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is racism common in Toronto?

Which "ones" are you referring to? Newcomers to Canada "dictating" those who come earlier; or settlers of Canada "dictating" to First Nations?

AoD
The European settlers didn't dictate to the First Nations. No, they fought and conquered them. If the those arriving today are trying to now fight and conquer the descendants of those settlers, well, that would certainly be following precedent.
 
There was some racism from every direction...I was a victim, and the transgressor.......I was young and not very educated. When I attended Cederbrae C.I. I did witness a huge rumble between blacks, and shrelankin ….and I am talking about in the hundreds on both sides, that was a racial issue….and defiantly racism on each actor who was involved.

I am white and during college one of the professors I had, said that white people have never experienced racism...which I find a false statement....I have been spit on and called whitey...by blacks, been called gringo by Latinos....munja cake by Italians...even Gweilo by Chinese. So if someone makes a statement regarding your culture, self identity, and even religion yes it is racism.

Everyone I am sure has said some racist remark in their life.......so one is innocent.

My grandma an so sweet she was born in 1912 to am immigrant family in Thunder Bay, half Italian half Austrian....they even had to change their last name to sound Anglo. To the day she died...she used some of the words I used when I was a kid.....I detested the use...but after when I grew older I understood why...I am not validating the use of the words, but understood where she came from...and that being a generation that did not know equality...where immigrants were low class, and worked in sweat shops. So what I mean is that we learn from our parents...and that is the bottom line.

Living in Toronto.....well I can say yes there is still racism continuing. I live in the Junction the Portuguese area, they do not talk to me or even say hello...but is that racism....I could say yes....but I would favour a no....and chalk it up to a cultural divided issue where one would not want to talk to someone out side of there culture......

I have seen many changes since the 1970's in Toronto....some for the better, and some for the worse.....we are so obsessed with being politically correct...we have even gone as far as not telling the public the colour of skin of a perp...who just robbed a store or even raped a girl......which was a recent incident last week.

Will there ever be equality....no....that’s just how it is in reality......there will always be winners and losers....and most times its based on social economic issues, and yes colour and religion. But I have lived in Latin America.....and Toronto is one of the best cities in the world in regards to having a lower level of racism.
 
So if someone makes a statement regarding your culture, self identity, and even religion yes it is racism.

uh, no it's not racism, unless they changed what racism means.


if your culture condones beating women for showing their faces, i don't like your culture and look down on it compared to more civilized cultures.

if you identify as a terrorist, i don't like you and look down on you.

if your religion tells you to kill others for having different beliefs, i don't like your religion and look down on it.
 
uh, no it's not racism, unless they changed what racism means.


if your culture condones beating women for showing their faces, i don't like your culture and look down on it compared to more civilized cultures.

You're right - racism means discrimination based on race or hatred directed to a racial group. That does not mean culture, that does not mean religion, and there are other terms for discrimination/hatred towards those things. There are cases where there is some confusion, mostly because there is no logical way to divide people into racial groups that won't leave room for ambiguities. For example, is anti-semitism a form of racism, etc.? Islamophobia is not racism, misogyny is not racism, homophobia is not racism, etc. That's not to say they're not equally bad - they're just not based on race.

You're second point here troubles me a bit. Now, I do believe that some people take cultural relativism way to far, but culture is such a changing, multifaceted thing that I don't think we can pass moral judgments on a cultural group as a whole without stereotyping every member of that culture. For example, Jamaican culture is by and large pretty homophobic. Does that mean every Jamaican is homophobic? Of course not. Does that mean that a Jamaican who is not homophobic becomes culturally not Jamaican? I think I know a few gay Jamaicans who'd have a problem with that. When someone says something like "Jamaicans are homophobic," they're making cultural stereotypes that unfairly paint all members of that culture as homophobic. We should be attacking the homophobia, misogyny, and whatever else in cultures, not the cultures themselves, because no culture is homogenous, and all cultures have the capacity for change.

It's a little more touchy when it comes to criticizing religions, but even then there can be problems. For example, Christianity is, again, pretty homophobic. But then you have denominations like the United Church of Canada or the Metropolitan Community Church that have fought for gay rights.

Cultures are really just a malleable collection of practices and ideas that are constantly changing. In one culture, you will always find differing opinions and a diversity of perspectives. Religion can often (though not always) be less adaptable to change, and therefore religious groups can and should be criticized/looked down upon whenever they cling to hate, outdated ideas, etc. Belonging to a religion often involves a compulsion to believe something in a way that belonging to a culture does not (i.e. that men are superior to women, that cloning will cure mortality, that black skin is a curse from God, etc.).
 
you can dislike/criticize a culture or religion without passing judgment on every single person who identifies with such a group because not every person who belongs to a culture or a religion is a fundamentalist who follows 100%.

though i do admit that these issues are complex.

