Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from April 1996

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from April 1996

Political over-correctness. (the issue of "political correctness" and its effects on journalism and education is discussed)
April 1, 1996... Writers, editors, and other ink-stained wretches have undergone a re-education in the past decade or so. They have had to learn the language of inclusiveness. They must try to remove all unconscious bias from what they publish. The use of...

A learned behavior. (analysis of racism as determined by sociological factors)
April 1, 1996... Racism is one of the most evil forces in the world. There, we've declared our bias up front. That said, we have to confront the reality that there are very few people who are completely free of all traces of racism. The vast majority of...

It's not in the genes. (studies indicate that human beings genetic differences are statistically low)
April 1, 1996... Genetically speaking, all that separates sprinter Donovan Bailey from Prime Minister Jean Chretien is less than a quarter of one percent. Harvard University geneticist Richard Lewontin reports that of all the genes in human beings only...

Social reality. (a brief definition)
April 1, 1996... There is hardly a person on this Earth who doesn't believe there are racial differences; this is what sociologists call a "social reality." If anybody doubts the existence of this reality they have only to look at the verdict in the O.J. Simpson...

Making bullets for bigots. (recent studies by academics, i.e. "The Bell Curve," provide documentation that can be used to support racist causes)
April 1, 1996... Racism is about the members of a dominant group exerting its power over others. The dominant group justifies its behaviour by claiming that its members are superior to others. In the past, science has been enlisted to "prove" these claims of...

From moderates to madness. (how racists use right-wing political groups as fronts for expressing their beliefs to moderate, main stream audiences)
April 1, 1996... The timing was dreadful. It was the 1996 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and two politicians were yacking at each other across the floor of the Ontario Legislature. Then, Conservative Peter Preston told New...

Ready recruits. (societal changes spawn increases in hate-group enrollment)
April 1, 1996... The social climate of the 1990s is making it easier for extremist hate groups to sign up members. We are going through a period of rapid and fundamental economic and social change. Traditional jobs are disappearing and immigration is altering...

Conspiracy theories. (four current examples)
April 1, 1996... Extremist hate groups love conspiracy theories. Here is a sampling of some of the ideas floating around in the mid-1990s: * Queen Elizabeth II is behind a plot to win back Britain's lost colonies. You want evidence? Didn't British companies...

The final obscenity. (the history of anti-semitism, leading up to the Holocaust)
April 1, 1996... The year 1941 saw the start of the most frightful chapter in human history. Known as the Holocaust, it was the end point of decades of hatred, envy, and fear. It was the year Nazi Germany began the mass extermination of Jews in what they...

Restricted. (Canada's anti-semitic acts and policies)
April 1, 1996... In 1881, Tsar Alexander III of Russia began slaughtering Jews in one of his country's occasional persecutions, called pogroms. Thousands escaped and settled in Canada. But, when the Nazis went on the rampage in Germany, Canada virtually closed...

The world's largest cemetery. (Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, where 1.6 million people were killed)
April 1, 1996... Auschwitz-Birkenau the place where 1.6 million people, most of them Jews, were gassed to death. The victims were then burned in ovens and their ashes dumped in nearby ponds and fields. The Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, in occupied southwestern...

Our secret past. (Canadian government's racist policies, historically outlined)
April 1, 1996... Canada's history of discrimination has been kept so well hidden that a 1994 Canadian Civil Liberties Association survey found that: 91% of high school graduates didn't know that blacks had been refused entry to Canada on the basis of race and...

Africville. (a small black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which was demolished by the city in the 1960's)
April 1, 1996... They sent City of Halifax dump trucks for the furniture and belongings, as the people of Africville moved out. Then, the city moved in and bulldozed the houses and church of the people who lived there. Africville, a mostly black community of...

Let down by the system. (poverty statistics for Canadian blacks)
April 1, 1996... Black people, in particular complain about the institutionalization of racism and plenty of inquiries have concluded they're right. In July 1991, about 150 people, most of them black, rampaged through downtown Halifax attacking whites and...

When skin colour is suspect. (how racism affects police arrests in Toronto, Canada)
April 1, 1996... Most of Toronto's Jamaican-Canadians (between 200,000 and 250,000) blend into mainstream society. However, many say the extensive publicity given to criminals of Jamaican origin has helped create a stereotype: the notion that a young...

Injustice and native people. (Manitoba's aboriginal population faces racism within the police system)
April 1, 1996... In November 1971, Helen Betty Osborne, a Cree teenager in The Pas Manitoba was accosted by four white men. She was dragged into the bush, raped, and stabbed to death. Many of the white townsfolk knew who had committed the crime but remained...

Moving on ... with a little help. (how government legislation in Canada helps to protect victims of racism)
April 1, 1996... You can't pass laws to make a racist like black people. But you can pass laws to protect people regardless of their race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin, from harassment and hate crimes. Freedom of expression is no excuse for acts that...

East and West meet. (Chinese Canadian survey on racism)
April 1, 1996... The Vancouver edition of Ming Paois part of a powerful Hong Kong-based newspaper chain. In a 1995 telephone poll, the Chinese-language daily found that 95% of respondents complained that "some Caucasians have racial prejudice against Chinese."...

Birth versus merit. (how India and Malaysia have introduced legislation establishing hiring quotas for underrepresented classes)
April 1, 1996... Mahatma Gandhi struggled to reform the caste system in India renaming untouchables harijans--beloved of God. His work led to a provision in the Indian Constitution reserving 23% of government jobs and university places for untouchables and...

Fighting back. (how anti-racist groups protest and expose racist activities)
April 1, 1996... In May 1995, one group of anti-racists in Chicago decided to use Ku Klux Klan white supremacist rallies as a fund raiser. The counter-demonstrators launched Project-Lemonade: participants pledged to donate money to an anti-Klan charity for...

Pocketbook justice. (how the civil rights group, The Southern Poverty Law Center of Alabama, sued the Ku Klux Klan)
April 1, 1996... In 1989, an American antiracism organization decided to hit Ku Klux Klan members "where it hurt. in the pocketbook." The Southern Poverty Law Center of Alabama started its Klanwatch program to keep track of hate groups in order to take civil...

Klass act. (Ku Klux Klan leaders in Alabama attend race relations class in court settlement)
April 1, 1996... In 1989, American Ku Klux Klan leaders agreed to take a class in race relations as part of a settlement for assaulting civil rights marchers in Alabama ten years earlier. Seven of the nine defendants in the suit, who were convicted on criminal...

Search for scapegoats. (anti-immigrant sentiment throughout Europe supports right-wing political groups' efforts to halt immigration; recurring acts of violence against foreigners spread)
April 1, 1996... In 1980, there were only 600,000 refugees in all of Europe; today, there are close to four million. With dwindling resources and fewer jobs, European governments have rushed to close the door. But in clamping down hard on refugees and illegals,...

Politics of hate. (Racism in Britain)
April 1, 1996... The racist, anti-immigrant British National Party (BNP) narrowly won its first seat on a British local government council in September 1993. and vowed to press on with its campaign for an all-white Britain. The election was held in Millwall, a...

Global problem. (racist acts in several countries are described)
April 1, 1996... Racism abounds outside Europe as well. * In Zambia and in other African countries Asians began settling in the late 1800s. Now, blacks complain that Asians are only out for themselves, and do not help develop their countries of residence....