Focused principally on the 20th and 21st centuries, this course will study the legacies and implications of the massive migration, forced and otherwise, from the African continent to the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Topics will range from the creation of racial categories in the contexts of slavery and colonialism to the making of transnational and transracial families to the recent cultural politics of “blackness” with emphasis on the ways that different kinds of archives produce multiple and often conflicting narratives. Students will produce as well as consume history. In addition to scholarly monographs and articles, course material will include film, sound, and fiction.
I’m very excited to be teaching this course, and looking forward to working with you all semester. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the website and read the syllabus. We will use this site extensively for announcements, postings, and virtual conversations. You should feel free to treat it as your own, and post links, images, videos, or anything else of interest to the class.
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One of this week’s readings was by Paul Hébert and addressed how Canada’s self-image as a multicultural country supportive and encouraging of diversity has overshadowed the often imperialist undertones of “Canadian conversations”. It was interesting to read this article because I’ve long asked myself why Canada, as opposed to the U.S. has been more associated with the celebration of equality, multiculturalism and acceptance. Upon moving here from the U.S., my first impression was that I’d entered a less diverse country than I’d just left. I’ve experienced and seen racism in action both here and in the U.S., but have generally met more people here with little to no experience/knowledge of people of a difference/culture than theirs. I also studied a little bit on the history of eugenics in 1950s Canada, when it was used in part, as a justification to further concretize racist ideologies, and was shocked at how much this history resonated with Nazi racist ideologies. These studies on Canadian history had led me to believe Canada was just as bad as the rest of the West. It was interesting to read a recent article that worked to dismantle this moral-high ground.
Hébert’s article also helped me to understand the different reputations of Canadian aid and U.S. aid. When reading articles on neocolonialism, Western aid more generally, is talked about as culturally destructive for the developing world, and as a mechanism that exacerbates the economic dependence of the developing world on the Western world; the same sort of economic dependence that was fostered during the colonial era between imperial powers and their colonies. Hébert mentions Todd Gordon’s observation that Canada is a nation that “Actively participates in the global system of domination in which the the wealth and resources of the Third World are systematically plundered by capital of the Global North.” In terms of its foundation, the Canadian nation does not differ much from that of the United States’, but it seems weird that despite this fact, Canada is still seen as a country that has habitually been more progressive then the US when it comes to social justice and equality. Even contemporarily, as Hebert shows with Haiti’s example, Canada, much like other powerful Western nations, continues to take part in the same exploitative economic patterns that allowed imperialist powers to thrive during the colonial era. Yet foreign aid coming from Canada is less stigmatized than American foreign aid. It seems that this was possible at least in part, because of the overlooking of some of the dimensions of Canada’s history.
The second reading this week was by Paul Carr and focused on the manifestations of racism in Canadian education. Carr argues that in order to diminish and eliminate these manifestations, it is “critical to understand how and why” they happen. What stayed with me most from this article was Carr’s mentions of the systemic causes of these manifestations. He reminds that slavery was a “significant part of the nation-building process”, lists some of the evidence of institutionalized discrimination from the Canadian government (e.g. 1903 Head Tax), and explains how the non-White histories of Canada are often overshadowed.
I found his question “Do most White people even know they are White?” pretty amusing and interesting to think about; it led me to think how White and Whiteness are “umbrella-terms”.
I really like that Carr proposes constructive solutions to eliminating racism in a crucial sphere of Canadian society (ie. education), and his analysis and evidence of the areas where improvement might be needed (e.g. lack of funding and social resources for high school community work, Eurocentric curriculums) were rather convincing. It was also interesting to read his analytical breakdown of educational institutions (p.17). On the whole, it seems Carr is arguing that perfecting education (when it comes to social justice and equity) has the potential to eliminate racist manifestations within that sphere, and significantly reduce these manifestations outside of this sphere as well.
Carr begins by saying questioning how and why racist manifestations occur is critical to reducing them, but he spends more time dealing with the “how” as opposed to the “why”. How to perfect Canada’s educational system is definitely essential to think about, but thinking about why Canada’s educational system might be flawed today also seems critical to find out how to change it. Drawing from my previous post on Hébert’s article, Canada’s institutions (governmental or educational) still repeat some of the harmful social/economic patterns of its imperial hey-day. What if a huge council lasting for a short, but long enough period of time (a few months maybe), involving representing members from all the country’s racial/cultural/socio-economic/gender etc groups, were made to happen? A congregation to rethink and reshape all institutional spheres of Canadian society?
I found this week’s readings and lecture particularly profound because they have challenged traditional Canadian historical narratives. As Paul R. Carr writes, “Canada has long perceived itself to be a country in which multiculturalism, and a concomitant respect for diversity, is a unique and defining feature of its identity”. Indeed, this attitude is echoed by other scholars such as sociologist Augie Fleras, who writes that Canadians have become very self satisfied in claiming that Canada is a country that embodies principles of inclusiveness and equality. In contrast to this benevolent image of Canada, this week we have shed light on certain ‘forgotten’ histories that effectually invalidate Canada’s claim to a moral high ground based on equality. The stories of Priceville, Hogan’s Alley, Africville, among others, lead us to believe that perhaps Canada’s self-satisfied identity is more of a myth than anything else. At the very least, these untold histories should urge us, as citizens, to acknowledge the very real and unsettling colonial legacies that have been conveniently obscured.
My first point of reflection is on the theme ‘erasure’ or ‘forgetting’ that we touched on a little in class. In the documentary that we watched, there was one quote that captured the tragedy of Canada’s untold stories: “if you don’t speak about them, they cease to exist”. This hints at the fact that ‘erasure’ and ‘forgetting’ are active processes. They are conducted through our education system, perhaps intentionally, leaving out the histories of discrimination from textbooks in order to shape a different kind of understanding of Canada. In these ways, the histories of certain minority communities, and in the context of this week’s material, black communities specifically, have been wiped from the slate of Canada’s chronology.
My second point of reflection stems from Carr’s article. The author notes that the world is becoming increasingly globalized, and that “more people, representing a multitude of ethnocultural, racial, linguistic, religious and other minority groups, are migrating, seeking exile, emigrating and leading lives that were previously unheard of in terms of studying, living and working in diverse locations”. My question is: as Canada’s immigrant population grows, will it become easier or more difficult for hidden Canadian narratives to surface? On one hand, Canadian issues such as Indigenous-Federal relations may not resonate with newcomers to the country. On other hand, perhaps immigrants, as people who have had to start anew, will be able to more effectively relate to the struggles of minority peoples here in Canada.
Overall, I found the readings to be engaging and insightful. They reveal that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Canada’s history. And despite the fact that so much of the Canadian identity is built on the premise of ‘not-American’, we too, have had turbulent relations with black communities since time immemorial.
