Anti-racism Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs are devided into three main parts: (1) Defining Concepts and Terms, (2) Theories, and (3) Myths About Hate Groups.
Defining Concepts and Terms
See Anti-racism Training and Concepts - A Seminar organzied by CAERS, Simon Fraser University and the Government of British Columbia for more details.
Stereotype
The conscious or unconscious attribution of generalized characteristics of a whole group to all its members. Stereotyping exaggerates the uniformity within a group and its distinction from other groups.
Prejudice
A frame of mind which tends to pre-judge a person or group in a negative light. This negative judgment is usually made without adequate evidence. These negative attitudes are often not recognized as unsoundly based assumptions because of the frequency with which they are repeated. They become "common sense"notions that are widely accepted, and are used to justify acts of discrimination.
Discrimination
The denial of equal treatment, civil liberties, or opportunity to individuals or groups with respect to education, accommodation, health care, employment, or access to services, goods, or facilities. Discrimination may occur on the basis of race; nationality; gender; age; religious, political, or ethnic affiliation; marital or family status; Sexual orientation; physical, developmental, or mental disability.
Racism
A set of implicated or explicit beliefs, assumptions and actions based upon and ideology that on racial or ethnic group is superior to another and which is evident in organizations or institutions and their programs as well as individuals and individual behaviors.
Anti-Racism
The acknowledgment that racism exists in our society, and recognition that racism is perpetuated through uneven distribution of power. It promotes the elimination of all types of racism and the unlearning of racism. Anti-racism seeks to identify and change policies and practices that promote racism, as well as provides skills and strategies for changing attitudes and behavior.
Racial Incident
A verbal or physical expression of racial or ethnic bias. Any behavior which expresses a negative attitude, disparagement or hatred toward a person or group’s race, color, or ethnocultural heritage.
Myths About Hate Groups
Hatred is caused by ignorance and fear
The media has almost exclusively focused on the most sensational aspects of
hate group recruitment and this has contributed to the myth that members of
racist hate groups can simply be dismissed as a collection of uneducated kooks,
loonies or fools. However, as Barret (1987) and Aho (1990) show membership in
racist hate groups is not correlated with low intelligence or low levels of
formal education. According to Barret (1987: 35-39) study of the racist right
in Canada, fully 62% of the members of hate groups he interviewed had attended
university, college or had technical school training. Aho's (1990: 139-146)
detailed study of the racist right in the United States confirms Barret's findings.
Research shows that hate groups recruit from every occupational level and they
target bright, educated young men and women. For example, the White Aryan Resistance
Movement is designed to draw blue collar workers while the CAUSE Foundation
attracts lawyers. The presence of professors, teachers and lawyers in extreme
right groups is not a new phenomenon. From the Anti-Asiatic Exclusion League
to the fascist parties of the 1920s and 1930s, members of racist groups in Canada
have been drawn from every stratum of society. Racism and bigotry are often
not about ignorance and fear but are based in profit, power and control.
It's best to ignore racists
Many law enforcement agencies, elected officials and the media have fostered
the myth that the best strategy for dealing with hate groups is to simply ignore
them. It is argued that giving racists and homophobes attention simply rewards
them for asocial behaviour and helps them attract youth. Ignoring hate groups
relegates them to the junkyard of history. In fact, the mainstream media has
seldom devoted serious attention to the problem of hate and how youth are recruited
because they do not want to be bothered by the expected deluge of letters and
calls from racists objecting to news coverage. Many in the news media have simply
capitulated to the threat of law suits and economic boycotts by the far right.
To compound the problem, some community groups have also lobbied the news media
to ignore incidents of hate group activity. Some groups fear that reporting
of incidents will give hate mongers a forum and increase their ability to recruit.
In addition, some government bureaucrats have also attempted to prevent discussion
about hate group activity because it causes fear. While the concerns of some
ethno-specific organizations, editors, bureaucrats and law enforcement can not
easily be dismissed, they represent only one part of the spectrum of opinion
on effectively combatting hate groups. The overwhelming belief expressed by
community leaders and experts in the field is that exposure, not concealment,
is the best strategy to combat organized hate to undermine their ability to
recruit youth and commit further violence.
Let the police deal with it
Law enforcement and education are two of the main ways that Canadians can deal
with hate. Unfortunately, hate crime legislation in Canada is weak and education
only works when people are ready to learn. To make matters worse, hate groups
are well funded and are successfully recruiting alienated young men and women.
