Diversity as Social Control: Distinguishing between Human Rights and “Temporary” Privileges

      Ideally, the concept of human rights should be universal and egalitarian regardless of a nation or state’s political identity. In other words, human rights should be the same for all around the world. However, as a result of this political diversity, it is evident that there is a lack of agreement between the world's nations and states. Furthermore, considering demographic diversities associated with gender, age, sexual orientation, and culture (i.e. ethnicity, religion, language etc.), the difficulty of achieving a global consensus on human rights is evident.

      Unfortunately Canadians don't have to look hard to find examples of human rights violations in their own country. On September 26, 2008, twenty-five year old Stacey Bonds was stripped searched and physically assaulted by Ottawa police “for no apparent reason” (Dimmock, 2010). Judge Richard Lajoie, dismissed the charges against Bonds stating that the arrest was unlawful and therefore, the subsequent detention can only be an arbitrary detention, and a clear violation of Section 9 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

       Although radical, Comedian George Carlin provides an interesting critical perspective of the contradictions within Western discourse on human rights. Carlin suggests that if rights came from God, he would have been looking out for us by giving us the right to food everyday/and a roof over our heads, so why would he only give us a certain number of rights? Why would God give different people in different countries different numbers of different rights? Read more >>

WARNING: Some viewers may find language offensive, viewer discretion is advised.

Humour: A Form of Non-Resistance

       Accredited with developing the notion of non-violent resistance, Mahatma Gandhi deployed his concept of satyagraha during the Indian independence movement. Loosely translating to “truth force” or “holding onto the truth,” Gandhi’s practice of non-violent resistance also influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and his campaign during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (Blakely, 2001). While other forms of non-violent resistance include boycotts, demonstrations, marches, anti-racist education, and consciousness raising, humour is becoming an increasingly popular method of bringing critical concepts into the forefront of discussion.  

        For instance, while outwardly poking fun at his own ethnic group, Iranian comedian Maz Jobrani focuses on race in order to slowly break bias interpretations of Middle East characters. In the following skit titled “Persians vs. Arabs,” Jobrani highlights the burden his friend places on him as an “expert of the Middle East” simply because he is of Iranian descent. Every time gas prices go up, Jobrani’s friend asks him to explain “in fifty words or less” what is going on with the prices. Here, Jobrani highlights that he does not work at Opec, nor does he have a discount pump at the gas station, but he does pay the exact same price as his friend regardless of his race. By helping to remould the way Western society views the Middle Eastern community, Jobrani demonstrates that we cannot have a single spokesperson speak to, nor allow their actions account for

the entirety of a race. Read more>>                    

 

        

Diversity as Difference: Movie Review of Hotel Rwanda

          Hotel Rwanda is a Hollywood produced movie based on the true story of horrific events surrounding the genocide which occurred in Rwanda from April to June 1994. This movie tells the story of antagonist Paul Rusesabagina, who courageously saved the lives of his family and more than a thousand others from a massacre of Hutu Rebels. Despite realistically conveyed feelings of suspense and tension, Hotel Rwanda demonstrates the difficulty of serving justice to one hundred days of bloody history in less than two hours. Consequently, a viewer without prior background knowledge of Rwanda's colonial history may regard this movie as a confusing and incoherent sequence of events.

               In this short clip from the movie, Joaquin Phoenix, as photographer Jack Daglish asks what the actual difference is between the Tutsis and the Hutu. According to a Tutsis journalist named Benedict, we are told that it was Belgian colonists who created the division.  Tutsis are taller, more elegant. They pick people with lighter skin and measure the width of people’s noses. Benedict then goes on to explain how the Belgians used the Tutsis to run the country, and then when they left they gave the power to the Hutus, who of course took revenge 

    on the Tutsis for years of depression.

           Despite briefly addressing the impact of Belgian colonialism, there are many questions surrounding Rwanda that remain unclear. However, it is apparent through the movie that the Hutu and Tutsis are neither distinct nor separate cultural ethnicities. Rather they are the product of hegemonic ideologies associated with Western colonialism. In this respect, it may be said that the Rwandan genocide demonstrates how the discourses surrounding diversity may be misappropriated to the determent of establishing and maintaining national unity. Read more>>

                   

Reverse Racism: Discrimination or Affirmative Action?

            In chapter three of White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society, author Ghassan Hage discusses the concept of a tolerant society as merely a “White Fantasy” (Hage, 78). Specifically, Hage examines Australian society to demonstrate how the practice of tolerance in multicultural societies is closely related to the perceived power of White nationalists and their attitudes of intolerance and exclusion of migrants (Hage, 79). From this perspective, the author suggests that the “tolerant society” is rooted in the denial of a loss of perceived power (Hage, 99). 

           Nowhere is Hage’s notion of the “white fantasy” in Australia more evident than in the issue surrounding migrant workers. In what has been called “reverse racism,” workers and trade unions claim employers are discriminating against White Australians in favour of predominately Asian migrants who are willing to work harder and longer hours for less pay (Eccleston, 2010).

