how Europeans treated Africans or the Natives of the places they settled

how Europeans treated Africans or the Natives of the places they settled

Racism is constructed socially and historically. The society has come up with their perspectives, myths, and misconceptions regarding races that place one race at a higher advantage over another. Other constructions are historical through how Europeans treated Africans or the Natives of the places they settled. Racialized and Indigenous women have experienced some effects from racism.

The white hegemony in Canada has been constructed through the subordination of racialized others. In Afua’s work, a lot has been revealed about what used to happen to black slaves. Slavery was legalized in British and French Canada. The Europeans had settled in new places that they intended to colonize, like Canada. They began to bring captives from Africa because they thought they would withstand slavery, contrary to native Canadians292. The Africans were brought so that they could provide free labor for the Europeans. As a result, the black slaves were looked at as inferiors held captive and could not have their way. This placed the Europeans above them by virtue of being the colonizers, and they began dominating. The black slaves were mere objects of the white man since he did not value them.

In Canada, the male slaveholder who was always a white was the extended family’s head, which included his nuclear family and the slaves that he had. The slaves resided in the same places as their owners and did everything within their owner’s environment. Sometimes, the slaves bore the name of their owner’s family293. This placed the white man in a position higher than the black slave, which made him dominate Canada, and the black man remained inferior and oppressed.

Farming was an essential economic activity in Canada practiced by white colonists. They used the slaves to work on their big farms. Distinct corporations and individuals in New France, as well as British Canada, owned slaves. Some of them were government officials, merchants, artisans, lawyers, soldiers, and tavern-keepers, among many others, all of whom were white 293. Using the slaves for their good made the dominate the land since the slaves were not experienced in other prestigious careers. They had no other option besides working for the ruthless white colonizers.

White slaveholders abused lack women sexually, got them pregnant, and had them for themselves as concubines. They would later blame the black women and call them seducers as a way of escaping their responsibility297. Such actions made the black women remain inferior and people who had no one to fight for the rights. This was an excellent loophole for the whites to keep dominating.

In Bonita Lawrence’s “Regulating Native Identity by Gender,” the subordination of racialized others has also constructed white hegemony. It was clear that for the establishment of a society dominated by a white settler, white women had to replace Native women, which meant that the Native women had to be chased from the placed they had occupied in the society of fur trade. This displacement was to be made successful through the introduction of laws that were punitive in the Indian Act. The rules were finally made, and their target was the Aboriginal women whom the laws said that they were to be held accountable for the venereal diseases spread among officials and police in western Canada. The Aboriginal women in the urban areas were put in the category of prostitutes327. Some laws criminalized Indian women and provided then with penalties of being jailed up to six months and giving them one hundred dollars penalties329. This placed white women at a higher advantage than Indian women.

According to the CRIAW report, there are some impacts of racism and colonization on racialized and Indigenous women. The majority of racialized women groups in Canada live in poverty; Aboriginal women making a forty-three percent, black women forty-seven percent, Latin American women fifty-one percent, and women from Middle-East fifty-two percent of poverty272. Women from the Middle East and Latin-American women are racialized immigrants who have a hard time being employed in Canada. In most cases, Canada does not recognize degrees attained from elsewhere besides in Canada. Also, due to racism, many women from racialized groups fail to access government training programs in English or French so that they can be integrated fully in Canadian society. Lack of knowledge of either of the two languages, therefore, makes them less preferred for any employment opportunities. Many employers, as well as managers, view any person speaking French or English with an accent that is different from being stupid 273. Since most Black and Aboriginal women fall in this category, they remain unemployed, and hence poverty escalates.

Racial discrimination is also applied in housing matters. Some landlords have negative attitudes toward immigrants from Somali and Jamaica. This makes it hard for them to acquire a rental house where they can reside273. Racialized groups also have difficulties owning homes. Studies conducted on Toronto’s black and white people show that white power had a higher rate of owning a home compared to black people. There are also perceptions from a racists’ point of view that immigrants from Chinese are taking over Richmond (a suburb area), yet there are no claims that the whites have taken over any of the places. Related to that, it has been discovered that immigrant racialized women are subjected to sexual abuse by landlords when they are in the process of looking for a house274. Racialized women not only subjected to violence on gender basis but also to other forms of violence like torture and murder. A gang of white men raped a racialized Helen Betty Osbourne and later killed her274. Additionally, racialized women go through various stereotypes. For example, women who have an origin in Asia are stereotyped as exotic and obedient, while black women are stereotypes to be available for sex275.

