WorldWideSocialistWeb 20 August 2008

In the wake of the riot that erupted earlier this month in the north end of Montreal after the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old immigrant from Honduras, the big business media are trying to whitewash the killing and cover up the social roots of the underlying repression of minority youth. (Keep reading…)

New York Times November 25, 2007

FROM the 1880s to the 1960s, at least 4,700 men and women were lynched in this country. The noose remains a terrifying symbol, and continues to be used by racists to intimidate African-Americans (who made up more than 70 percent of lynching victims). (Keep reading…)

Al Ahram, 15 - 21 March 2007
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/836/op1.htm

Israel’s struggle for peace is a sincere one. In fact, Israel desires to live at peace not only with its neighbours, but also and especially with its own Palestinian population, and with Palestinians whose lands its military occupies by force. Israel’s desire for peace is not only rhetorical but also substantive and deeply psychological. With few exceptions, prominent Zionist leaders since the inception of colonial Zionism have desired to establish peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs whose lands they slated for colonisation and settlement. The only thing Israel has asked for, and continues to ask for in order to end the state of war with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours, is that all recognise its right to be a racist state that discriminates by law against Palestinians and other Arabs and grants differential legal rights and privileges to its own Jewish citizens and to all other Jews anywhere. The resistance that the Palestinian people and other Arabs have launched against Israel’s right to be a racist state is what continues to stand between Israel and the peace for which it has struggled and to which it has been committed for decades. Indeed, this resistance is nothing less than the “New anti-Semitism”. (Keep reading…)

from Marc Cooper.com March 25

Saturday saw the largest political demonstration in the history of Los Angeles, and one of the biggest in recent American history.immigration1.jpg (Keep reading…)

