Halle lechet-MignottPFP-151 -OLD
Jennie Yeomans
Racism & discrimination
April 6th 2018
Canada is one of the largest multicultural places in the world. Since confederation back in 1867 more than 17 million people have immigrated to Canada (2016, statistics Canada). Even though Canada is such a multicultural place it still faces many problems with discrimination and acceptance. Despite that most people know discrimination is wrong, people continue to use it because of the thought that people with visible minorities are going to part take in some type of violent activity or just plain not liked because of the way they look. But for some who is Caucasian nothing is even considered a problem, this is called “white privilege”. White privilege is not something that Caucasian enjoy or create per say but they very much benefit and have “perks” from it at times that someone of visible minority doesn’t exactly gain in the ways that someone of Caucasian appearance may have easy. (2018, tolerance) white privilege manly takes part in work setting or in stores. In class this semester, the class took part in watching a video that touched on the problems of discrimination. In the video it should a woman of visible minority in a store, the women of visible minority was dressed casual and was look around the store. When the women went to pick up a shirt the lady that worked at said store that was Caucasian proceeded in telling her she needs to leave the store because of the way she looks and that she “obviously” looks like she was going to steal something. This video was a test video to see if people would stand up for the women of visible minority that was rudely being kicked out for her skin colour and the way she looked. In the video most civilians that were Caucasian watched and did not say anything but there also there was a fair amount of people that were Caucasian that did confront the Caucasian lady working at the store by stating that the way she was treating the women of visible minority was unacceptable. Also, many of the people that were of visible minority shopping in the store took part in seeing this mistreatment became outraged and some had left the store and proceeded in taking the women of visible minority with them while telling the lady working at the store that she was rude and racist. This video really shows the standing the verbal abuse and racial inferences that one of Caucasian appearance uses towards someone of visible minority. It also showed the great ignorance that people who have white privilege don’t care at times what happens to others of visible minority or don’t realise that people of visible minority are people too.
Racism is a socially constructed situation mainly focused on the concept of stereotypes and prejudices aspects. There are often negative feelings of someone’s ethnic group or of their physical appearance mainly their skin tone. Racism and discrimination are common throughout America. It frequent in areas of the country like the south or the Midwest even small towns. The groups in America that face discrimination are the same as in Canada. The African Americans, Hispanics and Muslims encounter day by day discrimination and racism because of what they look like, what they wear and what they practice. (2018, internation). Sometimes the discrimination is related to crime or drugs. Racism in America has taken a huge step from the days of slavery to what it is today but in today’s society racism is still a very controversial problem. it is sometimes blatant and wide open, in various opinions it is built in the system. This can be seen as the social epidemic of racial profiling that the law enforcement officer or government officials use to discriminate. It is said that America is also one of the largest immigrant populated countries. But yet they face many problems with accepting those said immigrants. Things like islamophobia, xenophobia and anti-Semitic are discriminatory inferences and feelings towards many of the immigrants that settled in the state of America. America is said to have been pushing to live the “American dream” but yet they don’t respect or take care of their country. The “American dream” is said to be the life were everything is better and opportunities are endless. It is achieved through risk taking and sacrificial things not by chance. It was coined by James Truslow Adams in his best-selling book “epic of America”. (2018, investopedia) Men like trump, the president of America wants to make the American dream happen but yet he himself takes place in many discriminatory tasks like the so-called building of the wall and his racist comments. When bring America and Canada together in the aspect of who has the best resources. They both take part in a strong pathway for there countries in the mindset of multiculturalism but America is more strongly enforcing their laws in racism. Canada does push to make a change in their country were as in America they seem to be missing the point in today’s society. It is believable that Canada is more resourceful in many characteristic and they do enforce their laws in open variations of multiculturalism. When Pierre Trudeau adopted the multiculturalism act it is believed that Canada did become better and understanding. But both America and Canada still need to work on many more beneficial things for stopping discrimination and racism.
Overall discrimination and racism are huge social issue in not only America and Canada but all over the world. It is only up to us as the world to come together to make this change, so that we as a world can grow and accept all skin types, genders, sexes, regions and origins. This essay mainly talked about the privileges of others over another culture but also brought together the reasoning that there needs to be change
Bibliography
“Donald Trump’s Mexico Wall: Who Is Going to Pay for It?” BBC News, BBC, 6 Feb. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37243269.
Fontinelle, Amy. “American Dream.” Investopedia, 31 Jan. 2018, www.investopedia.com/terms/a/american-dream.asp.
“On Racism and White Privilege.” Teaching Tolerance, 27 July 2017,
www.tolerance.org/professional-development/on-racism-and-white-privilege.
“Racism and Discrimination in the US.” Racism and Discrimination in the US | InterNations, www.internations.org/usa-expats/guide/29460-safety-security/racism-and-discrimination-in-the-us-16290.
Statistics Canada. “150 Years of Immigration in Canada.” Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, 12 Sept. 2017,
statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016006-eng.htm.