To conclude, racialized groups have been oppressed and tortured by the whites because they are powerless, which has made the white dominant than the black. Poverty, among others, is an impact of racism on women.

Intersectionality refers to the concept in which aspects like gender, race, and class overlap or intersect to form various discrimination types. It is a term that shows how discrimination of whatever kind comes about through coaxed by the aspects mentioned above. In simpler terms, the elements combined lead to discrimination. For example, in the Combahee River Collective, we can see that many black women have been subjects of sexual oppression by the white men. Such an ordeal shows how race and gender combined and played a role in the sexual oppression of the women in question by the white men. Sexual abuse is a form of discrimination against black women. The author also says that as they grew up, they realized that they were treated differently from boys. They were also told to be calm, because that is what ladies ought to be, and that the calmness would make them less objectionable before whites. This shows how age and gender overlapped each other and caused the girl child to be treated unequally from the boy child (). Intersectionality is vital as it opens our eyes, and we can see how various concepts play a role in discrimination issues. The author’s explanation of the society she grew in helps us know that gender inequality is socially constructed. It is what the community believes in and begins teaching it to children at an early age. Showing how white men mistreat black women shows us white men’s view of black women.

Binary means two. When we say something is binary, it is composed of two aspects. Binary thinking is, therefore, placing phenomena based on two options. This concept puts two opposites against each other. In binary thinking, the individual in question will only consider two possibilities and chose one of them and not the two.

In Snow Brown and the Seven Detergents, Sneha traveled to the Land of the Blue Devils in a bid to pursue her dream of one day becoming a scientist. When she arrived, she was taken to the white patriarch’s room, where she, alongside others, were welcomed. The patriarch, after welcoming them, told them that the years that were ahead of them would not be easy, as they would have to toil to achieve whatever they had come for. Sneha starts her long journey of becoming a scientist, where she keeps consulting the mirror for directions. Through the instructions, she changes her identity, thinking that would make her achieve. Later, the supreme white patriarch told her that she was too pretty to be a scientist302. This is binary thinking. The patriarch meant that she wouldn’t be a woman scientist because of her beauty. The other possibility would be to be a man to become a scientist. This example draws to our attention that society believes in a specific gender to pursues individual courses that another cannot continue. The science-related courses are believed to be fit for males, not females, which causes gender inequality.

Women in Stacey’s village support their children and their dreams as well as their husbands. They do this by working hard to add to what their husbands bring on the table. The author says that Stacey’s mother worked tirelessly to ensure that her daughter attended her dream school. She was engaged in many activities, all in the name of gathering money to see her child pursue education. She cleaned, did laundry, and cleaned houses for the wealthy whites who paid her. She also knitted white folks’ favorite wool socks. Her father did logging13. Nora also worked hard to provide for her children after her husband had died. She was hardworking and never got remarried (). Similarly, some women like Mrs. Cramer worked to earn a living. She was the secretary in Stacey’s school and whom Stacey approached to allow her to see the principal after she was thrown out of the classroom for being late39.

The women in the village work in unison and have a collective responsibility for the community. When the flu invaded Ella’s household, momma and Stacey went to take care of her. Momma sends Stacey to go and get some herbs that they believed would treat Ella. Some women help momma to take care of Ella. A couple of others took it upon themselves to nurse the kids27. However, when it came to white women, they did not have much to work together amongst themselves. Most of them were wealthy and had what they wished to possess at their disposal. They did not have to go out of their way since they were well off. We can see this in the comfortable life that Mrs. S lives. We also get to know that women like momma did chores for the white folks to get paid 13. This means that white women were not as active as the women in the village were.

Patriarchy in Ravensong makes the women alienated as well as feel disempowered in the cultural space that they belong to. The dominance of white men cannot give women the space to express themselves. The domination of men also makes it hard for women to accomplish some of their intentions with success. Stacey intends to calm the black and the white, but she is not able to achieve it because of society. Nonetheless, the men also challenge women to do what they can do to achieve their goals. We can see momma going to work to support her husband and raise money for her child’s schooling. Also, a woman like Nora worked her way out to raise her children without looking upon any man for help. So, in as much as patriarchy has negative impacts on women, it had positive effects as well.