As a result, the main line of defense against hate groups has been the individuals
and communities that are outraged by the re-emergence of racist, fascist groups
that want to deny non-Europeans entry to Canada and want to restrict citizenship
rights to “protect European values and culture”. Leaving hate groups to law
enforcement agencies will not result in the elimination of the climate of intolerance
growing in this country. Law enforcement agencies, hate crime units, and government
bureaucracies can only deal with the most extreme forms of hate when a law has
been broken. Law enforcement agencies can not “expose or oppose” groups or leaders
of groups unless a law has been broken. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies
can not organize community rallies or anti-racism events. In fact, many victims
of hate are reluctant to contact police agencies because of the negative perception
of law enforcement agencies.
Not a Canadian problem
Another dangerous myth is that hate groups are not indigenous
to Canada. In this view, Canada is a tolerant society and racism and hate group
activity are simply exported from the United States, Western Europe, or some
other area of the world. In reality, however, Canada is home to some of the
worst merchants of hate in the world. Canada is, in fact, one of the top five
exporters of Holocaust denial propaganda to Germany where to deny the Holocaust
is a criminal offense. German authorities have lobbied the Canadian government
to take action against the export of hate material to Germany, but with little
or no effect. Canada is also home to hate sites on the Internet, hate Bulletin
Board Services, the headquarters of one of the world’s largest production
companies for racist magazines and CDs and had the most sophisticated telephone
hate message system in North America until it was shut down by the Canadian
Human Rights Commission. There is a mountain of evidence that not only are hate
groups indigenous to Canada, they have a very long history stemming back to
first colonization. To believe that hate is simply a problem that is exported
to Canada is dangerous because it ignores the conditions that produce and reproduce
hate in our own homes, communities and country..
Hate groups do not create racism
It is often claimed that hate groups do not create racism, but
are simply a reflection of a racist culture. While it is true that hate groups
would not be tolerated if it were not for culturally based racism, the explicit
reason that hate groups exist is to create divisions between groups, foster
intolerance, recruit new members and to give a semblance of reason to ideologies
of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. In fact, hate groups are not just a reflection
of a particular cultural world view, but are active agents in helping to maintain
and spread racism, anti-semitism, homophobia and intolerance. Some hate groups
are explicit about fostering racism, prejudice and violence as a means of orchestrating
a future "racial war." For example, the June 2, 1992 edition of the
Church Of The Creator newsletter Racial Loyalty which was circulated in Victoria
and several interior areas of the province of British Columbia stated that:
"What is good for the White Race is the highest value; what is bad for
the White Race is the ultimate sin." The subtitle of the COTC newsletter
is "Spearhead of the White Racial Holy War." The subtitle refers to
the belief in a "race" war and propagates the notion that it is the
destiny of the so-called white race to bring civilization to the world. A further
example of the importance of hate groups in creating racism was evident in the
so-called Oka crisis in Québec. When the Mercier bridge was blocked by
Mohawks on the Khanawake reserve in solidarity over the Oka crisis, members
of a faction of the Ku Klux Klan precipitated rock throwing at a cavalcade of
automobiles leaving the reserve. While tensions were already high, the presence
of Klan members raised emotions and precipitated a violent confrontation, resulting
in injury and worsening community relations.
Not well organized
It has been erroneously assumed that hate groups are not well
organized nationally or internationally. The examination of hate groups presented
in the following chapters challenges this assumption. White supremacy in Canada
constitutes an important social movement; as Kinsella (1994) shows, there is
a "web of hate" in Canada with international connections. To give
just a few examples of this web of hate: Tony McAleer of the Canadian Liberty
Net based in Vancouver, BC flew to Auschwitz with John Metzger, the son of infamous
Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance based in Fallbrook, California to air
a live televised show to challenge the history of the Holocaust. To their credit,
German authorities arrested McAleer and Metzger and deported them. Second, when
Surrey, BC based Odin’s Law held a concert in a local community hall in
September, 1997, attendees came from as far away as California and New York
state. Pictures obtained by the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research
Society of that event clearly show that at least two of the skinheads charged
in the recent killing of Nirmal Singh Gill in attendance. The Toronto based
Heritage Front has also held several meetings featuring guest speakers Dennis
Mahon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and both Tom and John Metzger
of California. Canadian authorities arrested and deported the Metzgers only
after they had spoken to a sell-out crowd. A growing number of Canadians also
make annual pilgrimages to the Aryan Nation compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.
