Playing the race card

By Zara Urvashi Ramaniah

On Nov. 14, the International Student Resource Centre (ISC) hosted its first International Student Recognition Awards Ceremony. Aware of the work that had gone into planning the event, and curious to see who would win, at 7:00 pm I made my way to the Health Sciences Auditorium. The stage was flanked by flags and a slide show was in progress when I arrived.

Impressed with the arrangement, though slightly disappointed by the turnout, I sat down with high hopes, which crumbled during the opening speech. In the speech, the current president of the ISC said that when she first came to Memorial in 2007 “there was little interaction between international students and domestic students, and little to no desire to interact with each other.”

But, apparently this has changed, and there has been greater integration between the international and domestic student body since 2007. Bravo everyone.

Unfortunately, she said, there has been a marked rise in racism along with this happy development. How there is better integration, and also a rise in racism is beyond me – but who will argue with the might of the ISC and run the risk of being labelled racist, or at best, ignorant and narrow minded?

When I arrived in St. John’s, in the fall of 2006 I lived in Paton College for my first year. I shared a room with a Newfoundlander from North Harbour, with whom I got on famously and three years later am once again living with.

Coming to St. John’s was exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming, but not once was I confronted with any discrimination, let alone racism. In fact, the first time anyone alluded to the colour of my skin, was when a Pakistani-American mentioned being relieved to see another “brown” person in her math class.

I’d never heard anyone referred to as “brown,” “black,” “white” or any other colour before in my life, and I grew up in a multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial environment. Then, it wasn’t a “white” man or woman who had turned me into an outsider, and made me feel different.

Of course racism exists. Whether it is institutionalised, as it was in South Africa until 1994 when apartheid ended officially and non-racial elections were held for the very first time, and the hatred Jews have had to endure throughout their history, or if it is an attitude towards a certain group of people.

Home to a large Mi'q Maaq community in Conne River, the Mushuau, and the Sheshatshiu, Newfoundland also accommodates Irish, Scottish, English, and French settlers who have historically been at odds with each other for centuries yet call this island province home. That is not even taking into account other groups of people who have come here in more recent years.

Also, a significant number of students in my experience do not even realize that not everyone in Newfoundland / Canada is “white.”

It took me more than a year to learn of the different groups belonging to Newfoundland. Like many international students, I went along with the belief (which, to be quite honest, I don’t know where I got) that to be a Newfoundlander you could only have Irish ancestry.

Just why was it that I didn’t know about the Mi’q Maaq, the Scots, English, and French? One reason (and it is a rather shaming confession), is that I did not do the research I should have done on the province I would be living in. The other is that little to no distinction is ever made between the Irish, English, or any other group.

As I’ve grown to understand Newfoundland a little bit better, and become better acquainted with the growing international student body I’ve been struck by a few rather disturbing attitudes. One of these is the sense of entitlement international students seem to have over their domestic classmates, not because they have earned any right to it, but because of their race. There is an idea that because we are of a visual minority we are allowed to make generalizations.

For example, when there are disagreements between students of different races, especially if one party is of European Caucasian descent there is a fear of being accused of being racist. The effort made to not appear even slightly argumentative is comical – all springing from a desire to escape someone labelling the “white” man or woman as racially prejudiced.

Memorial has the largest international community in Newfoundland, but we have yet to pick up on the fact that where you are from and what shade your skin is, really does not matter. It should not matter, and it most definitely should not give you a leg up, or pull you down from anything.

The second mindset I find even more worrying. There seems to be a belief that we can make whatever sweeping, racial statements we want without censure, because after all, we are a minority and “the white man” has oppressed us since they started colonizing and building empires.

My favourite statement is, “Well, I’m allowed to say that because I’m [brown / black / orange / turquoise].”

If it’s alright for you as an international student to make a comment which perpetuates a stereotype, racial or otherwise, why is it not alright for anyone else to say the same?

There should be no double standards. If you can make bigoted, racist statements, no matter how harmlessly you meant it, you don’t have the right to be upset if someone else does the same thing and you are offended. Want to stop racism? Stop practicing it.

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