Respect, inclusion can help deter racism

SACPA speaker witnessed prejudice first-hand

Jo-Anne Friske told more than 100 people gathered for the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs on Thursday that the battle against prejudice begins by helping up a fallen bag lady. Friske is a professor of women’s studies and was Dean of graduate studies. Her anthropology doctorate has seen her teach in anthropology, sociology and First Nations studies at several universities.

She’s participated in research projects at the University of Lethbridge that look at the cultural and social foundations of racism. She told the SACPA crowd respect and inclusion are ways to become allies to people affected by racism.

“We need to move from abstract support to practices when we place ourselves as an ally,” she said.

She pointed to the colonial roots of racism, divisions of prejudice brought on by victimizing immigrants, and even the implications of terms like “immigrant.”

From there, she talked about the fear of invasion, using examples like the recent backlash against an Islamic school academy despite the existence of publicly funded schools of different faiths. She also said monopoly of language has left society more divided and less inclined to refuse prejudicial feelings.

“I suffered because of English ... Why did I suffer because of English? Because I don’t know anything else,” she said.

“So when I grew up and travelled the world I am lost more often than I am found.”

As to the racism which the recent assault on a young white woman by a First Nations man, Friske said the anonymity of social media helps the prejudiced. She said the racist tendencies are reinforced by the foundations of colonial ownership and the rise of neo-liberalist individualism. The do-it-themselves argument that ignores societal and historic factors.

“We tend to say ‘I’m not paying taxes to take care of them,’” she said. “Want more access to housing? Why can’t they do it for themselves? Why can’t they go home? Why are they here anyway? Why don’t they get a job?”

Friske’s best example was a fall she had recently. Dressed in less than her Sunday best and carrying a few plastic bags of groceries, she stumbled and fell. Scraped up, glasses tumbled away, she said she did what any good anthropologist would do and started taking notes. She said a nearby homeowner threatened her, passersby ignored her plight except to inform her that her lack of sight was because her glasses had fallen to the ground. She said for that time, she was the excluded and so she noted it.

Her dress and her clumsiness had those people fitting her into a neat little category.

She said having categories of people — including the Master Status — prevents people from marking individuals as individuals “unless they look remarkably like us?”

So what can someone do to be an ally, to avoid the categorizing of people, to prevent the spread of prejudice and reach out to those left out?

“It takes standing up, speaking out, being reflective of the language we use, moving beyond tolerance to respect and it takes above all, including the excluded, not once in awhile, not when there’s a crisis but every day of our lives.”

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