Response to the Black Strathcona website:
Surfing through this website was really interesting, I had no idea about Vancouver’s black history, and was thrilled to find out I’m just a short bus ride away from Strathcona! It was really cool watching the grand-sons and grand-daughters of some of the people that marked the neighbourhood’s community, speak about them. A few days prior to clicking my way through the website I’d been thinking about how I missed going to cheap diners after school when I was younger. That’s why the little Vignette for Vie’s Chicken and Steaks diner was my first choice when exploring the website. (annnnd I was also pretty hungry at the time)
This peak into Vancouver’s history via Youtube videos and the website’s map, really made me feel like I grasped part of the atmosphere of what Strathcona was once like. The simple fact that there’d been a pretty prominent black community in Vancouver was surprising enough, but listening to anecdotes while watching pictures of Vie and Nora Hendrix working together, really helped me visualize this historical period.
It was also interesting to note (deducing from the website’s chronological history of Black peoples in Canada and the videos) that the Vancouver area’s black community have a somewhat transient quality to them; there seems to be trends of coming and going, as opposed to prolonged and growing settling. (The building of the Georgia viaduct was unfortunately at the origin of Gore alley’s disappearance).
Overall, I found it pretty amazing that there’s an entire website dedicated to the revival of the overshadowed histories that Hébert and Carr mention in their articles. The interactive dimension of the website, and the quick videos proved for a quick and efficient way for me to discover an entirely new (to me) dimension of Vancouver’s history.
Hi Jacob!
Thank you for your thoughts on this week?s readings ? there is a lot of what you said to unpack. I pulled a lot of the same ideas and focusses you did from the reading, particularly where it comes to Canada?s self-assertion and self-satisfaction with its equality, multiculturalism, and un-American nature. The readings touched on much of the alternative narrative concepts we have been discussing in class so far this term.
Where I engaged with the readings most is in thinking about silencing and erasure, and their counterpart ? what is remembered, and how that shapes out views of the people were are remembering. As a contrast to Hogan?s Alley and Black Strathcona, un-remembered sites of Canadian racial interaction, I was led to consider the remembrance and understanding of Canada?s indigenous populations and how they are remembered and characterized.
I spent this past weekend in Chilliwack visiting my (white) grandmother. Chilliwack is a predominantly white community with a large indigenous population. I spent a lot of time in Chilliwack growing up and I think it is difficult for a non-indigenous UBC student to understand the prejudice against indigenous folk as living, growing, and active, when we often talk about negative stereotypes in a derisive light ? of course nobody would think that ? when in reality, large swaths of Canada?s population reiterate negative characterizations of indigenous folks.
In the company of my white grandmother and her white older friends in the retirement complex they live in on indigenous lands, this anti-indigenous sentiment remains. It is not uncommon to hear complaints about government handouts, about rampant alcoholism, about ?living off the system?, about getting anything they complain about, about being greedy ? these discussions of the indigenous folk in the area are vibrant, alive, active, and insidious elements of the community and something that is readily reinforced.
This open and negative discussion of indigenous folks circles back to an understanding of silencing. Canada accepts refugees (but we are not interested in supporting the struggles within indigenous communities within the bounds of our state); Canada is multicultural (but the lives of indigenous folk are not culture); Canada is all about equality (except the indigenous populations get extra handouts and are therefore treated in a superior way); there is nothing in Canada akin to the racism in the USA (but we do not want to discuss, acknowledge, or apologize for the historical and ongoing systematic oppression of indigenous populations). The mental gymnastics required to speak of Canada as a great, equal nation further requires a conscious silencing of the oppression of indigenous folk.
This week’s reading by Herbert and Carr address issues of Canadian racism by looking how formal institutions tend to neglect its colonial and historical roots. A consequence of such negligence affirms what Carr describes as unearned privilege abused by Canada’s ruling majority (white/Anglo). Without acknowledging experiences of minority populations nor having minority decision-makers actively participate in processes and programs that affect various communities; Canada will continue to perpetuate the uneven power relationship and racist discrimination of underprivileged peoples. Both Carr and Herbert also share how there may be a lack of national will to address racism in Canada in politics, education and business. As if discrimination and inequality will dissipate over time; dealing with race and experience “colorblind.” Simply claiming a nation is multicultural does not imply the nation is socially just. It skims over the primary concern by falsely reaffirming its “friendly/goodness” towards minorities.
As I read these two articles I asked myself, why are dimensions of Canada’s past ignored? The answer as to why is difficult to substantiate. But I think of it as intergenerational shame, similar to how trauma is intergenerational. (The experience of intergenerational shame is not the same for everyone.) Addressing one’s own shame is a difficult and emotional task that’s complex and often problematic. Taking on such accountability for gross-inequality and social (in)justice (intentional or not) is very much burdensome, so the appeal of ignorance or negligence is consequently favorable. In turn, leaving support for actions and programs that address Canada’s racism are left to downsize or dissipate in the shadows of the privilege’s interest and comfort.
This week?s readings tackle issues I have considered since arriving in Canada for the first time in September: why is Canada generally viewed globally as a space of progressive tolerance, and is this really the case, or has this idea developed because due to the proximity of its more overtly racially-problematic neighbor, the US? The readings this week unapologetically identify the unpleasant history of Canada, and connect the dots in looking at how a nation built on racist institutions, continues to exert racially discriminatory practices.
In ‘The Equity Waltz in Canada’, Carr?s work considers race in reference to education. The article makes the claim that in order for society make truly progressive change; one must reform the education system, asking questions relating to accountability and perusing a history that is reflective of the less pleasant aspects of Canada?s past. Carr?s notion that anti-racism should be at the roots of all education, rather than a luxury or add-on is a really worthwhile concept. Broader teaching and learning experiences should grow from the anti-racist roots. This rings true to me, having been educated in England for my whole life, and as a history student. I have been taught about the history of the British Empire many times throughout my education, and until going to university, it is only ever referred to in favorable terms. Completely dismissing the atrocities by claiming the Empire was a means of spreading ideas of the Enlightenment reduces the cultures and identities of those countries that were colonized. In establishing a coherent and complete education, one that is fundamentally anti-racist, generations that follow will have the tools to dismantle the racist institutions that continue to exist today.
In ‘Race and Imperialism in Canada in the 1960s’, Hébert draws attention to the ?developing world?, and considers how and why Canada?s racism and imperialism abroad has not been incorporated into Canada?s national narrative. I had not learnt about Canada?s actions in the West Indies in the 1960s before (despite taking a course on Canadian history in the 20th century), and this was the first time I?d seen any scholarship hinting that Canada acted as an imperialist power. When reading the article I noted the terms Canadian politicians, pundits and newspapers used in association with the West Indies, for example, ?unsophisticated?, ?backwards?, ?threatening?, ?uncivilized?, and ?violent?. These terms mirror the white settler?s perception towards the Indigenous peoples of North America during the years of American colonization (and onwards). It is shocking how, 150 years later, undeniable racial stereotyping against marginalized peoples continued to exist. And what is perhaps more shocking is how Canada remained (/ remains) self-satisfied under the façade progressive tolerance.
