Racism In Canada

Impact of race/ethnicity, gender, and class on immigrants

The early 20th century was the time of economic development in Canada which attracted immigrants to fill the spaces for almost exclusively labour intensive jobs. Most of the immigrants were of eastern European descent but some from Asian countries such as China. However due to the Anglo-Canadian tradition and values, some immigrants were regarded highly over others and, as a result, some were impacted more by discrimination compared to others. The economic growth of Canada during the early 20th century invited immigrants into the public sphere, however, the collective project of negative nation building led to the creation of an environment of hostility towards the immigrants in the

In Avery's piece, it described there was government involvement that placed a head tax to $50 per person to eventually to $500 to limit the entry of Chinese into BC (Avery,47). This can be best known as systemic racism, where the racism is developed through the practice and policies developed by institutions such as the government, that excludes certain groups due to their race. This can also be an example of negative nation building specifically through hegemony. They did not prevent the entry of Chinese through force but through policies such as the head tax. The use of hegemony's ultimate goal was for the elites to maintain power, in this case, the Canadian government. However, this could not have been achieved without the agreement of the Anglo-Canadian population organized through various institutions, in this case those in British Columbia. In this reading, it specifically mentioned the exclusionist parties that tried to resist labour such as the Asiatic Exclusion League and the Knights of labour(Avery,45). The theory of nation building is socially constructed, beginning at the highest levels and trickling down all the way to the citizens of that nation. This was especially apparent in

Gender is a socially constructed and is power based. We assume that because they are categorized as the gender of women, they must have certain characteristics and men have other distinct characteristics that allow them to be more /less suited for a job. Black women during World War 2, when mentioned in the topic of manpower crisis, they were subject to jobs such as laundry, cafeteria, and domestic work , skills that people assumed they had because of their role in the private sphere: the role of reproduction, where they had to support those who earned wages(men)(Brand,24). This is seen as a common senses concept of gender, therefore these skills that they had were seen as natural, something they were born with. Also for those with a family, they needed to combine work of private and public sphere and a greater commitment for their family. For all these reasons it gave the men who had power over these women, an ideological justification for giving them an unfair wage. In other words, it is more costly to employers due to the females due to higher absence rate and possibly relieving themselves of their position in order to focus on their role in the private sphere. This is essentially the gender division of labour where labour is divided dependent on