Critical Multiculturalism

Canada's Contribution to the "Management" of Ethno-Cultural Diversity
Frances Henry (York University, Canada)

Critical or radial multiculturalism

The race-based analysis of multiculturalism has led to a new form of discourse labelled radical or critical multiculturalism (Goldberg, 1993; Shohat & Stam, 1994; St. Lewis, 1996) or insurgent multiculturalism. Critical multiculturalism challenges the traditional political and cultural hegemony of the dominant class or group. It calls for a profound restructuring and reconceptualization of the power relations between different cultural and racial communities based on the premise that communities and societies do not exist autonomously but are deeply woven together in a web of interrelationships.

Critical multiculturalism is distinguished from liberal pluralist discourse in that it is not about “tolerance,” “sensitivity,” or “understanding” of the “others.” Critical multiculturalism refuses to see culture or the state as non-conflictual, harmonious, and consensual. Multiculturalism discourse as articulated in the Multiculturalism Act and other policies is founded on the premise of social order rather than conflict and thus “it does not recognize, or provide any way of understanding, existing structural disadvantages and the clashes which will occur as such inequalities are addressed” (Harding, 1995, cited in Henry, Tator, Mattis, & Rees, 2000, p. 338).

Critical multiculturalism moves away from a paradigm of pluralism premised on a hierarchical order of cultures that, under certain conditions, “allows” or “tolerates” non-dominant cultures’ participation in the dominant culture. The more pro-active, radical model of multiculturalism focuses on empowerment and resistance to forms of subjugation; the politicization and mobilization of marginalized groups; the transformation of social, cultural, and economic institutions; and the dismantling of dominant cultural hierarchies, structures, and systems of representation. Critical multiculturalism imagines minority communities not as “special interest groups” but as active and full participants in the state who are part of its shared history. This paradigm represents a different axis, moving away from tolerance and accommodation towards equity and justice. Critical multiculturalism rejects a unified and static concept of identities and communities as fixed sets of experiences, meanings, and practices. Instead, it focuses on identities as dynamic, fluid, multiple, and historically situated. Multiculturalism, in this context, moves beyond the narrow understanding of identity politics to make way for alliances and affiliations based on mutual needs and shared objectives.

Critical multiculturalism opens the door to the possibility of transformation: it does not posit bounded, separate ethno-cultural and ethno-racial communities but it envisions a reciprocal process between all groups that includes rather than excludes. This model of multiculturalism calls for the restructuring and reconceptualization of power relations between communities, challenging the hierarchy that currently divides people into us and — the rest — them. Critical multiculturalism provides a framework for understanding that diversity can be meaningful only within the construct of social justice.

This form of multiculturalism postulates that White mainstream culture controls the distribution of knowledge, systems of representation, cultural and institutional practices, and social relations. At the core of critical multiculturalism is the right of minorities to challenge the politics of diversity that ignore the system of power that operates without restraint in the dominant culture. Thus, there is an ideological conflict between critical multiculturalism and symbolic multiculturalism because the latter is largely centred on the maintenance of the status quo.

Photos

These are some photos that have come out of the Tuesday night workshops at PEYO. Lately, we have been discussing the Who/What/Where/When and Why of this project. We have also been using tableaux images as a way of exploring our different neighborhoods.
Last week we started a group collage on a large, photocopied map of Park-Extension. Images of dignity (or a lack of), respect(or a lack of), or any other images that spoke to the theme of Human Rights were glued onto the map.

Sorry some of these photos are sideways, i couldn't find a way of rotating them.

Mediated

What are we doing so far: Here's a glimpse from the Gazette...what do you think of how they have described the project?

Also.. here is a write up of Park Extension from Le Monde (below- sorry only in French)
What do you think of how the story of this neighborhood has been told?



Le visage de l'aide communautaire dans Parc-Extension


© courtoisie Journal Le Monde

En se baladant sur les artères commerciales de Parc-Extension, on remarquera aussi l’influence de l’immigration sur les commerces et le domaine communautaire...



Les principales rues commerciales du quartier, comme Jean-Talon, ou encore Ogilvy et Saint-Roch, témoignent de cette diversité culturelle. La présence de petits commerces comme les cafés-restaurants ou les magasins d’alimentation, pâtisseries, poissonneries, sont destinés à une clientèle propre à ces communautés. L’affichage commercial faisant foi de cette présence d’identités particulières.

