that students of different race will not have equal status, share goals, and cooperate, which does not satisfy the condition stated above. As a result, students see each other as stereotype rather than a distinct entity.
To summarize, equality in the Canadian society is an illusion that the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 portrays as various forms of racism are displayed throughout the society. This is evident as several sociologists indicate their perspective about equality in Canada. In the situation of racism at the workplace, the authors, Gillian Crease and Tania Das Gupta, both confirm the occurrence of racism at the workplace as Chinese workers and black nurses were discriminated through lower pay and force resignation. Furthermore, the authors, Scot Wortley, Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, and Julian Tanner verify the engagement of Toronto Police to racial profiling. This is confirmed through the results of the qualitative data analysis and the disagreement with Edward Harvey’s conclusion, who denied Toronto Police’s participation in racial profiling. Therefore, these authors validate the practice of inequality in Canada. In the case of theoretical perspective, the Symbolic interactionist conveys racism through the personal contact of different races whereas the Conflict theory explains racism through the difference in economic and power. With that being said, the Symbolic interactionist offers the most suitable theoretical framework as it can be used to analyze different types of racism. This research is significant as it illustrates the misconception that individuals have about the topic of equality in Canada. The analysis of this research provides an explanation of the existence of racism in the Canadian society. For further research on this topic, quantitative data should be analyzed as this will allow for a more concrete conclusion of the topic. Thus, the study of equality from the sociological perspective is crucial in order to determine the factors that cause inequality in the society and to prevent it from occurring.

Bibliography:

Schnurr J. (2013, July 31). Ottawa man files police complaint after incident at shopping centre. CTV News. Retrieved from http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-man-files-police-complaint-after-incident-at-shopping-centre-1.1392629
Wortley S., Owusu-Bempah A. (2011). The Usual Suspects: Police Stop and Research Practices in Canada. Policing and Society, 21(4), 395-407.
Wortley S., Tanner J. (2003). Data, Denials, and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 45(3), 367-389.
Creese G. (1987). Organizing against Racism in the Workplace: Chinese Workers in Vancouver before the Second World War. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 19 (3), 35-46
Das Gupta, T. (1996). Anti-Black Racism in Nursing in Ontario. Studies in Political Economy, 51, 97-116.
Murray, J.L, R. Linden, and D. Kendall (2014). Sociology In Our Times. Custom Canadian Edition.

Bibliography: Schnurr J. (2013, July 31). Ottawa man files police complaint after incident at shopping centre. CTV News. Retrieved from http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-man-files-police-complaint-after-incident-at-shopping-centre-1.1392629 Wortley S., Owusu-Bempah A. (2011). The Usual Suspects: Police Stop and Research Practices in Canada. Policing and Society, 21(4), 395-407. Wortley S., Tanner J. (2003). Data, Denials, and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 45(3), 367-389. Creese G. (1987). Organizing against Racism in the Workplace: Chinese Workers in Vancouver before the Second World War. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 19 (3), 35-46 Das Gupta, T. (1996). Anti-Black Racism in Nursing in Ontario. Studies in Political Economy, 51, 97-116. Murray, J.L, R. Linden, and D. Kendall (2014). Sociology In Our Times. Custom Canadian Edition.