Hello Ella, I agree with your comments on Hébert’s piece, Canada’s involvement in the imternational scene has had racist and imperialist motivations and results but the fact that this side of Canada has never been really overt. Canada might be a case of both really good PR and an education system that does not address the history of racism and colonialism as described by Carr, especially once we take into account the current conversation of white parents arguing that their children are too young to learn about race and racism but children of color are exposed to it from a very young age. Thus these issues are never fully addressed in society, much less give the future generations the tools to dismantle these power systems until they reach university level. I also didn’t have any idea that Canada had such a racist past until after I arrived here and everyone was talking about the history and racism of residential schools and the horrors that occurred in these places.
I would also like to add that Canada’s reputation has begun to sour a little in Latin America, specifically in Mexico where locals have realized that most of the financing for large multinational business efforts comes from Canadian banks, and these communities outright refuse to talk to Canadian business types because of that. Canadian banks are also financing the DAPL pipeline that is currently being built through Native American lands. To find out that there is a history of Canadian imperialist aspirations with such racial motivations and prejudices puts this into perspective. Canada, like many other countries, has a problem with the image it presents nationally and internationally and the reality of racism that exists here.
I found the article “The ‘Equity Waltz’ in Canada: Whiteness and the informal racism in education” to be interesting because of Carr’s Marxist approach to education reform. I think the strength in Carr’s process to reform comes from its Marxist aspects. One strong link to Marx is how Carr repeatedly talks about the need for a focus on social justice, “Of which anti-racism is a predominant feature” instead of the disproportionate focus on financial accountability and outcomes (p. 15). When very little weight is given to social justice, then education becomes far too employment-centered and disregards “marginalization, identity and inequitable power relations,” (p. 15). Carr’s call for systemic change in this respect exemplifies the dangers of what Marx calls “commodity fetishism”. Commodity fetishism hides the social relations behind an object. This means that we perceive social relationships in production as economic relationships among money and the commodities exchanged in trade instead of relationships among people. For Marx this is the crux of the problem with capitalism. In a capitalist society individuals can be viewed as having labour as a possession and this reduces human functions to commodities.
Carr’s analysis of the setbacks to education reform with regard to social justice and anti-racism show that by putting too much importance on education as the path to employment, education itself becomes fetishized in a harmful way. The value of school is sold through performance standards, outcomes, and financial terms, and those who are systemically oppressed by this system fall through the cracks. This focus disregards social justice because its use-value and exchange-value operate on a different plane than a system that fetishizes education as the means for employment. When we place too much of one type of value on something, the other ways of valuing it are overlooked. By valuing education disproportionately in terms of employment, its value as a means for change and social justice is lost. By correlating Carr to Marx it can be shown that in education (And in society in general) it is important to address different types of valuing, then actively impose these different types of valuing to disrupt the harmful, silencing aspects of dominant culture.
This week we focused on two reading’s, “Race and Imperialism” by Paul Hebert and “The Equity Waltz in Canada: Whiteness and the informal realities of racism in education,” by Paul Carr. Both readings focused on how Canada’s society tends to ‘overlook’ our racist past/present and the need to create better access to education surrounding this part of our society. The first reading, “Race and Imperialism” starts off by addressing the ‘unknown history’ of slavery in Canada, which Professor Cooper attributes to the underground railroad and the focus we as Canadian’s give to this particular part of our history. I thought that it was an extremely interesting point, something that I myself had never really thought about. Nonetheless it is extremely accurate and probably more common than one would expect, to over emphasis the good a country does, in order to over shadow the bad. Hebert also points to the neo-imperialist mentality that Canada maintained in the 60s and again, a mentality that is to this day not a big topic of conversation. In particular Hebert focuses on Haiti, a nation that Canada has claimed to aid in multiple areas. However Herbert make the point that for most of the areas in which we helped Haiti, we were in fact helping ourselves. This can we seen through our mining interests in the area, the way in which we undermined their economic sovereignty through the West Indian Banks, along with the negative effects of tourism we had on the Caribbean.
This leads into our second reading, “The Equity Waltz in Canada: Whiteness and the informal realities of racism in education,” which continues our conversation surrounding the history of “uncomfortable race relations” in Canada. In particular this article points to other areas with which Canadian’s tend to ignore in terms of our racist past and present. These include: racial discrimination in both education and work forces, racial profiling, over representation in prison’s of minority groups, and marginalization from decision making. What Carr points to as one of the main reasons for Canadian’s dismissal of our own reality is that there is an overall generalized idea that Canada is less racist than the US and leads Canadian’s to focusing more on the problems with the US than within our own country. Both articles suggest that we need to develop on a more informed way of educating our population of past, to ensure that we can break these barriers that are holding us back from being a true multicultural country without racism.
This week’s sources were extremely insightful, highlighting the underlying failures of Canada’s “multiculturalist” policy, as well as the country’s recent historic role in the subjugation of predominantly Black nations in the Caribbean and Africa (as well as at home, as the Black Strathcona example shows). Hebert’s discussion of Canadian Imperialism in the 1960s was a particularly engaging narrative, discussing the neo-imperialist agenda Canadian governments and private businesses carried out to exploit nations such as the West Indies and Trinidad for raw materials and services. I thought that it was particularly telling that this article mentioned Canadian aid was “more palatable” than that of the U.S., and that as a result Canada used it’s commonwealth ties to further its own interests.
What stood out to me from two of the sources were the different approaches taken towards rectifying Racism in Canada. With the Black Strathcona website videos, I found the use of a black and white effect on the footage attempted to give the viewer an image of what the Strathcona community would have looked like. “Equity Waltz,” confined to paper, outlined set criteria for Social Justice Accountability, through which we can begin to identify and discuss systematic Racism in this country. The former directly gave a voice to the histories which had been forgotten in mainstream, local education and knowledge, whereas the latter was advocating for change through nurturing generic educational reform that was broad stroke and expressed through sweeping policy terms that had little substance.
In this sense, I thought that Carr’s article presented a dichotomy. On the one had it was calling for a more tolerant and respectful society (which I believe we at UBC would encourage), yet it fails to acknowledge the potential loss of culture and history which can be a consequence of forging a homogenic new way of thinking. A further issue I had with Carr’s “Equality Waltz”, was a lack of potential solutions to the issues discussed. Whilst a rubric of ways in which to tackle structural Racism is provided, the critique of this country’s multiculturalist promise does not provide any comparisons with other alternatives, other than a brief criticism of Canadian indulgence vis-a-vis the USA. Whilst I recognise we need to tackle inherent Racism in Canada (arguably in the contexts of smaller locales where stronger projects can be initiated to meet the needs of communities), Canada’s attempts to adopt such an open, tolerant social policy (at least in theory), should be praised and built upon from a position of positivity and stakeholder engagement with all Canadians, including minority groups. It is through these means, and not generic wording, that we can eventually reach the intended goal of multiculturalism and offer equal opportunities to people of all types.