Les communautés culturelles se sont également données, au fil des ans, des organisations afin de répondre à leurs besoins et de venir en aide aux personnes de leur communauté.

La communauté grecque, étant de loin la plus ancienne du quartier, s’est donnée des organismes qui offrent une panoplie d’activités sociales et sportives, et de services d’aide à leur clientèle ; on trouve au nombre de ceux-ci la Fédération hellénique des parents tuteurs, qui donnent des cours de langue et de civilisation grecque aux enfants de la communauté.

Mais avec le temps, bon nombre d’organismes qui à l’origine desservaient une clientèle particulière ont ouvert leurs portes et adapté leurs services dans le but de mieux desservir l’ensemble des citoyens de Parc-Extension.

C’est le cas notamment de l’Organisation des jeunes de Parc-Extension (PEYO), du Centre Jeunesse unie et même du CLSC Parc-Extension, qui ont opté pour une offre de services intégrés à l’ensemble de la communauté locale.

Cette multitude d’organisations communautaires culturelles, si on peut s’exprimer ainsi, mise en parallèle avec la présence de commerces multiethniques, contribue grandement à la vitalité et à l’animation du quartier.

Les célébrations de fêtes typiquement culturelles sont légions dans le quartier et chacune de celles-ci vise à faire connaître les traditions du pays, au même titre que la fête nationale des Québécois permet aux communautés culturelles du quartier de connaître les nôtres. Ce métissage culturel enrichit ainsi la vie du quartier Parc-Extension.

Terre des nouveaux arrivants...

Aujourd’hui, Parc-Extension est qualifié de lieu de passage pour les nouveaux arrivants. Certains y séjournent quelques années, le temps de trouver du travail, d’apprendre la langue française, pour se diriger ensuite vers un autre quartier ou une autre ville où ils s’installeront définitivement.

C’est le cas notamment de la communauté grecque, dont une bonne part ont quitté le quartier pour s’installer à Laval. D’autres, par contre, retourneront dans leur pays d’origine n’ayant pu s’adapter à la vie d’ici.

Mais certains décideront de s’installer pour de bon dans Parc-Extension à cause de certains éléments incitatifs. La présence de lieu de culte, de commerces et d’organisations propres à leur culture sont des facteurs contribuant à la sédentarisation de ces nouveaux arrivants.

On remarquera en terminant que l’évolution de Parc-Extension n’a pas suivi le même cours que les deux autres quartiers de l’arrondissement, Villeray et Saint-Michel. Parc-Extension n’a pas eu de carrière de pierre qui ont marqué le développement socio-économique du territoire.

Très tôt dans l’histoire du quartier, des spéculateurs immobiliers ont acheté les terres agricoles pour les transformer en zones résidentielles et industrielles. Le développement des moyens de transport, le tramway électrique et plus tard le train, combiné avec l’arrivée d’importantes vagues d’immigration ont sans doute contribué à la particularité de l’histoire du quartier Parc-Extension.

Il est difficile de dire aujourd’hui ce que Parc-Extension sera demain, mais une chose est certaine; plusieurs personnes et organismes communautaires du quartier travaillent à faire de celui-ci un endroit où il fait bon vivre et où est offert une multitude de services et d’activités à l’ensemble de la population, peu importe l’origine.

Sources :

* CLSC Parc-Extension, Le quartier Parc-Extension, 1979.
* INRS-Urbanisation, Cohabitation interethnique et vie de quartier, Collection Études et recherches No. 12, septembre 1995.
* Regroupement en aménagement de Parc-Extension (RAMPE), Julie Giguère, Les débuts de Parc-Extension, septembre 2003.

Remerciements :

* Le Regroupement en aménagement de Parc-Extension (RAMPE),
* Julie Giguère,
* Delfino Campanile (CLSC Parc-Extension),
* l’Organisation des jeunes de Parc-Extension (PEYO),
* Parc-Extension Quartier en Santé (PEQS),
* Madame Mary McCutcheon.

