Race discrimination has been a social issue dated as far back as the Roman Empire. When the population was predominantly White in Canada, they unintentionally created race categorization, leading to racism. The dominant group feels empowered over the non-dominant group. In this case, the Whites saw all other ethnicities as the non-dominant group, classifying them as the “Other”.
This categorization didn’t start as discrimination because they looked a certain way, it started because they didn’t look like them. With as many immigrants as there are in Canada, so many awful remarks have been made on every aspect of their being.
For example, some say that immigrants have stolen jobs or that they are affecting the children of the dominant group’s education because they behave differently. When in reality, they left their country because it was unsafe, and they are just as qualified for those jobs as the White population. Their children are new to this country and are brought up differently and have different experiences, altering their behaviour from those who grew up here.
Racism truly lies on the fact that the dominant group lacks empathy. Every person is born on this planet and just because someone appears and acts different, doesn’t make us more and them less. With these opinions instilled in the past, it tends to be carried into the future, that is how we still have these social issues today.
On that note, word of mouth and the media plays a big role. News headlines tend to emphasize the bad of the non-dominant group and the good of the dominant group. This being public only feeds into the opinions of the people.
How can we stop this from happening if it’s only getting passed down from generations? Well, that’s a difficult question to answer. Fortunately, several institutions have emerged and/or changed to help. The educational system is more aware of the discrimination and has become a lot more inclusive, media and films ensure to express diversity, and multicultural councils are established all over the country.
These are huge steps which have helped our society, but there are still issues that need to be addressed. For example, systemic racism is a major concern for our country. This is a term that expresses how White people have more opportunities and their interests are favored within the Canadian government’s system. In a 2016 report from Statistics Canada, Black men and women in Vancouver were less likely to obtain a post-secondary education, and their unemployment rate was one and a half times higher than the rest of the population (Do 2020).
What do these statistics mean? That the presence of categorization is confirmed. What can we do about it? We shouldn’t recognize other races as being different, but that we are all different. There shouldn’t be a dominant group that is more in favour of certain opportunities, and we should have never had to make more of an effort to be inclusive, we should’ve always been that way.
We are all different, but we are all equal. Certain traditions, cultures, foods, languages, practices and physical features should not determine what makes us more dominant. Racial injustices have been a problem for far too long and they need to be recognized. We need to stop passing ideas of being different as being less than the majority.
Works Cited
Do, Deniz. “Canada’s Black population: Education, labour and resilience.” Canada’s Black
Population: Education, Labour and Resilience, Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, 25 Feb. 2020, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2020002-eng.htm#geo-8. Accessed 22 Sep. 2021.