What racism? An exploration of ideological common sense justifications of racism among educators in Quebec English-language education.

This study starts with the observation that Canadians un-self-consciously tend to understate, or fail to recognize, the existence and extent of anti-Black racism in Canada. Canadians also claim that racism is much worse in the United States. Using extensive excerpts from in-depth interviews with Black and White educators in the Quebec English- language school system, the study examines ideological common sense arguments that legitimize, or else, argue away Canadian anti-Black racism. The study also documents the participants’ accounts of racism and its effects.The study exposes arguments used to deny and justify racism, and discusses the disparate understandings of race-related concepts that make it difficult for dominant and oppressed racial groups to see eye-to-eye. The author then uses the findings of the study to answer and critique a 1998 article by S. Davies and N. Guppy that challenges the claim that there is anti-Black racism in Canadian education.The final chapter of the study suggests that the American literature on race is more relevant to the Canadian context than is often acknowledged. It suggests that anti-racist education in Canada has less to do with “giving teachers . . . strategies” for passing on “tolerance to the next generation” than with teaching teachers to examine their own assumptions. The author recommends that Canadian education be examined through a Critical Race Theory approach, which centers race.

Author

Howard, Philip

Title

What racism? An exploration of ideological common sense justifications of racism among educators in Quebec English-language education.

Subjects

Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Racist Education

Document Type

MA Thesis

Source

McGill University

Language

English

Publication Date

2002

THESES

AND DISSERTATIONS

Abstract 220

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