It's almost impossible to see signs of racism in Halifax.
Not because they aren't there---because they're hidden in plain sight all around us.
Sure, we can convince ourselves everything's just tickety-boo. We're a cosmopolitan city with a healthy respect for Charter rights, aren't we? Lynch mobs, last I checked, don't roam the streets. So on the surface, it would seem, all is well.
Underneath? Not so much. And locked-up black hair products at a Dartmouth Shoppers Drug Mart might---key word: might---show that.
Maybe you heard the story last week? CBC reported the drugstore kept many of its black hair products under lock and key. A nearby salon owner spelled out in the report her take on what that implies: Black customers steal more than white customers.
The Shoppers franchise directed anyone seeking comment to its head office. CBC.ca readers, however, didn't hold back.
There were 350 comments posted by the end of the weekend alone---the overwhelming majority decrying the mere insinuation that there was racism involved in the store's policy. Racism? Well I never!
People were quick to draw parallels between the locking up of black hair-extension clips to car insurance rates for men. Meaning? Insurance rates are higher because men are behind more insurance pay-outs, just like black Dartmouthians must be behind more shoplifting. Other commenters made use of the logic theorem known as reductio ad absurdum---saying their local drugstores must be sexist, because they lock up men's razor blades. In other words, if you agree that argument is absurd, it follows that the people alleging racism for locked-up do-rags are loonies, too.
What's interesting here? Not that some people didn't believe racism was the root of the store's practice. I would realistically expect some people to say the act is discriminatory and others to argue that it isn't. But what's really interesting is the public's automatic, overwhelming and in most cases vehement defence of the store. And not one of these people had yet heard the store's reasoning.
That response only shows that Halifax's ingrained racism---which may or may not have been a motivator in the store's practice---is far from being on its way outthe door.
No surprise. Africville and its destruction 40 years ago are still thick in the soup of this city. (The city's wrongs won't be erased quickly or easily; my personal dig is to say the bucking-up of long-promised government cash to rebuild the Seaview Baptist Church as a historic site would be a good gesture.)
Would the bulldozing of Africville happen today? Likely not. As a city and a province we're been cured of our most obvious discriminatory missteps: from slavery and the lopsided Loyalist land grants of the 18th century to relatively more recent practices of prejudice like segregated schools, separate seating in public spaces and white-only clubs.
But generations of discrimination don't disappear in a flash. Slavery was outlawed, segregation found itself on the losing side of our cultural norms and African-Nova Scotians began to take their rightful places in our classrooms, courtrooms and boardrooms. So where did the racism go? Into the catacombs of everyday culture.
Examples?
Consider the fiancee of a friend of mine, a 32-year-old human resources manager who is black and who has more than once been denied entry to a prominent downtown bar. Something about his clothing for a night on the town just doesn't seem to make the cut.
My friend herself? She's walked into stores and been ignored---not even greeted---while sales associates have helped the white friend she's been shopping with.
Another friend? Her black 14-year-old son was stopped and questioned by police last month on his way home from his aunt's. He matched the description of someone, the officers told him, who had been reported breaking windows in the area. That's the MO of racial profiling everywhere.
And consider the black hair products at the Tacoma Drive Shoppers Drug Mart. Consider, for that matter, the placement of black hair products in any drugstore. Just go check it out. See if there are electronic theft-detection devices on the boxes and bottles. Is it racist if there are? Perhaps no one can say for sure. And that's the problem.
A racial slur spray-painted on a building? Any idiot can recognize and label that kind of bigotry. But when there's just a shade of doubt---a dress code, busy salespeople, eager cops, maybe randomly locked-up merchandise---it leaves just enough room for that subtler racism to stick around and fester.
Have you experienced racist behaviour?
Tell Lezlie Lowe what happened at lezliel@thecoast.ca.
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@Lezlie Lowe
Really Nice Article it a fact that Racism is still a problem in the Halifax Region and it nice at least it can be talked about even if some people are still in denial about it.
I was so glad to read this article. I think this is a really important issue that is not being addressed. It's ironic, because I find myself becoming more and more supportive of the Drug Mart's choice to lock up the products. I am a young woman in my early 20s and was brought up with a generation that was taught to accept everyone- racism was a thing people thought about in the 60s and it was preposterous to even THINK that it existed anymore.
But now I live in Fenwick Tower and I cannot help notice things that make me change my mind every day. Down the hall from me there is a man of Middle Eastern decent that REFUSES to speak on the phone in his apartment. He sits outside in the hallway on his cordless phone and talks to this unknown person for all hours of the day. His apartment is right beside him and I'm pretty sure there are some doors in there he can hide behind if he is trying to escape someone's ears. Here's the part that digs me: every time I come out of my apartment to say, go to the laundry room, dude gives me this angry sideways look and wonders why *I* am wondering why he is standing there. Each and every time.
Ok so that's one example. There are many examples in this building that push me over the edge ... Like the four East Indian men that were drunk driving in the underground parking lot, smashing the garage door ... Or perhaps the Asian men who won't let me into an evaluator even though there is tons of room. I am half Asian myself, and I am at a loss here.
I am fighting this overwhelming feeling that I have to generalize about these races- and I am succeeded thus far. I know that the white people in this building had their issues too- everyone does. But why are these circumstances of public rudeness only displayed by other races lately? And not even all people of other races, but specifically non-white people in their 20s?
- Slowly turning racist
racism is something to always be aware of, but in this case, if the hair products are being stolen at a rate that forces the owner to lock them up, i can't for the life of me see the problem. if there was a huge surge of tampon theft, i'd expect them to be locked up, too. i wouldnt call it sexual discrimination, i'd call it "dealing with theft".
Try living with people from New Glasgow and New Waterford. These people are my classmates and I wish could knock them out on a daily basis, however its not very reasonable.
Also, the excuse "Oh, I was raised that way." makes me want to punch even harder. People are terrible.
(Ironic statement after saying i want to knock them out... i know)
I have found in traveling through Canada that racism in Nova Scotia is second only to that in Quebec. I have never anywhere, even in Quebec, seen police go out of their way to provoke and belittle. I am not talking about that Digby incident. I am talking about my own experience. And, sorry to say, word is spreading that it is not a place to do business unless you belong to certain heritages. That province is shooting itself in the foot.
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