The main challenge of considering racism across time is strongly associated with terminology. Lack of a narrow-focused definition leads to misconception among the population in relation to the objective identification of its contextual issues, including historic background, social processes, and reforms.
Introduction of democratic racism has resulted in social unrest among the members of indigenous population. The very existence of reforms and policies relating to the racial inequality signifies to the evidence of differentiated, subjective attitude of the white population to the First Nations people.
Adjusted treaties and regulations take control of the social and economic position of minority groups in Canada. Hence, although there is no direct testimony to the overt discrimination, the ability to embrace full membership in Canadian society is largely affected by the ability of the Native and Non-native population to treat the reality objectively.
The Canadian history testifies to the evidence of inappropriate treatment of the population and defines the implicit dominance of the White population that takes its privileges and superiority for granted. At this point, the rights of white people have rarely been questioned in the course of social history whereas indigenous population has been suffering from unjust treatment and cruel repression on the part of the dominating Non-native population.
As a result of this dominance, the documentary Two World Colliding expands on the consequences of unequal and prejudiced attitude toward Indian population in Canada, leading to numerous deaths and cruelties on the part of the police officers. The movie represents the court decisions that disregard the rights that Canadian community should possess irrespective of their national and racial affiliation.
Additionally, the film refers to the concept of whiteness as a social construct that plays an important role in creating social hierarchy. This construct is the link to domination and, therefore, it has been considered invisible to white people whose racial identity is normal and neutral. The objectivity of racial determination is lost as soon as the indigenous population is concerned. So, the people are unconsciously affected by the racist tendencies in Canadian society that are invisible to the dominating community.
Negligence of human rights is another obstacle to the objective evaluation of membership and equality in Canadian society. In the movie The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada, the author Ed Martin focuses on the displays of institutional racism against Aboriginal population in judicial, educational, and health care spheres.
In the presentation, Seline highlights such aspects as overt violation of human rights, as well as consequences of white domination resulting in such social problems as substance abuse, plumbing, and housing (2). The presentation also refers to unequal treatment that the director introduces through horrible statistics of the rates of suicide among the Innu population (Seline 2). Lack of government’s attention to the case also highlights the subjective evaluation of the Canadian community policy against racial discrimination.
Justice System/Policing, the attention is given to explaining the concept of over- and under-policing that relate to unequal responses to the community concerns with regard to race (1). As a result, the presentation demonstrates that Aboriginal people suffer from the police negligence (Justice System/Policing 1).
In this respect, analysis of historical background should be evaluated in terms of the roots of creating the concept of race and its influence on social environment. Socially predetermined debates in the movie focus on the historical scope, personal experience, and anthropological backgrounds.
What is more important, the movie Race is a Four Letter Word renders complex connections between racism and language in the media, as well as how it influences lives of separate individuals. In fact, the media often fails to provide an objective analysis; instead, television and newspapers distort social reality by presenting corporate interest, personal ideologies, and subjective organizational norms and priorities. Media formats play an important issue as well because they convey powerful messages.
Despite the facts that the Canadian government puts forward the racial issues and reaches the objective treatment of all races, some of the court decisions lack objectivity in terms of their attitude to the Aboriginal population. In the movie Two Worlds Colliding, the police officers accused of the deaths of Indian people were sentenced to eight months of staying at the provincial correctional centre, but they came out of there in four months.
In fact, the data shows that the indigenous people have the higher percentage of people living below the poverty line. These facts are hidden under other reforms and shifts in policies toward racial minorities, as presented in the film festival in which Camille Turner has introduced her project Miss Canadiana.
Specifically, the projects provides an overview of government’s intentions to develop an objective environment in which the whiteness is no longer considered a privilege for grasping power and dominance over other communities. Therefore, the objectivity can be reached as soon as the government introduces collective and interactive involvement of the entire Canadian community regardless race and ethnicity.
Assuming that there are no signs of racism in Canada is mistaken because it causes serious problems with legislation. Reluctance to respond to the cases of racial discrimination prevents the government from introducing legal enforcement. Both profit and not-for-profit organizations refuse to recognize the evidence of racism in the workplace, as well as the idea that white people working with those organizations could be racists.
Due to insufficient commitment to this problem, the government introduces inadequate policies that do not address the issues of racism properly. Thus, discourse of democratic racism fails to provide all people with equal opportunities in terms of employment, education, and human rights.
Moreover, the role of media in spreading information about Aboriginal and Black youth is detrimental because it links the crime rates with these segments of population. As a result, false stereotypes are created, distorting the actual state of affairs. Most of the racist tendencies are conceived through such social institutions as police and education.
The latter is even more threatening because of inappropriate approach to psychological and pedagogical treatment of Aboriginal students. Minorities tend to encounter serious challenges in the fight for fair and respectful treatment of them as the honorable members of the Canadian community.
In conclusion, the objective reality denying the overt displays of racial discrimination has a negative impact on the ability to embrace full membership in Canadian society. At this point, the government fails to address the challenges of unfair treatment of Aboriginal and Black population because it does not recognize the cases of racism in the country. Nevertheless, the dominance of white population is taken for granted because it is a historically predetermined issue.
At the same time, the fact that the court resorts to the issues of segregation and racial inequality is the evidence of inferior opportunities that opened to the First Nations people. The films presented above underline the subjective attitude of the government, organizations, and social institutions toward the problem of minority groups in Canada.
Works Cited
Justice System/Policing. Presentation. n. d. pp. 1-6.
Miss Canadiana. Ex. Prod. Camille Turner. Canada: Toronto Film Festival. 2012.
Race is Four Letter Word Ex. Prod. Sobaz Benjamin. Canada: National Film Board of Canada. 2006. DVD. Seline. Presentation. Section Three. n. d.
The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada. Ex. Prod. Ed Martin. Canada: Best Boy Productions. 2004. DVD.
Two Words Colliding. Ex. Prod. Tasha Habbard, Canada: National Film Board of Canada. 2005. DVD.