Paul Hébert’s “Race and Imperialism” informed me of an issue that, as someone coming from outside of North America, I was completely unaware of; prior to reading Hébert’s article, I had no knowledge of Canada’s involvement in the West Indies, and I had no idea that the nation was so steeped in neoliberalism. Like many other developed countries, Hébert points out that Canada had engaged in donating aid to countries like Haiti with their own gain in mind, rather than a genuine concern for Haitian citizens. The narrative that I had been exposed to most of my life regarding Canada was one that exalted its multiculturalism and tolerance, but reading Hébert’s article has shown me a darker side to Canada’s history – it seems as though Canada found a safe ground between remaining a colonised nation while also exercising colonial power. Hébert mentions a “paternalistic” attitude that Canada exhibited towards colonised countries: “as the senior member of the Commonwealth in the Americas, Canada had a special obligation to help their junior Commonwealth partners as Britain loosened its hold on the region.” This “special obligation” seems to have manifested into a deeply harmful and deeply racist idea of West Indian nations, an attitude that seems to be so easily forgotten and swept under the rug today.
Carr’s “The Equity Waltz” followed a similar line of exploration to Hébert’s article. Addressing a particularly unpleasant and rarely discussed history, I found myself asking along with Carr why Canada is seen as a largely tolerant nation while the United States’ history is seen as brutal and reliant on the dehumanisation of others? In contemporary historical scholarship, there seems to be a reluctance to sway from the narrative spun by many white settlers, that Canada is a vastly more accepting country than the United States, and has never treated minorities in the same cruel way as the United States. Carr’s article addresses this head on, while also challenging readers to criticise the systems still in place in Canada that seek to ignore its dark history, such as the educational system.
I thought both articles this week were really interesting as both of them spoke to the way in which Canada really pushes this multicultural, “better than our neighbours” sort of attitude. I liked how each article gave examples of racism that pushed beyond the go-to examples I learned in elementary and high school (the most popular of these examples being the Chinese head tax and residential school system). I thought that the Carr piece acknowledged the more popularized examples without diminishing their importance but at the same time adding to the discussion.
I thought that Carr framed Whiteness in Canada really well, and the line, “If White people do not know they are White, how can those in positions of power, many of whom are White, effectively understand and challenge racism and unearned privilege?” (9) was amusing, but said a lot. I also think that the ways in which Carr framed Whiteness in Canada blurs the line that the Canada had created to separate ourselves from America and that parallels can be drawn between Canada and the US. Overall, I thought that both articles provided a good foundation to build upon. Personally, I tend to think about and discuss racism in Canada from personal connections, whether that be the lived experiences of myself or of family and friends. Both articles really helped me contextualize the issues of racism in Canada in broader ways, and while both are quite short, they offer a good introduction/solid examples of the erasure in Canadian history.
This week I really loved seeing the connections between Carr’s “Equity Waltz” in Canada to the BlackStrathcona interactive website. Carr’s article explores education policy and race in Canada and the BlackStrathcona website is an educational tool used to address race in Canada (#mindblown). A line from Carr’s article that really drove home his argument stated that “to develop educational policy, it is imperative to acknowledge, understand, critically diagnose and re-align structures and processes to take into account crucial variables, such as lived experience, the social construction of identity, the distribution and exercise of power, the political nature of society, and, importantly, the conceptualization and manifestation of social justice.” I was really struck by this line because in my experience with race in education, the histories of visible minorities are often homogenized while this visions takes into account the notion that the individual histories and lived experience of race are different across the board.
When you dig into the BlackStrathcona project, you can find the accompanying curriculum for middle school aged kids where the goal of the project “depicts the cultural life, institutions and social geography of the community and celebrates its creativity and resilience… The stories combine narratives presented by professional performers, many of whom are personally descended from original Black settlers, with rarely seen archival photographs and film. The stories transport students back to another era, to one of restaurants serving Southern-style soul food, to jazz musicians, to big name celebrity visitors, and also to the discrimination and difficulties faced by a minority community in Vancouver’s less than progressive past.” The project is based around individual narratives which give depth to personal stories and shows the diversity of those experiences.
Carr’s vision for analyzing Canada’s waltz with race is totally put into action in the BlackStrathcona project (and I’m soooooo excited for the field trip on Thursday). When this histories of racial minorities in Canada aren’t taught in a comprehensive or nuanced way or aren’t being wrestled with through a contemporary lens it risks rewriting the historical, national spirit of Canada, giving it more credit than it deserves.
The essay and article we took a look at this week complimented each other perfectly in that they inspected the issues of race and discrimination in Canada through the problems’ current manifestations (Carr’s essay) and their oft forgot historical formations (Herbert). The international perception of Canada often ascribes it with a heralded dedication to diversity and multiculturalism, as both texts outline. As an exchange student from the States, I can personally attest to the power of this labeling as getting to mingle with a vast globalized network of cultural exchange greatly influenced my decision in coming to Vancouver. Since being here however, I have been tangibly aware of areas of similarity to the race relations in the US, wherein exceptional diversity does not mean exceptional equity or desegration of culture.
Herbert’s argument shines a light on the impossibility of trying to push multicultural demographics as meaning multicultural equality, and how equality is inaccessible until Canada’s history is reconciled instead of buried or dressed up as something else. The history of colonialism is just as pivotal to Canadian race relations as it is to US race relations. However, next to the US’ larger ’ sordid and violent past of mass genocide and mass enslavement, Canada’s history is often communicated as colonization lite (at least in terms of US education). For instance, African slavery in Canada is something I was largely ignorant of, as the country was often presented as the destination of the Underground Railroad, and thus upheld as a progressive bastion. Similarly, the imperialist oppression of indigenous people in Canada has hidden itself from the country’s public perception but has left lasting effects that still manifest today. The otherness that was ascribed to indigenous groups as part of the colonialist mission has permeated to otherness of indigenous groups today, as epidemics like the BC missing women illustrate.
Herbert’s article was crucial in terms of also identifying the neo-liberal benefits Canada reaps while still maintaining its multicultural, progressive global standing. As a First World Power, Canada is still dictated by free market capitalism that makes excess possible through exploitation. Locally, for instance, Canada participates with the US and Mexico in NAFTA, a trade deal that can be said greatly benefits the more powerful neighbor nations (US and Canada) over the less powerful (Mexico.) This system is a direct result of Canada’s colonial history, and inextricably tied to these economic practices throughout its history has been the exploitation of indigenous groups and racial minorities. Like the US, this is a problem Canada has to face with policy instead of trying to reinterpret history through a rose-colored lens.
