Table Of ContentINTEGRATIVE ANTIRACISM:
SOUTH ASIANS IN CANADIAN ACADEME
From both a theoretical and practical standpoint, racism is one of the
most important topics that has engaged the attention of social scientists
in North America in recent years. As societies become more ethnically
diverse, people from different cultures are increasingly coming into
contact with each other, resulting in ever greater opportunities for rac-
ism to manifest itself.
In this work, Edith Samuel examines the educational experiences of
South Asian students and faculty members from the perspective of ‘inte-
grative antiracism’ – the study of how the dynamics of social difference
are mediated in people’s daily lives. Specifically, she analyses percep-
tions of and responses to racism in four critical areas: faculty-student
relationships, peer group interactions, curriculum, and the psychosocial
dimension.
Antiracism scholars maintain that racism is widespread on Canadian
university campuses. Drawing on the available literature and extensive
interviews with students and faculty, Samuel looks at both overt and
covert forms of racism, as well as structural racism, that result in dis-
crimination in admissions and employment. She also looks at race, class,
gender, history, and culture and how these interlocking systems produce
unique experiences of racism for South Asians in academe. Through
the exploration of the intricate patterns of South Asians’ assimilation
into university life, IntegrativeAntiracism identifies the numerous barriers
racial minorities encounter and suggests a variety of approaches to fos-
tering a more equitable education system.
edith samuel is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology
at Atlantic Baptist University.
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EDITH SAMUEL
Integrative Antiracism:
South Asians in Canadian
Academe
FOREWORD BY GEORGE DEI
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2005
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN-13 978-0-8020-3944-6 (cloth)
ISBN-10 0-8020-3944-8 (cloth)
ISBN-13 978-0-8020-3782-4 (paper)
ISBN-10 0-8020-3782-8 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Samuel, Edith, 1947–
Integrative antiracism : South Asians in Canadian academe / Edith
Samuel ; foreword by George Dei.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-3944-8 (bound). ISBN 0-8020-3782-8 (pbk.)
1. Discrimination in higher education – Canada. 2. South Asian
college students – Canada. I. Title.
LC3479.S24 2005 378.1’9829914071 C2005-903608-7
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its pub-
lishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial supports for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Foreword by George Dei vii
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Introduction 3
2 Theory and Method: Antiracism, Racism, and Ethnographic
Interviews 15
3 Adjusting to Canada 43
4 Faculty–Student Relationships 63
5 Peer Group Interaction 84
6 Curriculum and Minority Faculty Members 109
7 The Psychosocial Dimension 127
8 Challenges and Conclusion 143
Notes 163
Bibliography 177
Author Index 197
Subject Index 203
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Foreword
Over the years, antiracism studies have offered some refreshing intellec-
tual insights around the intersections of difference through critical anal-
yses of race, class, gender, and sexuality as sites and relations of power.
The imbrication of power in (social) difference has forced a rethinking
of what it means to speak of race, identity, and representational politics.
Social identities and representations are not mere performances but
rather relations of power with real material consequences. Our individ-
ual and collective experiential realities are constructed and understood
in terms coded strongly by race, class, gender, and sex. For this reason,
the denial of difference constitutes both intellectual hypocrisy and a
politically ineffective practice. Integrative antiracism argues forcefully
that in order to understand the true effects of race, we must acknowledge
the way in which race intersects with other forms of difference – gender,
class, sexuality, ability, language, and religion – to produce material social
existence. Antiracism practice challenges White power and its rationale
for dominance by resisting racist and colonial privileges that thrive at the
expense of Othered bodies. The academic and political project of critical
integrative antiracism is to uncover how Western civilization ‘scripts’
local communities by fabricating Whiteness and by policing its corollary
racial boundaries. Also, antiracism works with the notions of 'racializa-
tion' and ‘racialized subjects’ to identify the social processes that revolve
around race issues. When a complex meaning is brought to race and dif-
ference, social identities are understood not as static, bounded, or fixed
categories but rather as constantly evolving in different historical con-
texts. I caution that the shifting meaning of race and experiences of race
as contextual apply more to dominant groups than to those who are
racialized as 'non-Whites.' Race cannot be understood when it is decou-
viii Foreword
pled from class, gender, sexuality, language, and religion. That said, crit-
ical antiracist practice highlights the important of race; in other words, in
a racialized society, race trumps other forms of difference.
