Long story short, I've always not really enjoyed the Canada Day Celebrations [putting aside my issues with the concepts of nationhood and states] much. Don't get me wrong, it's fun, I get to hang out with people I love, we usually manage to hang out and do lots of fun things... but...My disdain mostly arises from not being able to relate to why people like Bharat natyam and other 'traditional' folk dances so much on that day. I lived for a long time in the nation's capital and going to parliament hill to do this sort of thing got really tiring after the ..... first 20 minutes. I don't do classical indian dances, none of my relatives do either, in fact they aren't very popular in India either (from what I know) - with exception, kind of like how ballet works here.
Anyways, here is an excellent passage on the problematic nature of 'multi-culturalism' from a new book that I can't recommend highly enough "Discourses of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender, and Violence" by Yasmin Jiwani (UBC Press - 2006). Go out and get this!!! It is a must read, it's not necessarily anything drastically new for people who are familiar with critical race studies, but Jiwani's book provides an amazing synthesis of current work and she uses contemporary examples to illustrate these ideas. Plus, she is a fabulous writer who doesn't hold back.
This passage I believe can aptly be used to describe the problematic nature of Canada day style multi-cultural festivals (she is referring more specifically to media representations and news coverage):
"Or, alternatively, their [POC] representation us used to show up the image of the dominant society as one of tolerance, meritocracy, and equality. Of course, this does not hold true for raced bodies that stereotypically appear most frequently in the music and sports sections of the newspaper. here, their success is often attributed to their innate predisposition toward these activities.
The novelty or dramatic criterion of news stories also coincides with the certain aspects of racialized minority cultures. Seen against a backdrop of White society, these groups offer colourful alternatives. Their fashion, music and cuisine become objects of attention in the coverage devoted to ethnic festivals and ceremonies. Conversely, cultural rites and rituals are given coverage when they are perceived and positioned as being antithetical to social norms. The persistent coverage of arranged marriages, circumcision rites, communal living arrangements, and different religious traditions contributes to images of racialized communities that cast them as being uncivilized, oppressive, and undesirable......these legacies are grounded in a legacy of colonialism and imperialism" (Jiwani 2006: 40)
Earlier in the book Jiwani has an amazing passage that explains why communities of colour often take-up these roles under multiculturalism and multicultural policies. I wish I could type out the two pages - but I will type up bits of it:
"Communities, then [in regards to race-based program funding by the government], become a focal point of the policies, despite the reality that these communities are, as Bannerji (2000) reminds us, not natural constructions but but social constructions mediated out of a necessity to respond to particular state policies. In turn, these communities are harnessed by these policies to better serve the status quo and thereby utilized to maintain a hierarchical racialized structure of power. Such communities are reified as embodiments of particular cultural formations even though what they may be representing is a graft of a culture, specific social classes within that cultural formation, and particular interpretations of cultural traditions. Patriarchal and economic elites maintain the boundaries of these so-called cultural communities, ensuring compliance and cohesion. However, as Bannerji remarks this is not only a top-down imposition but also a bottom-up response, based on the racism, exclusion, and hostility from the dominant society faced by these groups. Within the context of these communities, power is naturalized and rendered normal through the recuperation and reification of tradition.
Bannerji calls our attention to a key element of multiculturalism, namely, the connection between race and culture. Racialized communities are minoritized and interpreted as primordial cultural entities rather than as entities formed through state measures. Further, these cultural labels are not neutral but carry Orientalist and racially inscribed connotations of Western society that represents itself as progressive, emancipatory, and democratic. Racial differences become cultural differences, and race itself is culturalized. ....emphasis on culture evacuates concepts of race and racism, so that cultural tolerance comes to replace the need for racial tolerance....to tolerate is to 'put up with'. " (Jiwani 2006: 13-14).
A final word on 'upper-class POC':
"Assimilation also offers, especially through class privilege, a greater degree of mobility. On the other hand, the deeply racialized nature of identity, both group and individual based, limits such latitude in the sense that no matter how rich or assimilated a person of colour is, where s/he can go is undoubtedly curtailed by elite structures of power....illusory promises of fitting in and belonging provided one buys into the trappings of so-called normalcy and normative behaviour - are just that - fictions - when they run headlong into the reality of race and racism...... In a hierarchy structured in dominance, the ideological labour involved is one of keeping each group "in its place." This includes racialized people of colour whose confinement at a particular level of the hierarchy ensures that those above can maintain their power and privilege." (Jiwani 2006: 28)
Cross posted at Pass the Roti.