           In the following news clip, fellow Australian Craig Whitney echoes the concern that racism is working in reverse. Explaining how his employer began to strip shifts from white workers like himself at a Meatworks in Ipswich, Whitney believes companies favour cheap foreign labourers who are less likely to complain that they are paid less to work more. He also feels as though Australians are too expensive to hire, so if companies get the cheap labour in they cut the costs, explaining why he and other Caucasian employees received one or two days of work, while the Asian migrants  are guaranteed forty hours a week (Eccleston, 2010). Read more>>

A Lightning Rod for a Wide Range of Opponents

           In her article, author Lila Abu-Lughod questions whether Muslim women really need saving while taking into consideration anthropological perspectives of cultural relativism. Specifically, her work focuses on post 9-1-1 and the impact that the war in Afghanistan has had on Muslim women. Despite her feminist view, Abu-Lughod feels we need to be wary of not only the Western response to the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, but also of intentions towards the concern of Muslim women’s well being.

       Meanwhile, the controversy regarding Park 51 is closely related to Abu-Lughod’s argument regarding the Western misconception of the veil as a symbol of the Muslim religion’s oppression of women. Proposed to be built two blocks away from Ground Zero, Park 51 would replace an abandoned building that was used as a Burlington Coat Factory (Hossain, 2010). Despite media coverage and journalists who refer to this building as the “Ground Zero Mosque," there is actually no Ground Zero Mosque. A mosque is a purely religious structure built for the purpose of gathering for prayer and worship, whereas Park 51 that is going to be built near, not on, Ground Zero is an Islamic community center which plans to house a culinary school, an auditorium, a swimming pool, theater, fitness center, food court, childcare area, bookstore, basketball court, and yes, space for prayer (Hossain, 2010). However, we do not label the Ottawa Civic Hospital a church because it happens to have a chapel inside of it, do we? Here, both the controversy over the veil and Park 51 can be understood as examples of how multiculturalism has been denied through perpetuating the fear of Islamic terrorism, or Islamaphobia post 9-1-1. Read more>>

Can French Republicanism be Hospitable to Ethnic Difference?

      In Cécile Laborde’s article titled “The Culture(s) of the Republic,” the author reflects upon the relationship between nationalism and multiculturalism in French Republican Thought. Through the four Republican ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité and laïcité, Laborde shows how liberalism’s moral universalism is opposed to multiculturalism (Laborde, 716). According to the author, “liberty for Republicans implies rational self-determination through the exercise of individual autonomy” (Laborde, 718). From this perspective, she addresses the issue of one way accommodation in state schools where the cultural and linguistic assimilation of bicultural students and their families is made at the expense of losing their ethnic, social and cultural identities.                                                          

     

      A current example of how the French Republic attempts to establish a secular state is through the controversial bill before the French parliament to ban all conspicuous religious symbols from public institutions in France. According to this bill, the display of all religious symbols is to be prohibited from the public sphere. (Ludford, 2010). However, the issue has been focused on the ban of Islamic headscarves as opposed to all religious symbols, including those belonging to the dominant Christian religion. Interestingly, this bill is closely related to Laborde’s reference to culture-blind universalism “as an ideological mystification that perpetuates existing structures of domination” (Laborde, 721). The contentious issue of France’s attempt to ban headscarves concentrates on, and has been consumed by the banning of headscarves and Islamic symbols because crosses and cathedrals are part of the dominant culture of France. From this view, the bill is hypocritical because Islam will be always be regarded as incompatible with the values of the dominant religion, class, gender and culture of France (Laborde, 721).

Want to learn more about society's fascination with head gear? If so, then tune into this skit by late comedian George Carlin. Read more>> 

WARNING: Some viewers may find language offensive, viewer discretion is advised.

                                                                      

Aliens & UFO's: Mexican Immigrants as UnI.D.entified Foreign Objects

      Although she maintains that multiculturalism has become an integral part of Canada’s self identity, Eva Mackey’s article titled “Managing the House of Difference: Official Multiculturalism” addresses the issue of one way accommodation in Canada where the cultural and linguistic assimilation of multicultural individuals and their families is made at the expense of losing their identities. Accommodation is a process that must be shared by everyone, but all too often are ethnic minorities made to be the victims of institutionalized discrimination and prejudicial practises. Similar to Michel Foucault who tells us that our task is to examine how the truth is produced, the discourse of Canada as a multicultural nation based upon a bilingual framework must be put into question (Mackey, 2002). For it is this ideology and discourse which influences the ideas that are put into practise and used to regulate the conduct of others (Leroux, 2010 slides).

      For example, take into consideration the Canadian news coverage regarding the Arizona Senate Bill 1070. Under the provisions of this bill, the U.S. federal law requires individuals to register with the U.S. government and to have registration documents in their possession at all times. Meanwhile, this act also makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an individual to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, therefore permitting state law enforcement to detain individuals based on “reasonable” suspicion that they are illegally present in the U.S. (Reagor, 2010). Not only is this an example of how we as Canadians know a great deal more about issues pertaining to the U.S., but it is also a clear instance of racial profiling. How can law enforcement personnel use race or ethnicity as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement, after all what does an illegal immigrant look like? Read more>>