Race and Racism: Canada's Challenge

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University.

While American social scientists have examined race and racism since the
beginning of the 20th century, their Canadian counterparts have only
recently begun to do so. This compendium of papers delivered at a 1996
Winnipeg conference on the subject is divided into four parts: concepts
and theories about race, economic and social factors, racism and
discrimination, and minorities coping in cities.

In the first part, contributors examine the concept of race, how it has
been recorded by the census, theories of assimilation and pluralism, and
the potential impact of multiculturalism on the province of Quebec. In
the second part, contributors examine economic, social, and political
well-being, including variations in economic welfare and employment
equity in the federal workforce. Other contributors, including the
well-known Angus Reid, use surveys in an attempt to measure racism in
Canada, while social psychologists discuss how multiculturalism affects
national identity. Finally, in a group of studies on urban populations,
contributors examine juvenile delinquency among immigrant populations
and the effects of stress.

While Race and Racism is by no means a comprehensive view of the
subject, it does make an effort to fill the gap in qualitative studies
that exists in ethnographic studies in Canada.