^ I'm black and I could be called nigger twelve milion times. The word itself means jack shit to me on its own. Instead, the historical and, primarily (if not,
only), CURRENT realities the term represents do. You don't need to be a damn nuclear physicist to access papers on the racialization of poverty amongst CANADIAN-born "visible minorities".
That applies even when controls are applied to:
Migration status.
Age.
Education.
Accent, dress code and personal hygiene? You get what I'm saying.
Regardless, a racialized disparity does appear and there seems to be world-class precedence (or tradition?) of racism when looking at the indigenous community. It isn't terribly surprising to see similar barriers occur even amongst a more educated, literate dark skinned migrant population, vs. say, near/illiterate European migrants in the past.
The fact that people seem to overemphasize on name calling (which is petty nonsense) just tells me that we have totally different experiences. In the past, many European migrants in the past, who entered such as the Irish, Jewish, etc were also discriminated against extremely harshly. I doubt most during that time will be pointing the petty slurs. Being untreated unequally despite having equal, if not better standings (as we see in this case), is why most were upset.
To most, the SITUATION ON THE FIELD, at that time matters. The term "donkey" exemplified that the Irish were marginalized people and "destined" on the path of failure. That group has been able to assimilate, unlike indigenous people, Blacks living in the East Coast, and even Asians, who still see very visible barriers in employment.
The disturbing fact is that "visible minorities" throughout time hasn't seen assimilation, even when being more educated than then norm (with Canadian qualifications). I mean, what more can you ***ing ask for? In fact, Canadian-born minorities, on a whole, are MORE educated than any other segment and yet we see this disparity appear as well.
Not saying there is no way out of it. I think one of the best methods for people of color is to opt out of useless art degrees. I've seen too many unemployed on that nonsense and it's probably going to continue for a while. The fact is, without communal depth in those shallow markets, it's difficult to access it.
Humans generally tend to cluster with those familiar, or in this case, an ideology developed ever since the first people in Canada were more-or-less exterminated. For that reason, it would make sense to enter engineering, the hard sciences (outside pre-med biology), at lower levels, carpentry, plumbing, and other areas where there is a shortage. That would mitigate racial and even gender selection, because employers wouldn't be able to afford to be picky.
However, that cold suggestion that I make would be extremely unfair for many tied to these poorly invested areas. It must also be a coincidence that these often tight and severely underpaid sectors are female-dominated and haven't been addressed, despite the fact that large-scale communism-esque funding and intervention went into developing suburbia which benefited a population who at that time were obviously (and still are) dominant.
Point being, you don't see pathways into the construction sector within Jane-Finch unlike "middle class" outer areas. The service sector is extremely regressive, underpaid and is not part of an organic route to sustainability. Historically (talking about valid generalizations here), higher-paying blue collar jobs is what created the middle class.
Unfortunately right now the reluctance to fund "unconventional" segments of society (as we see in the US) is pushing these nations into unsistainable path of credit. In the US, people of color and women have seen very limited investment in their work segments, or for former, living spaces included. I could say the same for women, but that could be saved for another thread if required. Having said that, I'm pretty disappointed.
I think I need to re-post this excerpt AGAIN:
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)."
This, by the way, repeats itself amongsts those of Aboriginal, Indian, Iranian, and Thai descent as well. The fact that Canadians often from smaller cities and towns are also being compared to visible minorities nearly-exclusively living in the higher cost and most dynamic cities suggests that problem is quite deep. Most scholars would agree.