Recherche et rédaction : Pierre Brassard

More inspiring quotes to feed the mind:

"The imbalance which exists in the world of today are connected with the loss of balance in the human heart."
-- Gandhi

We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose. We cannot afford to use methods of which we will be ashamed when we look back, when we say, '...we shouldn't have done that.' We must remember, my friends, that we have been given a wonderful cause. The cause of freedom! And you and I must be those who will walk with heads held high. We will say, 'We used methods that can stand the harsh scrutiny of history.'
--Desmond Tutu

We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968

The nation is sick; trouble is in the land, confusion all around... But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis,Tennessee, the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.'.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., 3rd April 1968

Police Assault Women at Intl. Women's Day March in MTL

Montreal 9 March 2007
Police brutality mars Women’s Day Celebration in
Montreal/
Police Assault women at International Women’s Day
March

Yesterday, as Montrealers, along with many around the
world celebrated International Women’s Day – the event
was marred by police brutality in which three young
women were assaulted, injured and traumatized. Among
the issues that were brought up during the speeches at
Montreal’s women’s day march was that in Iran women
were prevented from celebrating international women’s
day. And women in Pakistan were also attacked
yesterday in a women’s day event. Yesterday’s events
make ensure Montreal shares this distinction!

Marchers celebrating International Women’s Day had
walked from Place Emilie Gamelin (Berri Square) to
Phillips Square, along Ste-Catherine Street. After
speeches they made their way back to Berri Square. The
police made an announcement asking people to walk on
the sidewalk. Jaggi Singh, who had been one of many
male supporters among the 200 strong celebrating
international women’s day moved onto the sidewalk. The
others continued marching in the street. Police
officers began to rush towards Singh, still walking on
the sidewalk. They grabbed him and threw him against
a nearby police car.

Other marchers gathered around the car out of concern
for the violent way in which police were intervening.
Police began hitting and pushing people
indiscriminately. Several people were knocked to the
ground with batons and night sticks. Emma Strople, a
17 year old marcher, was hit in the chest with the end
of a night stick and thrown to the ground, by an
officer later identified as Doyon. Her ribs were
bruised, she was winded, trembling from shock and her
knee was cut open enough that the blood seeped through
her jeans. Two other women were also injured - one
woman's lips and mouth were swollen and bleeding, from
being punched in the face by a police officer; another
left with cuts on her knee and stomach. The police
showed a total disregard for the injuries mounting
around them. They placed Jaggi Singh in the police car
and began to leave. The marchers that remained left
by Berri Metro.

The 8th March Committee of Women of Diverse Origins,
one of the key groups involved in the march strongly
denounces last night’s police brutality yesterday and
the arrest of Singh. Are we to go back to the time
when women in Canada were not considered ‘persons’?
When women were to be seen and not heard? In Quebec
today on the eve of an election we have seen how
violence against women is still something that is
trivialized, including by those that seek to represent
us in the democratic system. Yesterday’s police attack
on women and their allies proves that even those who
are supposed to be the guardians of the law and ensure
gender equality, see women as people to be controlled
with the threat and the use of violence. Women, as we
struggle for equality are facing a backlash. How can
we feel safe when the police themselves exhibit the
violence that is endemic to patriarchy?

More than ever the police brutality of yesterday
demonstrates that we have a long way to go; that
women’s struggles for equality that have always linked
to improving the lives of our families and
communities, ensuring democratic processes of equality
and participation of ALL in the political process are
constantly BLOCKADED by the state and its
representatives. How can women seek assistance against
the violence in their lives when those entrusted with
their safekeeping are perpetrators of brutality and
violence?

Last night’s police violence is shameful and fearful.
We demand that the City of Montreal and the government
of Quebec immediately investigate the assaults and
arrest of yesterday and that women, our allies and
supporters feel safe and free to work in support of
equality and justice.

Gandhi and Human Rights

This quote is from a book called 'Mahatma Gandhi and Promotion of Human Rights' by Thomas Vithayathil:

"It is not difficult to find that in the International Bill of Human Rights and other proclamations of the UN some of the Gandhian principals and ideals have been reaffirmed and elaborated. Gandhi's advocacy and activism to protect human rights boosted world-wide efforts to provide for all human beings a life with dignity and freedom conducive to physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare. As the encyclical 'Peace on Earth' teaches, "every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are necessary and suitable for a proper development to life." Science and economic advance without humanity will worsen the social and economic inequalities unless preventative steps are taken. The elimination of want in life, esteem for every human being, co-operation for the welfare of all- all these lead to an authentic human life. Gandhi justly pointed out the evils and dangers of a merely quantitative economic growth. Only when humankind, in a spirit of mutual solidarity, progresses harmoniously can we realize the ideal of sarvodaya (the welfare of all).