special to Canadian Dimension

      Most of our understanding of racism is limited to the black and white conflict, name-callings and racist jokes.  Actually, racism extends far beyond that.  There is racism everywhere around us—some of us notice its existence; others do not.  The reason for not noticing this type of racism is that it occurs too often.  Something that occurs too often is usually considered normal.
      Systemic racism is a type of racism found in our system—the society we are living in—and can be found in our everyday life.  Media is an important part of our society.  Through the media, people are better aware of what is now happening around the world; it had also brought us a lot of entertainment.  Media has become so important in our modern live that we cannot live without it, but very few people have paid attention to how media is influencing our thinking.  When we watch TV or read fashion magazines, most people we see are “blue-eyed blondes,” with light skin.  The male celebrities are usually muscular and female ones are usually super-skinny.  We see that so often that we think it is perfectly acceptable, but no one seems to realize that the majority of the people in the world do not have blue eyes, blonde hair and light skin.  Today, the meaning of the word “beauty” seems to be restricted to having light eyes, hair, skin, and a skinny figure.  Women are especially influenced by the fashion magazines and wanted to be “beautiful,” so they start losing weight and lightening their hair.  It is very interesting how women in Japan, Korea and China prefer to lighten their skin by having laser surgeries.  When we watch news, we barely see people of ethnic races.  It is also ironic that the percentage of Oscar winners who have European background is so much higher than the percentage of their population in the world.  Media is sometimes like a two-edged sword because it is influencing our thinking harmfully while benefiting our society.
   We are so much luckier than the rest of the world because we have more multicultural societies.  In a youth group meeting, a Chinese girl told us her story about her wearing a traditional Chinese dress for the photo day, and everyone teased her.  That made me think a lot.  My feelings are not good when seeing photos of American celebrities in Chinese, Japanese or Persian costumes.  Many of our celebrities tend to take costumes from other cultures, and to modify them; many singers also like to sing in styles of ethnic cultures.  After that, these fashions and styles) start to be popular among the their public.  It seems as if people of the dominant race have the right to borrow from other cultures without hearing any rude comments.  This is not multiculturalism.  Just because we do not have a distinct culture of our own does not mean that we can steal the culture from other people without permission.  Each costume usually has a special meaning for people from a certain culture, and using and modifying it randomly without understanding the meaning of it is extremely disrespectful to the people who are really from that culture.  Racism is not only the disadvantages some people face, but also the advantages some people gain from being part of the dominant group. 
      It is very natural for us to stereotype people, or things that we do not know well, but when it comes to races, it is totally different.  At school, we can frequently hear people making comments such as “White people are racists” “Asians are convenience store owners” “East Indians are taxi drivers” “Indians are alcoholics” and “Black people are gangsters.” There is something wrong with these stereotypes—most of them come from TV programs, especially TV commercials, where people of a certain race are dressed in certain ways, living in certain places, doing certain jobs, and speaking with certain accents—but that is not what we see every day in our lives.  What we know about races is usually programmed by the media, and it is very hard to change our perceptions even though we know that it is not the truth.  Many people think that it is “cool” to act “black,” but never know what is like to be black; and sometimes certain people are forced to act in certain way, just because they are from a certain race.  The influence of the media on young people is also evident in video games.  I was shocked when seeing a picture from the game “Taxi Driver” on a free game website, with a taxi driver in a Sikh turban.  Many people say that “All racists are white,” but it is not true.  According to my understanding, racism can occur between any races; it can even occur within a single race, but between people who live in different regions, have different customs, and speak with different accents.  Stereotypes are usually false because every individual is different from everyone else, and we cannot judge people by their faces.
      Systemic racism can even be found in what we learn in the Social Studies class—Canadian history.  Canada is a country built by many different nations, but usually only the contributions of Europeans (especially British) are being recognized.  We are already tired of hearing British names such as General Wolfe, General Brock, and Sir John A. Macdonald, again and again.  All the textbooks writers spend very few pages to writing about the contributions of the aboriginal people of Canada (and even this part in every book is usually the same).  The contributions of other nations, such as Ukrainian farmers, Chinese railroad workers, and Japanese fishermen, are always ignored.  Didn’t these people make contributions to Canada?  It is important to know that ignorance is also racism.
      We are usually proud of our cultural diversity, but in fact, the Canadian society looks more like a picture made up of several large pieces of unrelated colors, where each color stands for a different race.  It is still based on the British system, which includes laws, rules, religion, and traditions, which can be frequently found in political and religious ceremonies. European Canadians (usually males) dominate the society in the fields of politics and religions.  In Vancouver, seventy-five percent of the residents are visible minorities, but most of the people who hold political power have European backgrounds.  Our society is not always fair for all the residents—it seems to be too strict for some people, and too lax for others.  It sometimes forces certain races to do certain jobs, to enter certain social classes, and to be separated from people of other races—that is why people from the same race usually prefer to live in the same community.  It is definitely easier for someone from the dominant culture to enter the upper class than for an ethnic-minority person; and it is usually very hard for an immigrant from another country to find a job in Canada, even if he or she is very educated and has lots of work experiences.  We have to accept the fact that our society is still stratified, and the cultures are not as syncretic as we think they are.
      Racism is usually considered as a sensitive topic, but we have to face it because it exists in our life.  It is gratified to see that governments around the world are working to eliminate racism by consummating the laws and educating the people.  The advancing of technology is connecting people around the world more closely together.  People are starting to be willing to see changes, trying to communicate with others, and accepting cultural differences.  We see hope everywhere.  It is also gratified to see that more and more Canadians are fighting hard for peace, justice and equality, to create a better Canada for the future. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2006/03/22/405/#more-405" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

Canadian Dimension Magazine, March/April 2006 Issue

In the faculty dining room at the California State University where I teach, a Mexican-American woman places the thin slice of turkey on the bread to make my sandwich. The stress lines that radiate down from her high cheekbones twitch as she tells me politely that she’s fine. One of her sons is in Afghanistan, she reports. The other will leave tomorrow for Iraq. “I pray every day,” she says, smearing the mayonnaise on the other slice of bread. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension Magazine, March/April 2006 Issue

CD: There are 125 million people who are displaced in this world. Who are these people? Where are they from? And what are the causes of their displacement? (Keep reading…)

This is the real outrage: Amid the cartoon furore, Danish imams ignore the tragedies suffered by Muslims across the world (Keep reading…)

World Socialist Web Site

10 February 2006

The basic lie in the controversy over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by Danish and European newspapers is the claim that the conflict is between free speech and religious censorship, or between Western enlightenment and Islamic bigotry. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension, January/February 2006 Issue

Canada tends to take pride in its humanitarian tradition of providing protection to thousands of refugees who fear persecution, or who are at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment. Despite this popular image, however, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) are both highly flawed institutions, which often fail to protect those seeking asylum. (Keep reading…)