Two words.
That's where Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris went wrong Monday.
The B.C. government awarded the Immigrant and Multicultural Service Society of Prince George $10,000 to support its anti-racism efforts as part of the provincial Organizing Against Racism and Hate campaign.
The accompanying press release quoted both Morris and Shirley Bond, praising IMSS and their great work.
Unfortunately, the quote from Morris had two ridiculous words.
"Unfortunately racism, while rare, is still present in B.C.," he said.
While rare?
There is nothing rare about racism, in Prince George, in B.C. and in the world. Racism is a prevailing worldview that is never far from the thoughts and the tongues of everyone, regardless of their religion, their wealth, their education or even their race.
If racism was rare in B.C., there would not have been such a loud outcry when Prince George city council renamed Fort George Park as Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park. The Citizen would not have had to remove so many repugnant comments posted in reaction on our website.
If racism was rare in B.C., there would have been no need to recently convict a Quesnel man of hate speech. Indeed, if racism was rare, there would be no need for hate speech laws at all, nor would there be the need for provincial programs like Organizing Against Racism and Hate, as well as the financial resources to support them.
To be fair to Morris, what he was probably trying to suggest was that racism is nowhere near as blatant as it used to be. Japanese residents aren't being rounded up and put into camps for public safety. The Chinese head tax is gone. Aboriginal Canadians can now vote and hold public office. We are a more inclusive and tolerant society than we used to be, but that doesn't make racism rare.
The cancer that is racism remains, operating in more subtle and insidious, but no less harmful, ways than it once did.
There is nothing racist in saying racism is rare but it does diminish the seriousness of the problem on a social scale and it is a hurtful conclusion for the people who continue to experience racism on a daily basis, in doses large and small. The comment was made to praise the progress that has been made to combat racism, which is noteworthy, but unfortunately it also serves to trivialize the extent of the problem.
The comment attributed to Morris isn't the only mistake in the press release.
The very first sentence reads: "The Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society of Prince George has received $10,000 from the B.C. government to help eliminate racism in Prince George."
Eliminate racism?
Even if such a thing were possible, who would decide this? Can we expect a declaration from the B.C. government at some utopian future date proclaiming that they've been successful in "wiping out racism," to quote from later in the same release?
Government programs like this are noble efforts to help address racism in our communities but to say they will help "eliminate" or "wipe out" racism is hopelessly naive. Reduce is the best we can hope for.
Words matter and how words frame discussions matter, too. Framing racism as something that one day will be eliminated is to allow an end to the conversation, a "we've done enough, we're all done" moment. The belief that racism can be defeated is commonly held by well-meaning, politically sensitive white folks who know racism as an abstract bad and remote thing, rather than something both real and common.
As evolutionary biologists and neurological studies have shown, racism is hardwired into the oldest parts of the human brain, where having an instantaneous reaction to seeing others not of our tribe was the difference between fighting or fleeing, living or dying. Some have used this research to justify racism (it's OK, we're born that way!) but what the findings really support is that there is no eliminating racism and we must be continuously vigilant with our conscious, rational minds - to appeal to the better angels of our nature, as Steven Pinker would put it - to overcome automatic but incorrect biological responses.
Morris and the Liberals should be applauded for their anti-racism program and for supporting IMSS but racism is not rare and it won't go away. To say otherwise is to negate both its enduring power and prevalence in our society and our brains.