Unfortunately, such theoretical inroads into understanding race and
difference have not been matched with resounding success in the battle
to eradicate systemic inequities and social injustices. This is not for lack
of effort on the part of antiracism and anti-oppression activists and
scholars. I believe it has more to do with Whites being determined to
protect their power and privileges. It is also in part a seduction by the
status quo – as in, ‘All is well, so let’s not disturb the peace.’ But if antira-
cism is to help transform society, we must not only speak openly of race
and racism as a discursive engagement, but also, importantly, own up to
our collective complicities and responsibilities and resist racism in con-
crete ways.
We have much more work to do in bridging theory and practice. I see
Edith Samuel’s book as part of the struggle to do that, using the experi-
ences of South Asians in academe as an entry point. In articulating inte-
grative antiracism, the author discusses how race, class, and gender are
linked. Her descriptions of the complex realities of South Asian subjects
as they confront racism in Canadian academe fills an important
research gap. Her book is a unique contribution to antiracism theory
and offers significant insights into how social oppression operates in
educational and social practices. In exploring how racism manifests
itself in ‘faculty-student relationships, peer group interactions, curricu-
lum, and the psychosocial dimension in the lives of South Asians in aca-
deme,’ she astutely uncovers the complex ways in which race, ethnicity,
class, gender, sexuality, ability, power, and difference influence and are
influenced by educational processes. Her weaving together of class, gen-
der, history, culture, politics, and immigration to generate a critical eth-
nography of ‘everyday racism’ makes this book outstanding.
Today we are faced with the impossibility of talking about race and
difference, yet race – specifically, the problem of racism – continues to
stare us in the face. Before we can address a problem, we must acknowl-
edge that the problem exists. Disappointingly, there is so much denial of
racism in academe (just as there is elsewhere) that we fail to engage in
honest discussions about race, antiracism, and difference. In a locale
where racist practices are embedded in the processes of inflating intel-
lectual egos, writing a book about racism and oppression is not without
risks. In our academies, some forms of education are still mired in a mis-
sionary view of the world. Students are taught to believe that if they
Foreword ix
learn about other people’s cultures, they will know more about how to
help the ‘Other.’ People will go to any lengths to avoid acknowledging
their own prejudices. Yet only by acknowledging those and by studying
them critically will we be able to address society’s power imbalances and
issues of identity and social representation.
White people’s arrogant sense of entitlement undermines any discus-
sion of who is responsible for maintaining oppression. We need to
understand that racism is a structural problem, and furthermore, that
everyone is implicated in it but especially the dominant. When the dom-
inant fail to understand how racism works in society and that they are
complicit in maintaining the structures where it hides, they are only
eroding their credibility when antiracism work is being done. White-
ness, like Blackness, has its complexities; despite this, we know that
Whiteness has a certain degree of saliency inscribed within ‘recogniz-
able universal meanings.’1 Attempting to deny the ‘collective’ in favour
of the ‘individual’ is a political game of evading responsibility. For the
racially oppressed, racism is a burden they have no choice but to carry,
and the complexities of identities do not lighten its weight. For those
who are racially oppressed, racism can and does limit life chances, what-
ever other identities are in play, whether they relate to class, gender, lan-
guage, or religion. If we accept that racism affects everyone – that the
perpetrators are just as dehumanized by their racist practices as the
oppressed are by that oppression – we cannot but conclude that collec-
tive action is the only way forward. Through individual and collective
struggles and resistance, we serve notice to the defenders of the status
quo that we are a force to be reckoned with. I make this point because I
believe it is important to understand how the discourse of ‘overcoming’
is false in its claims to success. If racism is systemic, how can an individ-
ual claim to have overcome its burdens?
Despite any successes, racism continues to circulate in everyday life
and social practice. Racism, as Giroux (2004, 75) notes, is ‘reproduced
through multiple acts of exclusions, inferiorization, or marginalization
[that are] sustained by an ideological system and by a set of attitudes
that legitimate difference and dominance.’2 People’s culture, collective
history, and experiences offer an interior space for reading about resis-
1 J.V. Pieterse. 1990. ‘Notes for the Exhibition of Africa and Blacks.’Journal of Ethnic
Studies 18(1):93–109.
2 H. Giroux. 2004. The Terror of Neoliberalism: Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy.
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
