Forum on the fight against discrimination: the nausea

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For pages of opinion, the clash of ideas. PIERRE-ALEXANDRE MALTA / LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL

Nicolas Villamarin Bonilla, special collaboration

Saturday, December 9, 2017 05:00

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Saturday, December 9, 2017 05:00

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It is in the air of the time a certain form of reminiscent of what Jean-Paul Sartre called nausea. A kind of feeling cloying that spits up from within ourselves, because it would be hard to adapt to the lack of understanding of the real world and workforce. This nausea is strengthened all the more that the elites of the current discourse does not mean that déblatérer on a reality and an experience of the world that they refuse to understand, otherwise than by staying outside, such as Oedipus the king is dying the eyes. This reality is that of racism.

The truth is that it would seem we will not be obliged(e)s look on the side of the extreme right in Quebec to understand what is, in the end, this social scourge. While the spectacle offered since January by the current liberal government tells us enough about the premise of the concept ; the pinnacle of which took place last Tuesday, during the “Forum on appreciation of diversity and the fight against discrimination” held in Quebec.

Many have reason to mention the fact that the system as a whole is not racist ; in this sense, it is best to refer to the phenomenon by the concept of systemic discrimination, and racial. Thus, it creates the situation where a structure or institution that is part of the company reproduced a racist practice, as the fact of the system that discriminates on a racial basis. However, these people forget about this specific fact : it is through the racial discrimination and systemic racism is, in reality, that is to say that he manifests himself. Because, beyond being a theory or an ideology, racism contains a dimension that is much more involved, more formative ; it is the result of a relationship of domination, a power relationship which goes beyond the sphere of individual action. In this sense, the concept of systemic racism is a pure pleonasm ; racism is itself a system of social relations.

Racism and other demons

Start from the current situation, the one surrounding the “Forum” of the minister David Heurtel, in order to establish this dimension, often given by the wayside.

From the outset, the initiative of the government was that of a consultation, not a commission, as it had been claimed by the Coalition for equality and against systemic racism. The climate which followed on the scandal of the Commission of human rights and droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ), the rants of the PQ and the CAQ, and the delusions of celebrity media, has come to reinforce what seemed to be the position of the LPQ : a total indifference. This last was confirmed by the change that has occurred in the cabinet reshuffle of Philippe Couillard, on the 11th of October, a denaturalization of the complete citizens ‘ demands.

This reversal tactic of the liberal Party shows us that what interests him above all is to ensure the mechanisms which reproduce the capital at the scale of Quebec. The twist that the consultation has taken is not a chance, knowing the situation of unemployment and lack of manpower currently. This is not a coincidence that the issue of immigration in general has taken precedence over that of racism. The problem is that the victims of racism are responsible for the practices arising out of the economic structure and cultural (in employment policies and regulations for the hiring of the companies, decisions of the owners of the accommodation, speeches circulating in the media, the culture of the arts and media, etc) and that it is these same structures that deny the possibility to overcome their adverse situation.

Thus, the political dimension which is at the base of the latter, that is to say the relation of domination, can be explained by the fact that despite the complaints and grievances of key stakeholders, in the end, these are the policy makers and the major players in the québec economy that are called upon to decide the fate of the victims, as during the Forum on 5 December.

Towards a possible release

Finally, the important thing to remember with the current situation is that racism is a social phenomenon that is linked to other phenomena in the society. In the first instance, the relationship between racism and political (State) us is confirmed by the management dismissive of the liberal Party on systemic racism. Then, the relationship between racism and economy is shown by the dimensions taken into account by the exercise of the minister Heurtel : if there is a problem at the level of racial discrimination, there was no choice but to rely on the entrepreneurs and capitalists to find solutions.

It follows that, in order to defend our rights, we can’t count on actually on the architects of our own misfortune, that is to say, the professional politicians and the owners of capital. Because, if history teaches us anything, it is that the struggle for liberation from all forms of oppression is not the fact of the show and the sham democratic State, but the fact of the social struggles of the oppressed(e)s.

Nicolas Villamarin is an anti-racism campaigner who has been involved with the Festival against racism in Québec and Productions 6Horas.