Aminta Dicko
Student Number: 571-8187

Tutorial 1: Introduction to Racism
Before exploring issues of race and racism in the context of IDIS 302, it is important to define the key terms. Thus, the starting point for the readings, and indeed the course, involves an exploration of what racism is. The introduction of our textbook, The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society depicts the need to accurately define racism as not just an issue of conceptual clarity, but also one of empowerment. If racism and what constitutes it are not clearly defined, then it becomes impossible to refute denials of racism. If one cannot point to a specific ideology and the ways in which it manifests itself as racist, then statements such as “There is no racism in Canada” remain unchallenged.

The difficulty in defining racism arises from what our textbook characterizes as its “elusive and changing nature”. Racism in the context of our contemporary society does not exactly resemble the racism of the civil rights movement, which in turn does not reflect the racism that existed during colonial times and so on. This changing nature of racism and racist practices makes the term somewhat nebulous. However, racism can be grounded in racist ideology which acts as the conceptual framework that underlies racism politically, socially and culturally. Racism exists on many different levels including the personal or individual level, the level of a particular group or organization, the cultural level, or the systemic level. It aims at preserving the unequal power relationships that already exist, and the system of dominance that underlies our society.

I am of the opinion that although racism might change from time era to time era or appear differently within different contexts, it is still fundamentally the same across these barriers. It is my belief that, at its core, racism stems from ignorance and fear of the ‘other’. In defining racism and acknowledging that it exists within our