Judging by the number of people who showed up at the Rally Against Racism last Wednesday, I’m definitely not the only person who was infuriated by the Nov. 14 racist incident, in which a professor was verbally harassed and forced off the sidewalk on her way to teaching her class.
That said, I still feel we’re not quite hitting the nail on the head with our discussion of racism at Queen’s. All of the speakers touched upon, but in my mind didn’t sufficiently identify, the cause of racism at Queen’s. Everyone has been carefully tiptoeing around it by avoiding a firm critique of this institution, so I’m going to take a stab at it.
I live in the west end of Toronto and I went to an arts school called Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA). ESA is a predominantly white school, like Queen’s, but I would bet my life that ESA will never see the day when one of its teachers is harassed for being black. Racism simply doesn’t exist at that school.
So why does racism exist at Queen’s? I believe the problem at Queen’s isn’t a lack of racial diversity, because I have witnessed an environment with plenty of white faces who would welcome a black person like any other. I believe the difference between a place like ESA and Queen’s is that there’s a lack of cultural diversity at Queen’s. This is what has led to the problem of racism. The culture that’s associated with Queen’s is what I like to call frat boy culture. It values drinking, keggers, sports, mainstream hip hop, sex and the occasional trip to Stauffer when you need to pull up your socks.
This culture isn’t exclusive to Queen’s. I think there are common elements in the cultures of many North American schools. But it’s not conducive to promoting a diverse, liberal community.
For one thing, the culture itself excludes many people who don’t drink. That was the reasoning behind the Orientation Round Table’s banning of many of the Frosh Week cheers last year. But the problem runs deeper than that.
The biggest problem of Queen’s culture is that it doesn’t encourage people to experience or be exposed to new cultures.
Last semester, I went to “1,001 Nights,” an event at Alfie’s featuring Punjabi music hosted by the Queen’s Indian Students’ Association, Queen’s Arab Students’ Association, Queen’s Pakistani Association and the Iranian Students Association of Queen’s University. I was excited to experience something different, but the turnout was pathetic. Not only that, but all the people who showed up were South Asian. Not one white student in the whole of Queen’s wanted to try out Punjabi music instead of their usual Timbaland.
Then there’s the way Queen’s celebrates the holiday season. Around campus, there are plenty of Christmas decorations. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when Hanukkah or Ramadan festivity is restricted to a few neon 8½ x 11 sheets of paper posted around the JDUC inviting people to come to a little celebration, I think there’s a problem.
I’m also concerned with the relative unpopularity of the African and Caribbean Students Association Culture Show. I went to the Culture Show last year as a frosh and loved it. And although it did have a significant turnout and a lot of participants, it still doesn’t have the widespread following I think it deserves.
I think it’s disconcerting that these things are so undervalued among the vast majority of Queen’s students, who too often choose the option of partying in the Hub instead.
To say there’s nothing wrong with Queen’s culture would deny that the appalling November incident warrants a hard look at the way this university conducts itself. The reality is by not opening your mind or being willing to experience new cultures, you’re alienating them just as much as you would be by insulting them on the street.
The istration can’t force change. They’ve tried and obviously failed. You, the student, can. Instead of going to Pita Grill, why not try El Asador right next door? Why not skip Ale House for one night and go to the Culture Show?
It’s all about opening yourself up to other kinds of people. Queen’s doesn’t need more people of colour to be less racist. It needs its community to be more open-minded. A more liberal culture will alleviate the racist undercurrent in Queen’s mentality and make the University more inviting to minorities. Once this liberal culture sets in, you’ll see more minorities enrolling—not because the istration set up a black club, but because they could fit in with the existing culture of open-mindedness.
The racist problem has a solution. It’s long and complex, but it exists. The fact is the istration can do things to make minorities feel more welcome, but it can’t force everyone else in the University to welcome them. Multicultural centres and similar proposals will just marginalize minorities without making them a part of Queen’s and without having a significant impact on the rest of the University. We need to change Queen’s as a whole, and that’s what everyone is afraid of.
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