Assignment 3:2 — White civility

For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

While the Multiculturalism Act of 1989 was effectively an announcment to the world that Canada was a welcoming and inclusive country, many of the underpinnings of Canadian racism were still in effect — and many of which continue to this day. Functionally, the Multiculturalism Act was a way for Canada to continue what Daniel Coleman refers to as “white civility” in “White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada” — but in a slightly different sense than Coleman originally intended.

While Coleman’s analysis focuses on how the concept of early English Canadianness was structured as a way of forgetting colonialism, in that the “regularly repeated literary personifications for the Canadian nation mediated and gradually reified the privileged, normative status of British whiteness in English Canada” (6), the Multiculturalism Act served the same purpose by superficially acknowledging the wishes of the ruling class to be perceived as inclusive through nice-sounding words (“WHEREAS the Government of Canada recognizes the diversity of Canadians as regards race, national or ethnic origin, colour and religion as a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society…”) while not doing much of substance.

Projects like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action illustrate how far Canada still has to go in addressing the racism that permeates and upholds polite Canadian society – such as the ongoing theft of Indigenous children into the child welfare system, higher rates of incarceration for Indigenous people, the erasure of Indigenous languages, and much more. As Vice reported just a few months ago, Indigenous people are still being sterilized without their consent in Canada.

All this is happening while many – probably most – Canadians are content to conceive of the country as a nicer version of America, free from many of the social ills that plague that country and others. As Coleman reminds us, we consistently need to “be reminded of the brutal histories that our fictive ethnicity would disavow” (9).