Cultures are really just a malleable collection of practices and ideas that are constantly changing.

improvements are usually brought about by realizing the wrongs and correcting them. for example, if a culture beats women for showing their faces, that culture will never change for the better if people just tolerate it as is and don't criticize the practice. there is a benefit of criticizing a culture for complying with a practice. the benefit is that the moderates of that culture will change the culture for the better in order to put the culture in a better light. without criticizing the culture as a whole, moderates may put up with practices of their culture they may not agree with because either they didn't know of the wrongs or don't want to rock the boat, etc.
 
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I've been stopped on airports, and interrogated. The same goes for subway stations where I was suspected of loitering. On top of that, I've seen my house raided for no reason, despite being educated and having no criminal record. Point being, I got direct experience and find the name-calling variant downright petty.

Individual prejudice is rather impossible to counter. People will probably always hate others due to superficial traits. However racism that involves an element of power backed by instititutional policies is a lot more troublesome.

Slurs such as [sand]"nigger" are powerful due to the social realities associated with the word. Being called "whitey" is not comparable due to the lack of that institutional blow. Most within my community wouldn't even give a damn. I've seen East Asians, for instance, who get mighty upset due to rather obvious barriers in work places. The real issue, that is, the institutional form, is certainly alive. Read the excerpt below:

For example, among those who are university educated, Aboriginal peoples are four times as likely as Canadian born non-racialized group to be unemployed, and foreign - born visible minorities are at least twice as likely as Canadian born non-racialized group to be unemployed.

# Given a university education, non-racialized g roups are three times as likely as Aboriginal peoples and about twice as likely as foreign born visible minorities to have incomes in the top 20% of the income scale.Data on earnings revealed that foreign - born visible minorities earned, on average, only 78 cents for every dollar earned by the foreign - born nonracialized group.

Here is another excerpt that deals with Canadian-born Blacks:

In 2004, Statistics Canada further reported: "Although Canadian-born Blacks aged 25 to 54 were just as likely to be university educated as all Canadian-born persons in the same age group, in 2000, Canadian-born Blacks' average employment income was substantially lower than all Canadian-born persons ($29,700 versus $37,200)."

In May 2005, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Centre for Social Justice, released another study examining how race and immigration status affected employment opportunities. It showed that during the last census period from 1996 to 2001: "Racialized group members and new immigrants continue to sustain a double digit income gap and a higher rate of unemployment (compared to other Canadians)."

It also showed that: "The labour market is segmented along racial lines, with racialized group members over represented in many low paying occupations, with high levels of precariousness while they are under represented in the better paying, more secure jobs." The report concluded: "racial discrimination continues to be a major factor in the distribution of opportunities in the Canadian labour market."
 
For example, among those who are university educated, Aboriginal peoples are four times as likely as Canadian born non-racialized group to be unemployed, and foreign - born visible minorities are at least twice as likely as Canadian born non-racialized group to be unemployed.
Interesting statistic, but it would also be interesting to know where that university education was obtained. Many professional licencing bodies have very restrictive requirements for post-graduate training, and won't accept education obtained in many other countries.

The validity of that is of course up for debate, but I think there is justification for that, since the educational systems for various countries are definitely not created equal. Furthermore, even if the theory is the same, often times what's more important is the practical application, and such practical application is vastly different in different countries.

Now, if they're talking about university education all from within Canada, then that removes foreign education as a variable from the equation.

The statement "foreign-born" for visible minorities suggests to me that they are not differentiating location of education here. Than again, that doesn't explain the vast inequity with Canadian aboriginal peoples.
 
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Interesting statistic, but it would also be interesting to know where that university education was obtained. Many professional licencing bodies have very restrictive requirements for post-graduate training, and won't accept education obtained in many other countries.

The validity of that is of course up for debate, but I think there is justification for that, since the educational systems for various countries are definitely not created equal. Furthermore, even if the theory is the same, often times what's more important is the practical application, and such practical application is vastly different in different countries.

Now, if they're talking about university education all from within Canada, then that removes foreign education as a variable from the equation.

The statement "foreign-born" for visible minorities suggests to me that they are not differentiating location of education here. Than again, that doesn't explain the vast inequity with Canadian aboriginal peoples.
Well, keep in mind that it doesn't account for Canadian-born university graduates either:

In 2004, Statistics Canada further reported: "Although Canadian-born Blacks aged 25 to 54 were just as likely to be university educated as all Canadian-born persons in the same age group, in 2000, Canadian-born Blacks' average employment income was substantially lower than all Canadian-born persons ($29,700 versus $37,200)."
There is a more comprehensive paper on this matter. I'm too lazy to look for it, but the papers above does suggest that channeling. That is, racialized Canadians, foreign-born or not, are seeing lower performance vs. non-racialized Canadians.

