When I arrived at the spiffy event, there were around 6 or 7 hundred white people milling around. I counted 10 people of colour, including the "help": 3 Aboriginals, 3 Chinese people, and three "Other". Whenever my eyes made four with another "minority" we exchanged rather embarrassed wordless screams of incredulity and desperation.
I left early, slipping into the snowy night. Down on Yonge Street, between the taxi drivers, street car drivers, and late night workers returning home, it was hard to spot even one white face.
What a world of difference between the elite crowd in the windowless room I had left, and the actual demographic of this beautiful city I am proud to call home.
Just think! Events like these take place every day across Canada. And we say nothing. We just carry on, amidst the ever more self-righteous rhetoric of a multiculturalism that is reflected on the street, but not in the institutions of power.
Weeks later, still nursing my pain, a magazine crossed my desk: "Broadcast Dialogue". On the cover, a picture of Bev Oda, our new Japanese Canadian Minister of Heritage. Inside, an article on "Diversity in Broadcasting" I scanned it hungrily - Could this be that mythical thing: a local media publication that is representing the demographic of this country...?But when I opened the magazine and turned its' pages, my heart fell. On almost every page, pictures of white men and women, sometimes pictured singly, often in groups, of 2, 4, 10, 20 or 50 at a time.
Even the article on "Diversity" was richly illustrated with photos of the noble Caucasian men and women who are "leading the way" in Canada's bold initiative.I find it is even more painful when, as here, it seems an effort has been made to adress the issue, but not carried through. It highlights the discrepancy. A bit like being invited to the Genies.
I decided to speak out! I wrote a letter and sent it to the Publisher of Broadcast Dialogue.
Dear Broadcast DialogueMinutes after I pressed "SEND" I got a phone call from Howard, said publisher. Delighted, I told him my Genie's story.
I was delighted to see that the March 2007 issue of your magazine had 3 articles exploring race and diversity ("Diversity in Canadian Broadcasting", "Sexist? Racist?" "Little Mosque, Dragon Boys, and Jozi H"), and one on gender, in canadian broadcasting. This is good and progress.
I then went through the magazine and counted the number of images of people of colour versus white people, and men vs women. The results shocked me. Here they are:
Images of white people in the march issue: 166
Images of people of colour of any race at all: 7
Percentage of images of people of colour: 4%
Percentage of Canada's population that is visible minority: 13.4%
Images of men: 147
Images of women: 26
Percentage of images of women 15%
Percentage of women in the Canadian population 51%
I think it is outrageous that your magazine, like the rest of Canada I might add, feels satisfied to talk the facile talk of multiculturalism and gender equality while shamelessly perpetuating the same old, same old, racist sexist WALK.
Get with the millenium please! If America can nominate a white woman and black man for president, & appoint a black woman to be secretary of state and defense, how can Canada justify continuing to pack the halls of power and privelege in this country exclusively with white males?
Sincerely etc.
"I had enough!" I exclaimed "I decided to speak out!"
"Really." he replied. "Well let me tell you something. Take your "shock" and your "horror" and your "sexist" "racist" nonsense, and peddle it elsewhere. I'm not interested."
I hung up.
And wrote to him again:
Dear Howard,Broadcast "dialogue" indeed.
What I wrote is not nonsense and I have no intention of listening to abuse.
(Photos: The somewhat misleading cover of Broadcast Dialogue, showing a photo of our own Bev Oda. The two other photos show typical inside spreads, with photos of white men singly and in groups of 2, 4, 10, 20 and 50.)
Thank you Frances-Anne! I share your issue(s) and am even more shocked by the pettiness and lack of focus among people of African heritage. I can tell you it is indeed frustrating. We must keep on challenging the hegemons.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Vernon
Oh my goodness. So, how are we going to address this in some cohesive, unified fashion? Is there or should we set up a media monitoring group? Viewing "The Next Great Prime Minister" recently on TV truly underlines the importance of the non-traditional, immigrant contribution and perspective.
ReplyDeleteMy two cents
Well, Frances-Anne what an experience, it reminds me of graduate school at Columbia University. I could say more but these days I prefer to write songs about stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteDis is GONG.