In 1996, Charles Scott then resident in Chilliwack, BC, was honoured by Aryan
Nations as “man of the year” for his efforts in Canada. Finally, Paul
Fromm, a former Ontario school teacher who was fired in February, 1997 for breaching
an agreement to not associate with white supremacists, has spoken on a number
of occasions at gatherings attended by known racists in the United States, England
and throughout Canada. For example, Fromm attends meetings with Christie, Collins,
Dumas, Irving, Lerch, Klatt and Pressler, just to name a few. The presence in
Canada of a white supremacist social movement with important international ties
necessitates a wholesale re-evaluation of contemporary anti-racism theory and
practise. In fact, hate groups in Canada produce an alarming quantity of very
sophisticated newsletters, journals, books, computer bulletin boards, and web
pages of far better quality than anti-racist organizations.
Cross-over issue
Hate groups are assumed to be either strictly racist, anti-First
Nations, homophobic, anti-choice, anti-immigration or anti-union. In fact, hate
groups are opportunistic and will expand into areas where they can garner support,
recruit new members, or raise money because of tensions or divisions within
a community. An obvious example of the ability of hate groups to capitalize
on current issues is Aboriginal land title. Hate groups are flourishing in the
towns and villages dependent on resource extraction throughout Canada. Anti-Native
hate groups foster the argument that Aboriginal land title is a “special
right” that creates “super citizens”. Hate groups argue that
Aboriginal rights will take away jobs from “ordinary” Canadians and
will eventually subvert democracy. And, it should be noted that, rather than
simply a marginal perspective, the arguments of the Heritage Front, the KKK
and a host of other white supremacist organizations regarding Native title have
entered the mainstream through some mainstream political parties in Canada.
But hate groups do not just target just people of colour, or
Jews, but actively support the most extreme elements of anti-choice groups.
A number of former members of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, have direct ties
to anti-choice groups. The leader of the Northern Foundation, Anne Hartmann,
plays an important role in Realwomen. Bary Wray and Ernie Britskie have also
picketed the Everywoman's Health Centre in Vancouver. Wray's brother, Dan, was
the Grand Titan of the BC KKK in the 1980s and he now is associated with the
Pro-Life Association based in Melville, Saskatchewan. Dan also contributes to
The Interim - the Campaign Life Coalition's newsletter. Barry Wray, Al Hooper
(another long time member of the BC KKK) and Tony McAleer, a skinhead recruiter,
proprietor of the racist Canadian Liberty Net and former manager of the racist
rock band, Odin’s Law were charged with assault in 1990 an incident in
which a passerby objected to them handing out Aryan Nations propaganda. Realwoman
BC President Peggy Steachy has also spoken at events with Dan Wray. One meeting
was held at the Croatian Cultural Centre and sponsored by the La Rouche organization
and Life Gazette. Steachy is the editor of a pro-life newsletter based in Surrey,
BC.
The Internet
The media has recently begun to portray the Internet as the
last bastion of white supremacy. There is even the suggestion that hate groups
have moved from “marches to modems”. However, while sharing information
and making new contacts on the Net is an important arena of anti-racist struggle,
hate groups have never abandoned the streets or meetings in Libraries and community
halls. In reality, hate groups are attempting to move from the fringes of society
to the mainstream, as they have attempted to do internationally. By running
for public office, some hope to raise to benefit from a growing climate of cynicism
and despair over joblessness and the perceived failure of democratic institutions
to deal with national and provincial social and economic problems. In recent
municipal and school board elections leaders of extremist groups have garnered
as much as 12 per cent of the popular vote.
The Media
Many reporters want to provide members of hate groups the opportunity to explain
their actions and philosophy. But uncritical media exposure gives hate groups
attention and often raises tensions in the community. Some reporters feed on the
frenzy they create and, for the short term, many anti-racists have found themselves
portrayed as alarmist, extremist and more of a danger to the community than the
hate group(s) they are attempting to expose. For this reason, those who are designated
to deal with the media must not over-react, appear defensive or allow themselves
to be drawn into a senseless debate. Organizers must simply state and re-state
the issue so that reporters can become informed. However, there are some reporters
who have experience, knowledge, or simply the common sense to understand the issues.
Try to avoid as much as possible reporters who try to divide the community for
their benefit or those who concentrate on the most sensational aspects of the
story.
Hate groups will also lobby or threaten editors with law suits
if they carry anything derogatory about their group or themselves. This strategy
usually intimidates writers and editors, making them less likely to cover issues
concerning racism and extremism or to not cover issues at all. It is often beyond
the resources of small organizations to fight institutional apathy. Find a news
outlet, whether local, provincial or national that will report the issues accurately
and fairly.
Coming Soon
Theories of Racism
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