This isn't just a matter of foreign racialized Canadians. Having said that, if that was the case, I'd imagine this restriction not applying to foreign-born Blacks who are largely of Caribbean descent. That is because much of the education system is essentially identical to the North American counterpart. Non-racialized Canadians often study in Caribbean nations as well. However it does conjure the question: how do Eastern Europeans perform?

Keep in mind, seeing that I'm in the engineering sector, I feel that we need to specifically look into the accreditation process. This isn't one where we see racialized groups falling in a disparity due to educational requirements not meeting Canadian requirements. Look at the excerpt below:

A professional engineer who has graduated from an accredited program from a Washington Accord economy (Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States) should have no difficulty in registering. Click here for more information about International Mobility.
Look at the excerpt below:

*

Organisations holding provisional status have been identified as having qualification accreditation or recognition procedures that are potentially suitable for the purposes of the Accord; those organisations are further developing those procedures with the goal of achieving signatory status in due course; qualifications accredited or recognised by organisations holding provisional status are not recognised by the signatories

* Germany - Represented by German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics
* India - Represented by National Board of Accreditation of All India Council for Technical Education
* Russia - Represented by Russian Association for Engineering Education
* Sri Lanka - Represented by Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka
Link
It is interesting to notice that a racialized disparity seems to appear despite accreditation not being race-based. Korean migrants are a significant component of the migrants coming from Asia, as are those from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

Keep in mind that the majority of European migrants tend to originate from Eastern European lands, so it does sound rather disturbing. The pattern is continuing amongst those racialized Canadians, born and educated, in the nation as well. That is stressed in the excerpt that I posted before.
 
...
I am white and during college one of the professors I had, said that white people have never experienced racism...which I find a false statement....I have been spit on and called whitey...by blacks, been called gringo by Latinos....munja cake by Italians...even Gweilo by Chinese...
...

A racist remark may be just a racist remark depending on the context in which it was made and oppressive actions taken. Webster defines racism as "racial prejudice or discrimination." So a racial remark can be an expression of hate, but by itself, is not racism. Calling someone a "nip" is a hateful racial remark but not racism. The Japanese Internment Camps during WWII was racism.

And the term "Gweilo" used by Chinese is not even a racist remark in the context of being hateful. Its use today is simply a slang for white folks.

...
Individual prejudice is rather impossible to counter. People will probably always hate others due to superficial traits. However racism that involves an element of power backed by instititutional policies is a lot more troublesome.

Slurs such as [sand]"nigger" are powerful due to the social realities associated with the word. Being called "whitey" is not comparable due to the lack of that institutional blow. Most within my community wouldn't even give a damn. I've seen East Asians, for instance, who get mighty upset due to rather obvious barriers in work places. The real issue, that is, the institutional form, is certainly alive. ...

Agree 1000%. I used to be an auditor auditing many different companies and it doesn't take a genius to notice that while almost all companies have visible minority staff, including middle management, but at the executive positions (where the real power resides), it's still remarkably a club primarily of Caucasians.
 
Racism is hatred towards another race, which could mean different things to people. Making stereotypical comments does not make you racist.
 
And the term "Gweilo" used by Chinese is not even a racist remark in the context of being hateful. Its use today is simply a slang for white folks.
Gweilo is racist IMO, just like Chinaman is racist.

It doesn't have to be racist, like with just a bunch of guys jokin' around, but in other contexts it can be.


Is this a racist remark?

"WASP's are boring!"
Sure. It's a negative stereotype.

It doesn't have to be racist, like with just a bunch of guys jokin' around, but in other contexts it can be.
 
And the term "Gweilo" used by Chinese is not even a racist remark in the context of being hateful. Its use today is simply a slang for white folks.

I'm sure the term nigger was used as a slang for black folk back in the day...
 
what about nigga?

I hear white kids saying to white kids " what up nigga". is that racist?

Gweilo, as far as I've been told means white devil..I don't care if it's racist. It's the coolest thing to be called in my opinion.

Honky?? that sux...white devil is way better.

I think most racism is hidden, as I've said before, it's not the guy calling you a nigger, or chink or fag you gotta worry about. It's the guys in power whom are THINKING those things and acting on them. The biggest problem with racsim that all white people hold power. It is said, a group has to hold power to discriminate or be racist. That's like sayin, alot of white men are corporate execs. But, it doesn't mean ALL white males are
 

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