For the past year, I’ve worked as a volunteer tutor at a secondary school in Vancouver. Like Carr argues, there is a major gap in between utilizing the language of social justice for face value and actually creating comprehensive, tangible reform and change; basically, there seems to be lots of talk, but with very little meaningful action. Like Carr says, we need to surpass mere symbolic gestures and actually have concrete policies for implementing anti-racist curriculum. This is often something I’m aware of when I’m assisting a student with Social Studies homework. It seems that an assignment will discuss an issue, like Christine has outlined, like the Chinese Head Tax, or Residential Schools, or the Komagata Maru, without much broader context. When we learn about specific examples of racism but little is done to link events together, we fail to show institutional racism is an overarching system that functions across institutions to create interlocking and intersecting oppressions.
Carr’s article also made me think about the ways in which social justice is seen as an addition to education, but not a principle focus. For instance, a Social Justice 12 class is currently offered via the VSB, but only as an optional elective class. This says a lot about the purpose of the educational apparatus , as Carr also discusses the focus on employable skills through enforcing an apolitical neo-liberal regime.
Obviously, as a white person myself, I can’t be blind to the ways in which I inevitably benefit from systems of Whiteness. I’m still trying to figure out methods that I can utilize to decenter systems of Whiteness and emphasis anti-racist rhetoric when I’m working with my students.
I thought the The “Equity Waltz” in Canada: Whiteness and the informal realities of racism in education by Paul R. Carr was a really interesting piece to read in the contexts of race in the Americas. The legacies and continuations of systems of slavery, colonialism, imperialism that create and maintain “global systems of domination in which the wealth and resources of the Third World are systematically plundered by capital of the Global North” are ignored and invisibilized and are directly linked to the experiences of students in Canada. Because the image of Canada as a helping nation, and not as a settler-nation is engrained in school curriculums, whiteness is never named. The reproduction and maintenance of white power and white privilege revolves around whiteness being assumed as the default category, and the power and privilege that emerges from that being ignored. Anti-racist education policies are incredibly important as they intend to name, address, and develop critical thinking around systems of oppression and how they interlock. However as explained by Carr, neoliberalism and it’s power to influence the politics of education, reproduce the unequal power relations that already exist in Canada.
The Black Strahcona website is an example of Canadian history that has been invisibilized. This weeks readings reminded me of An Unthinkable History and the argument it made about how the invisibilization and de-politicization of Black resistance and in this case Black presence, can be linked to how Western observers had treated manifestations of slave resistance and defiance with the ambivalence characteristic of their overall treatment of colonization and slavery… resistance and defiance did not exist since to acknowledge them was to acknowledge the humanity of the slave… As evident in the example of Ontario and the change in policies based on political parties in charge, illustrates contemporary investments in the maintenance of the invisibility of white power. When thinking about how race functions in the context of Canada it is important to think about how racism is psychological, embodied, and institutional and erasure, denial, and marginalization have taught us to not see each other as equal, therefore whiteness continues to be created and maintained through institutional practices including in education policies.
It is very shocking that Canada as the most tolerance and inclusion nations in world has this period of history. Both Paul Hebert and Paul Carr’s articles argues that Canada has a race problem. At the federal level of government, there is still no substantive policy to deal with racism. The multiculturalism as a public policy in legislation provides a framework for legitimizing cultural and racial diversity and for ensuring the rights of all Canadians. Yet, despite the Multiculturalism Act’s affirmation of the pluralistic nature of Canadian society, Canadians appear deeply ambivalent about the public recognition of other cultures, the freedom of non-White racial and non-European cultural groups to maintain their unique identities, and the right of minorities to function in a society free of racism.
Carr explores the central role of Whiteness as ideology, discourse, and social practice in a democratic racialized society. Throughout his article, Carr analyze how Whiteness functions as a racial signifier in the preservation of systems of domination and as a vehicle to reinforce structural inequality. Whiteness is examined as a process, “at the programmatic and institutional levels, it has been mainly White, middle-class women who have benefited from these gains, not women of color.” (Paul R. Carr. 2008). It is important to emphasize that when we speak of Whiteness, we are not critiquing White people as individuals, but rather see Whiteness as an invisible social process by which power and privilege is exercised in a society divided by colour, as well as other social markers.
I agree and have similar ideas as well with Jacob’s post, especially on the active processes of ‘erasure’ and ‘forgetting’ – this is the exact discourse that is fairly popular among the Asian community in Vancouver; a prominent minority community in Canada. The experience of discrimination and racism have created a greater push to embrace and pass down their culture and identity in a foreign place in fear of being ‘forgotten’. The intention is to keep the conversation about their struggles alive through less conventional education, where the stories of struggle is embodied through visible spaces (ie. Chinatown) and retold by the ‘elders’ through word of mouth. I think this is a point that is similar with the Black Strathcona – how memories and histories can be embodied through spaces and the importance of how spaces are also a part of remembering. Concepts can be ‘easily’ “forgotten” or “erased”, but I would argue that spaces speak otherwise. I also agree with Saheli’s point of how we are remembering history. Going back to the point of last week’s discussion of museums and how it serves to preserve histories or memories, and I have to admit the idea of space went over my head. From the Black Strathcona videos, we can see how the space have evolved but the memories are still kept alive through stories told by those who experienced first hand how the space was used and how it embodies a part of their identity. Indeed there are some sense of hypocrisy with how Canada has framed itself as multicultural, even though there were many instances when its history speaks otherwise – however, the presence of these spaces and the acknowledgement of these spaces for different minority communities is a step forward, that tries to remediate a past that is detrimental to the multicultural identity Canada has created for itself.
I would like to preface this response by saying that I really appreciated the walking tour, and the opportunity to meet Kevan “Scruffmouth” who is an important member to the Strathcona community. Having this tour lead by someone who is an active artist, poet, and member of the community is an important reminder that the Strathcona area is still an active site of cultural production yet also cultural demarcation.
Going through the walking tour was a little uncomfortable to be honest. Not to say that I don’t appreciate hearing the history of Hogan’s Alley because I did; it’s a history that is oftentimes forgotten as an important site in the city of Vancouver. As a place where there used to be a prominent Black community it’s important to think about space and the fluctuations of communities, and how certain urban planning methods can have impacts on residents and communities. And it’s also important to remember that the histories that we study have real spaces; that we can only learn so much in a classroom. I was really upset when Kevan pointed out how the Hogan Alley signs were smaller than construction zoning signs, as if through design itself it assumed that the history of Hogan’s Alley held little importance. And, as a person who spends a lot of time volunteering in Chinatown and a supporting member of the community who is engaged with a lot of the conversations that are happening right now (namely, the fears of gentrification, the unaffordable living cost for elderly folks, and the fentanyl epidemic), is it really appropriate to turn a community into a museum?