Frances -
ReplyDeleteIt is unbelievable in this day and age we are still subject to this kind of treatment - But we must never give up the fight and the faith
Frances-Anne:
ReplyDeleteVery much regret your traumatic experience but hate to report that I am not as shocked as I should perhaps be. I am not sure that we have made as much progress as we should have done in Toronto, in Canada. Diversity is much talked about, even"valued" but not implemented effectively or conscientiously.
As Black and Racial Minority people, we are not seen as belonging and sometimes we are reluctant to demand our right.
We tend to be viewed as tokens, hence the selective invitations. I admire your courage in leaving, in refusing to be part of "tokenism". I also believe that had all of the minorities departed together, a very strong message would have been sent. It took courage to leave and to challenge Howard. He doesn't "get it"unfortunately and sees you as the problem rather than the society's continuing discriminatory attitudes and practices.
You are absolutely right in taking the stand that you have and I applaud your courage; however, courage is a lonely place and one often gets targeted in the process.
I love Toronto but it will take more and more of us to stand up and challenge continously the racist, sexist status quo.
Stand tall and walk good.
Elizabeth (Parchment)
As I said earlier, kindly refrain from the "sharing."
ReplyDeleteBroadcast Dialogue is not your target, as you well know.
As the guy with the camera, had I been at a convention of
"taxi drivers, streetcar drivers and late night workers," there'd
have been plenty of pics with people of varied backgrounds.
That's not where I was.
Dear Frances-Anne,
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well and the premiere at the Reel Film Festival went well. I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I read with much dismay your group email about diversity in Canada. I had no idea things were that way there. Thank you for making a difference and speaking out…and also making such wonderful productions to acknowledge our worth if only to ourselves.
I just passed this through INCLUDE because, well, I can. ;)
ReplyDeleteDear Frances-Anne:
ReplyDeleteWhile I am not entirely surprised at your story, I am appalled at the response. Even for PR reasons there was no attempt at civility. The complete assurance of your respondent (the publisher himself) makes the issue crystal clear. Obviously, some action is necessary - the thing is so pervasive. I had a conversation about "images" with students in one of my classes last week and the pall over the classroom signalled their "shock and awe" about what was obvious and unseen by them until that very moment. But ...
Ramabai
Hello fa-- I'm glad your
ReplyDeletestance on "Dialogue" is finding support--those stats look entirely hard-headed and convincing to me--how come the man doesn't get it? Best, j.
Hi Frances Anne,
ReplyDeleteI can "get" all the rest of it, have seen and experienced such. One explanation I was given is that there are not many blacks and visible minorities at those levels...really...Thing is that we are there and can use a knife and fork better that many white folks with better manners and social skills too!!!! BUT I can't believe Howard's arrogance, blatant rudeness and disregard for publication's mandate. Schizoid or what. Would that magazine be available on news-stands or the library. I'd like to write to some of its sponsors. They, I know, would surely dialogue....
Pat Riviere
Hi Frances-Anne,
ReplyDeleteAgain, my pleasure. Just as a follow-up, as per Howard's request, for my last Anti-Racism class, I read them the correspondence, including Howard's defense. I admitted to my own faux-pas in not hearing his side before sending off my initial letter, but I thought that I was somewhat vindicated by his response. The class was both amused .. well more bemused and disgruntled by his response, but also had confirmation of something we've been discussing all year, the concept of Democratic Racism. Simply put, it is the brand of racism that pervades the institutional nexus of Canadian society, a society that celebrates liberal values of freedom, justice, equality, etc., but is built on foundations that are anything but. Hence, his statement that inclusiveness in the media is readily apparent through the visibility of visible minorities on the air, but not in the halls of decision-making/power. His understanding, of course, that upper management is based on a refined process of meritocracy.. the great unsaid being that we just have to earn our way to the top until we are considered good enough by those who do the hiring (again his point). Same pattern can be seen with bank-tellers / bank management, cashiers / corporate honchos, etc, etc. Anyway, it was a perfect ending to the class in giving a very real demonstration of what we've been talking about... So, something positive.
BTW, just looking at the roll-call of responses on your board, really gives one a feeling of pride and community.
Cheers,
Resh
Eventually many drops of water carve a hole in the stone, opening it.
ReplyDelete