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.
Daniel Coleman’s claim was published in 2006. As such, this was well after the final Act in question had received royal assent (The Immigration Act), therefore all of the immigration Acts come to question. Coleman’s claim of “… a specific form of [Canadian] whiteness based on the British model of civility” is ultimately about racism by the early settlers and colonizers is certainly true (5). This is easily supported by the language of the first three acts that explicitly discriminated against certain populations, namely, people of Indigenous and Asian descent. As an example, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 explicitly discriminated against people of Asian descent by imposing a $50 (approximately $1,300 when adjusted for inflation) on each Chinese immigrant.
Where Coleman’s claims fall short, however, exist when he claims that the white race “still occupies the position of normalcy and privilege in Canada” (7). As the span of this lesson’s exercise is limited to the examination of only one act, the Multiculturalism Act 1989 will be the focus of this post.
It is integral to understand that discrimination against a human under the categories of physical characteristics the pigmentation of the skin, number of toes, and eye colour is morally wrong as these qualities can not be changed.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
Where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
-M.L.K, JR.
The Act enacted in 1989 re-affirmed many great things Canadians are blessed within the present day. It has a lot of great provisions, namely:
[the Act] recognizes:
equality rights regardless of race, religion, etc.
Aboriginal rights
recognizes minorities’ rights to enjoy their cultures
Where the Act falls short, however, is the fact that it relentlessly attempts to make the citizens overly aware of diversity in their environment. Meaning that in a place of employment, folks may be hired or rejected based on race. As an example, a hiring manager somewhere in a primarily European/white Canadian town may end up discriminating against them as they may be over-represented in their company. The correct approach would be to hire folks based on their merits. This effectively accomplishes something that the Act was originally written to battle: discrimination against people based on the colour of their skin.
The Canadian Government enacted harmful legislation in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries that discriminated against certain ethnicities. It could be argued that perhaps they steered “too far the other way” in an attempt to rectify past wrongdoings. Hence, Coleman’s claim of continued “white superiority” in Canada is not correct.
Works Cited
Coleman. White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada. N.p.: U of Toronto, 2006. Print.
Digital image. Martin Luther King Jr. Biography. Biography, n.d. Web. <https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr>.
Heritage, Canadian. “Government of Canada.” Canada.ca. Government of Canada, 27 Jan. 2020. Web. 18 Apr. 2020. <https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/corporate/publications/plans-reports/annual-report-canadian-multiculturalism-act-2017-2018.html>.
King, Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream…” N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf>.