Right when we entre Chinatown there’s a huge red sign that marks this part of Vancouver as “Historic Chinatown” as if to assume that this space is a marker of a history that has already happened – as if it assumes that Chinatown is presently a preservation of a history, a place of the past. But we have to be critical of how this history has been constructed, and again, what it does to the people who still reside in Chinatown. When a community becomes a museum, does it mean that the residents become museum caretakers? Are they the ones who should be responsible for maintaining a tourist attraction? For a class called “Race in the Americas” we also have to think about how the implication of our presence in these spaces actively participate in the racialization of communities. Residents are not historical actors – the elderly Chinese folks are not here to maintain our spectacle. So, in thinking about the large red sign that say “Historic Chinatown” what role and responsibilities do we have to this space?
I keep thinking about how the walking tour took up a lot of public sidewalk space; how residents had to keep asking us to move or how some people asked to be excused as they were trying to get past a group of students. To put it quite frankly: we were a public disturbance. Our bodies, moving and having access to different spaces, have implications on both the urban space and on the communities as well. Simply by taking space on the sidewalk in the volume that we did, we were blocking and disrupting the day-to-day routines of the space. People still live and reside in the area, and to be in the space as if we were museum tourists creates a relationship of spectacle and spectator.
What I think is important to remember is that Chinatown is going through a lot of challenges. Walking down Union Street, you can see all these really expensive boutiques and restaurants, and the popularity of these kind of spaces are increasing. What it means is that Chinatown, which was been known to be an area for affordable housing (which also has a long history in itself, being a place where the racially excluded would reside), is getting more expensive. It is becoming less affordable to house people, and the surrounding businesses are making things increasingly difficult for residents to access these spaces. These issues impact so many different facets of the community, and with increasingly difficult conditions it seems as if Chinatown is becoming more of a tourist attraction than a community. Privilege and power is expressed and held in numerous ways and on different levels, and as students walking through this part of Vancouver it’s worth remembering how our bodies move and have access through different spaces.
Again, this is not to say that I don’t think the history of Hogan’s Alley is important because it is. The decision to put the viaducts in a place that used to be known as Hogan’s Alley was a political choice to displace the residents that used to live there. Spaces have history, and the layout of the city and urban planning efforts are made to construct what is remembered in the public sphere whether we are conscious of it or not. Cities are very much a part of how histories are remembered. But is there another way to remember Hogan’s Alley without disrupting a community that is still present? I’m trying to think of other ways that the history of Hogan’s Alley can be preserved or experienced, and one artist that comes to mind in Stan Douglas who is based in Vancouver. In the SFU Woodwards building, there’s a large mural that he made, and also did a piece called Circa 1948, which is a VR interactive app.
While I don’t have all the solutions, I do believe there is a lot of creative-historical work that can be done and I’m curious to see how artists, activists, and scholars can reimagine historical practices.
One theme that keeps coming up in our course and that was particularly relevant to our Black Strathcona tour is the relationship between racism, oppression, and the ownership of physical space. With the colonization of the Americas, power came with the taking of land and it is also in this way that colonization persists today. The Strathcona neighborhood was a physical space that was characterized by its strong sense of community. The identity and trajectory of the neighborhood was formed by black residents and the way they owned and used the land they inhabited. Vie’s Chicken is an example of how physical space was used to create a shared space that shaped, supported, and promoted the identity and culture of the black community. Access to and ownership of physical space is fundamental for people to be able to have a voice and power. Places like the Fountain Chapel, where not only church services were held, but community gatherings, meetings, and celebrations happened are critical for a community to shape and assert itself. According to the Black Strathcona website, in 1923 members of the Fountain Chapel came together and made sure that a fair trial was given to Fred Deal, a railroad porter who was charged for killing a Vancouver Police Constable. It is because the community had a physical space that they were able to do this.
The taking of land is a way in which white people and dominant culture oppresses racial minorities. It is an action of power and privilege that reinforces institutional racism and prejudice. As the Black Strathcona website explains, Hogan’s Alley was a vibrant and interesting place to the mixed-race community that lived there, full of cottages, restaurants, and make-shift nightclubs, but when the city wanted to level parts of it for a freeway it was described as place filled with crime and danger by the city and the press. Residents pushed back and prevented the building of the freeway, but in 1972 part of this space was claimed and demolished by the city to build the Georgia Viaduct. The building of the viaduct caused a loss of physical space and as housing became easier to find in other parts of the city, residents of Strathcona moved away.
The Strathcona neighborhood serves as an important example of how physical space that has been created by and belongs to racial minorities can be taken and destroyed by dominant culture because of institutional structures, rooted in their colonial beginnings, that reinforce racism. The destruction of Hogan’s Alley was not an overtly racist action (It was not necessarily consciously motivated by racism), but it is easier to silence minorities because of the lack of resistance from dominant culture, so minority areas, like Hogan’s Alley usually become the first choice for projects. Minority neighborhoods continue to be disproportionately taken and used by powerful institutions and businesses. The DAPL was originally planned to run through a predominately white, middle class area, but was confronted by mass outrage, so it was redirected through indigenous lands, where despite outright resistance from the community that shaped, loved, and identified the land as sacred and vital for their existence, the pipeline was eventually approved. The colonization of the Americas continues today, but in a more nuanced way than the violent past. It is important to confront instances of the taking of physical space, like that of the DAPL and Black Strathcona as colonization because then the institutional forms of racialized oppression become clear.
Having to end the course by walking through Strathcona/ Hogan’s Alley reminds me that we are constantly making and remaking history. I really appreciated Kevan/ “Scruffmouth” taking his time to share his experience and to share a part of Vancouver’s history that is sometimes overlooked and under appreciated. By walking through Strathcona, as a class, we became witnesses of a place of constant change; a place made and remade by walkers, and in turn we became products by the streets that we walked.
I was struck by Kevan’s explanation on how “Hogan’s Alley” got its name. “Hogan’s Alley” was a popular term to describe the T-shaped intersection, which includes Park Lane, and nearby residences and businesses at the edge of Strathcona. However, Kevan argues “Hogan’s Alley” also received its name due to the perception from the city as an area of adventure, intrigue, vice, and immorality- or simply put, a poor African-Canadian immigrant neighborhood that is deemed as unattractive to the city’s urban development. This makes me reflect on how Chinatown is also experiencing gentrification. What will be the repercussion if a historical community is removed without items or evidence of its existence? Is preserving a historical community a better solution than preservation through museums?
