The Skin We're In: Racism and Colonialism in Canada - Essay Sample

Racism can be described as an ideology that advocates for people being divided according to various racial groups with different inherited and unchangeable characteristics and features. It is a universal phenomenon and visible in many ethno-racial groups and nations. Racism and colonialism have long shaped Canada's attitude towards its indigenous peoples. The Skin We’re In is a documentary that focuses on racism in Canada. Desmond Cole provides a personal experience of the racism he has suffered under police officers. Cole has been stopped more than fifty times by the police because he is black.

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Cole provides many examples of racism. First, in April 2017, Cole was arrested for disrupting a board meeting held by the Toronto police, he was calling for the destruction of the data collected through the racist carding system. Upon his release, he was sacked from Toronto Star, where he worked as a columnist and told that he had violated the company’s policy regarding participation in activism (The Skin We’re In). On another incident, he publicly questioned the police regarding the Dafonte Miller case (the police brutally beat the young black teenager) and was arrested. In another incident, Cole recorded a confrontation between a black man and several Toronto police officers. The black man had called the police officers for help but he was treated like the suspect. The police patted down his pants and searched him even in his crotch area (The Skin We’re In). When the police saw Cole recording the incident, they became violent and started confronting him trying to snatch the phone away from him.

In another example, on 1st January 2017, the police raided an art gallery of John Samuel, a young black man (Cole 4). The incident was well-publicised because it brought to the fore racial discrimination and police brutality against black people. Samul was not only harassed but went through extra scrutiny because neighbors complained that they did not understand what Samuel was doing and they suspected he was using drugs.

According to Cole, the history taught in school also perpetuates racism since it does not address the injustices carried out against blacks. He gives an example stating that he only learned about Africville when he was out of school. Africville was a community of black Canadians that lived in Halifax, Canada (The Skin We’re In). These people were removed from their land forcefully so that parks and railroads could be built. They were never compensated and that injustice has never been addressed up to date. According to Cole, the current administration system is replicating its Africville actions up to date regarding the treatment of blacks in Canada.

Just like Cole, Tasha Hubbard addresses the issue of racism in Canada in Two Worlds Colliding, focusing on the treatment of the Aboriginal Canadians by the Saskatoon Police Force. Although the documentary is centered in Saskatoon, it provides a wider view of the relationships between Native and non-Native Canadians (Hubbard 10). Hubbard provides several examples as well. On 28th January 2000, Darrell Night left a party since it was getting rowdy. He did not get far and was stopped by two policemen (Two Worlds Colliding). He tried to explain to them that he had not done anything wrong and although all his documents were in order, he was driven out of the city and left in the middle of nowhere. It was a really cold night (about -20 °C) and he would have frozen to death but fortunately, he found a power station where he stayed until morning (Two Worlds Colliding). Hubbard provides examples of black Aboriginal men (Lawrence Wegner and Rodney Naistus) who were subjected to similar experiences such as Night but unfortunately for them, they froze to death. All these examples show how the racist attitude of police officers towards the Aboriginals.

When Lawrence Wagner disappeared, his parents reported the case to the police. After his dead frozen body was found, the police official report stated that he was drunk, was walking aimlessly, and ended up dying because of the cold (Two Worlds Colliding). His parents argued against the report because first, he was found wearing only a t-shirt and socks. Secondly, his socks showed no sign of wear and were clean, meaning he had not walked for long as the police report said (Two Worlds Colliding). When Night learned about this story, he reported his case, and the two officers who had arrested him were fired from their job and only sentenced to four months in prison.

The documentary shows there is no progress in tackling racism in Canada and for every step made forward, many more steps are taken back. Racism is so strife such that a young Aboriginal man has higher chances of being jailed than finishing high school (Two Worlds Colliding). Cole agrees with this since he also states that a black person is 17 times more likely to be stopped compared to a white person (The Skin We’re In).

Systemic racism is a problem throughout Canada, in all institutions, and also in the police forces. The Aboriginal generation has been stripped of everything: their language, their culture, and their territory. Indigenous and black people today suffer from underfunding of education on reserves, medical deserts, crumbling housing, and lack of clean water. The consequences are real: broken communities, higher rates of suicide, homelessness, and drug addiction among others.

In January 2017, a law was enforced in which it became illegal for police officers to conduct random carding in Ontario, Canada. However, many community groups argue that this is not enough to address the issue since police officers can still detain, arrest, or ask information in a traffic stop. The remedy for this state of affairs is first, to recognize it, and secondly, to eradicate it by adopting a zero-tolerance policy for racist or discriminatory treatment of people who interact with an institution. This means that laws and policies must be regularly reviewed to ensure that their application is fair and impartial.

Works Cited

Cole, Desmond. The Skin We’re In. Penguin Random House Canada, 2020.

Hubbard, Tasha. Two worlds colliding. National Film Board of Canada, 2004.

The Skin We’re In. Directed by Charles Officer, a performance by Walter Borden & Desmond Cole. 90th Parallel Film and Television Productions, 2017. CBC, https://www.cbc.ca/firsthand/episodes/the-skin-were-in.

Two Worlds Colliding. Directed by Tasha Hubbard, a performance by Andrea Menard. National Film Board of Canada (NFB), 2004. NFB, https://www.nfb.ca/film/two_worlds_colliding/.