I was also struck by the irony of the small signage of Hogan’s Alley in comparison to the caution sign that was placed adjacent to it. Can a small sign represent the history, the lives, the people, and the community that once existed there? I also found it problematic that the restaurant Vie’s Chicken and Steak and the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel has either become a place of residence or completely neglected. If I did not have Kevan to point out the places that were once there, I would have walked pass the house and the restaurant without a second glance. This makes me reflect whether having labels and whether preserving items as a medium of remembering history a positive or a negative thing?
I find it extremely ironic that the viaducts that were built in 1972 for an “Urban Renewal Project,” which ultimately removed the remaining black community, is now prospected to be tear down by 2018. The city is prospected to build new high-rises (Concord Pacific) and new parks, but according to their plan they are also planning to make it a historical space where the history of Hogan’s Alley will be remembered. The physical space will become a space for future black communities. How does one remove a place of its historical significance and suddenly rebuild it? How do you bring a new “immigrant” black community to a specific area? I do not think we will ever have answers to some of these questions, but I will be very interested to see how the city will negotiate Hogan’s Alley’s historical narrative in the upcoming year.
The final field trip to Strathcona on Thursday was a great way to end off the term! I really appreciated Kevan’s narration about the area, and it’s really great to see that the history of Black Strathcona is still remembered (somewhat).
It’s very shocking to see how the City of Vancouver has preserved the Strathcona area — the only hints suggesting that a black community once thrived in the region is the presence of a small plaque. I asked Kevan whether he thought that the signs demonstrated a strong enough effort to help people remember the history of Strathcona, and how he would have preserved the history of the community if it were up to him. He told me that he was very excited about the possibility of a new cultural center or landmark area commemorating the history of Strathcona, but that he was also concerned that it would not be done in the “right way”.
For my final project, I also interviewed many individuals in Chinatown regarding the revitalization plan — a plan which encourages new businesses to keep Chinatown as a “thriving” area, while also putting strict regulations on the aesthetics of these new businesses. New businesses need “protect the historic character of the neighborhood”, which has led a lot of businesses to erect dingy signs and inappropriate, culturally-insensitive drawings of dragons and Chinese symbols on their storefronts.
I would like to pass on this question to you all: what is the best way to preserve the history of an area, then? We already discussed the problematic nature of museums and such, are there ways of preserving the history of communities within the actual area itself (i.e. Black Strathcona area, Chinatown) without it coming off as shallow and insensitive (example being: appropriating Chinatown aesthetics, possibly over-doing Black Strathcona as well)?
Hist 456
3 April
I really enjoyed the Black Strathcona field trip, it was a great end to the semester. Although I felt a bit embarrassed—I’ve lived nearby (about a 10 minute bus ride) my entire life, and am in the area regularly and had heard pretty much nothing about Strathcona’s history. It hadn’t been taught at my elementary school or highschool, both of which are also a stone’s throw away from Strathcona. The field trip also really shone a light on the gentrification happening in Chinatown/ Main and Hastings/Strathcona. (Sidenote: here are the links to the Carnegie Community Action Project and their report about the DTES both of which are really great resources if you want to read more. Website: http://www.carnegieaction.org/ the report: http://www.carnegieaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CED-REPORT-PRINT.pdf ). Projects like CCAP and Black Strathcona provide hope that these communities will work through these challenges. I’m also trying to reconcile the issues that came with the walking tour. As Y Vy points out, we were an imposition on the space. We entered and disrupted the daily lives of residents. I’m wondering if there’s a way to mitigate this, as I definitely see the value in the walking tour.
On their website, the project is offered as an educational tool to help, “support curriculums of English Language Arts 7-10 and Social Studies 7-10 in British Columbia”. The write up also links the project to To Kill A Mockingbird, which was a part of the BC curriculum when I went to high school, but this local connection had never been made. The narratives of blackness in North America had once again been framed completely separately, and Canada maintained its “benevolence”. This links back to the discussions we had on Tuesday about education. I’m wondering how many teachers have used the project/are able to use it/have even heard of it. I really wish this had been available when I was in high school. I also really appreciate the interactive experience that the site offers, I definitely plan on going back and doing a walking tour of my own. Overall I thought it was really cool to see all the hard work of community artists and scholars in such a different and interactive way.
The tour of the Black Strathcona neighborhoods provided a great method of contextualizing the discussions we’ve had throughout the semester and the sort of questions that have arisen from these discussions. Kevan was a wonderful guide who actively engaged our questions and pushed the bounds of what we may or not know about the history of the area. During the whole trip, I couldn’t help but recall the recent in-class documentary we watched on the erasure of black history in Canada, and the re purposing of the black Strathcona neighborhoods seems very emblematic of that process. In many ways, the gentrification of the neighborhoods represents a larger assault on historiographic recollections of blackness in Canada.
It was interesting to also contextualize what ways blackness produces more stringent attempts to alienate or deny its existence. While other minority groups in Canada have been met with varying levels of inclusion or integration into the sphere of public memory and consciousness, members of the Afro-Canadian diaspora of must fight simply to retain places of cultural significance. As Kevan highlighted as we stood beneath the Viaduct, urban centers were often cut physically and intentionally with segreatory practices in mind, an act of disenfranchisement that extended to all the minority of groups in the Strathcona neighborhoods. I was interested to learn that an exodus of black Canadians had already begun before the disruption and gentrification of their neighborhoods commenced, a situation not often seen down south in US cities.
Perhaps for me, the ultimate culmination of the tour was when we arrived at the Strathcona School and Kevan informed us of its legacy while its legacy was in the process of being dismantled. This was moment of particular power because it made the loss of heritage he spoke of tangible and present, and the whole way home, I had this image pressed in my mind.
Like Y Vy and Christine said in their own responses, our presence in the area had its consequences: we were being disruptive and we took up space that the residents of Strathcona needed to access and I think we can all agree that the tour was not designed for a group our size and that this method of preserving the past in an Urban landscape is clearly not the best one. It’s too disruptive and it definitely felt like the neighborhood became an attraction to be consumed. There needs to be a reevaluation of how these kinds of tours transform the space where they occur and education surrounding historic neighborhoods and the relationships the residents have had with the city (forced relocation, gentrification, raids, etc.) should be taught in schools as part of a program devoted to teaching about the history racism and race relations.
Could the solution entail building an open space dedicated to the acknowledgment and preservation of these kinds of site histories without invading these neighborhoods? is it possible to preserve the interactive and accessible nature of walking tours? Would something be lost doing that? Would it have the same isolating effect as museums do?
Having arrived late to the field trip meeting place, I decided to do my best to complete the Walking Strathcona tour on my own with the help of the interactive walking tour the Black Strathcona website offers.
The experience was truly something. Being able to walk on the physical space whose history I was simultaneously learning about felt engaging and sparked many curiosities and questions in my mind.
I appreciated walking through present-day Strathcona as I thought of it in the past tense. This was the most memorable part of the experience for me, however it was also the most confusing. All I had was an iPhone and my imagination to try and reconcile the links between the past and present of this neighbourhood.
In my mind, I was trying to recreate the energy and feel of the places where Vie’s Chicken and the Fountain Chapel had stood, but the reality in front of me kept acting as a reminder of how Hogan’s alley came to an end.
I agree with Courtney when she says that “the destruction of Hogan’s Alley was not an overtly racist action.” I met a white homeless man a few weeks ago (a few blocks from Strathcona) who told me he’d lived in Hastings for over 30 years. He voiced his annoyance at how the gentrification of the neighbourhood was bringing in all the “dumb rich people” and driving out “people like [him]”. He spoke for two more cigarettes.
After hearing his story, and after the interactive walking tour of Strathcona, it occurred to me that what this man had to say about people “like him” being gradually dispersed from their home neighbourhoods sounded similar to the dispersal and destruction of Hogan’s alley.
To suit the (may I say Capitalist) needs of a development project which ultimately turned out pretty useless, most of Hogan’s alley was blighted for the building of the via duct, and the rest of it was ingested by China town. What’s even more ironic/dark is that the same ghost of gentrification that dispersed Hogan’s alley, is currently looming over China Town.
Gentrification is one of the causing factors of the mass forgetting of diverse peoples and cultures. As happened with Hogan’s alley, gentrification will turn a diverse and eclectic area into a homogenous area full of straight edges. Architecturally homogenizing a neighbourhood to “suit the tastes of the middle class” (google’s definition of gentrification) seems like an exclusivist way of renovating a city.
Perhaps gentrification could be a voting matter, where equal representation of the inhabitants of the space being discussed could voice real needs and concerns?
In our Black Stratchcona field trip, what struck out to me the most is the fact that we were learning about a community that once existed through Kevan’s narrating. Although the city did leave a small piece of plastic sign, those are not enough to “remember” the history of the people who once thrived there, and their history is handed down by those who know. I felt like this fits into the pattern of the stories of those who were removed from their inhabitants by the new-comers. Since the mainstream history, or the most well-known narratives of the history is often those of who conquered or those who won, the tales of those who got trampled fade away. Like how we’ve learned about the aboriginal people, or native populations of south america, the story of Black Stratchcona told by Kevan seemed like a more contemporary example those. But when someone, or one particular people’s history is about the public space, what is the best way to revisit, or even to preserve? For example in Japan, there some historic sights or a historic village where the government put a protection under the name of “national historic sight”. It’s often regulated by the law, all the residents and tenants are subject to the laws that bind them through the aesthetics of the building, etc. However, these type of laws and regulations often only protect physical properties, not communities. How can a restaurant where people come not only for the food but also to form a community, can be protected without loosing both of their relationship to one another? It seemed almost like an ongoing question of how one’s culture should be carried on with extreme force of globalization and influx of immigrants to its country. So my question is, what would be the best ways to make peace with the fact that people are and will continue to move around both on the city level and on the world wide level, and that they are never a blank sheet of paper, they bring about their own culture and practices, and their language and traditions to everywhere they go?
Strathcona is the most vital African-Canadian neighborhood in Vancouver. There are a big changing from mid-20th century to present. As a part of controversial project of urban renewal in 1967, Strathcona will disappear in today because of housing discrimination. It is hard to imagine that if City of Vancouver did not make effort on protecting these heritage properties, we will not have this tour and enjoy it so much. Now, we can see the Chinatown is revitalizing. There are so many coffee shops, restaurants, and record stores. However, we still can see many old streets, heritage buildings, artworks are protected.
In recent years, there have been many efforts to commemorate the neighbourhood, through community and government initiatives such as QR codes which display at each of the 10 sites at Strathcona. Tourists can scan the QR codes to explore the culture and history of Black Strathcona such as “local arts, a fascinating fusion of up-to-the-miute technology and the oral tradition, , of documentary film and hands-on experience”. It is important to help people to remind and learn Vancouver’s multicultural heritage through these QR codes as an educational resources.
In my first year at UBC, a professor take my ASTU class on a ‘tour’ of the Downtown Eastside. She gave us a brief introduction to the space, a map of the area in which we’d be ‘exploring’ (East Hastings and Abbott, to East Hastings and Main, down to Powell and Main, and back to our original meeting place). Beyond the problematic phrasing of ‘exploring’ and ‘tour,’ I obviously had major issues with the way in which this was framed. The DTES is an active and living community, with real residents and bodies that occupy this space currently. I remember the visceral feeling that I was occupying a space in a way that was completely voyeuristic, and felt as though I was engaging in a form of slum tourism.
I was introduced to the Black Strathcona project in History 399 with Dr. Bronfman, and have seen it as an incredible resource for educating and informing people about a history that is so often erased. I have utilized the worksheets and interactive map with my students for a multitude of extra homework, and have constantly gotten positive responses back. However, upon hearing that we were going to be taking the walking tour, I was torn. I couldn’t help but remember the DTES tour I had participated in, but was also interested in the way in which it would be framed.
Throughout the tour, I was struck by the politics of (in)visibility. Like many others have already discussed, it seemed as though we were discussing displacing the black community, while we were in fact continuing to take away physical space as we walked, clumped together as a group.
It’s a difficult dilemma to mitigate – in what ways do we interact with Black Strathcona as to not further erase its history, but maintain a level of respect with the current space and the residents? How do we strike a balance between interacting with a space without TAKING space? In what ways can we work to remember and teach without continuing a legacy of displacement ? Is there a way?
From my personal experience as an immigrant in Canada, when I first arrived in Vancouver I remember being shocked at the level of multiculturality in the city, something I had never seen before in my life. The numerous Asian population stood out to me the most, plus it was also my first time seeing other religions aside from Christianity, and Catholicism in particular. One of the things that struck me, nonetheless, was how small black population was. I had never been in the States or Canada before my arrival to Vancouver, but I somehow, due to proximity with the United States, Vancouver would have its own black community.
In view of this, plus the lack of monuments or any other kind of indication that would prove the contrary, I came to accept the possibility that, maybe black people had never reached the Fraser Valley region. This idea started to make less sense once I crossed the border for the first time to Seattle, where its population was there, visible and alive. Meanwhile in Vancouver I noticed most of the community seemed to be relatively new immigrants from African countries or the caribbean, that is, there were no traces of a tradition that could be traced back well into the last century.
For the most part, what the Strathcona tour did for me was to debunk this idea. Although few traces are left, to reconstruct and understand the vibrant past of Vancouver’s own black community made things make more sense. It seems that Canada has many struggles with its past, the most significant one being first nations, and has channeled most of its efforts toward solving those issues, probably keeping out of the picture other communities that have contributed to their nation as much as other communities. I think a good question to ask about our city is if there are other Black strathconas out there, and how can we look for clues and find them?