Boomerang Ethics: How Racism Affects Us All

by Joseph Mensah, Christopher J. Williams

Overview

The fact that racism has adverse effects on Blacks and other minorities is obvious. But what is not so obvious are the hidden impacts of racism on all members of society, including white people.
Joseph Mensah and Christopher J. Williams argue that ethics of altruism and social justice are inadequate to curb racism because they neglect the impact of racism on whites. Just like a boomerang, acts of hatred and racism against people of colour and even unsolicited and sometimes unconscious exertions of white privilege ultimately come back to harm almost everyone in society.
Timely and incredibly important, Boomerang Ethics is a much-needed resource in the fight against racism because it does not gloss over the self-interests of members of the privileged, who ultimately have the power to help alleviate racism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781552668863
Publisher:	Fernwood Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Joseph Mensah is a first-generation African-Canadian intellectual, born and raised in post-colonial Ghana where he did his B.A. in geography with a minor in philosophy at the University of Ghana. He immigrated to Canada in 1987 under a Wilfrid Laurier University Graduate Scholarship for his MA in geography (1987 to 1989), after which he completed his PhD (in 1993), also in geography, at the University of Alberta under another academic scholarship. He taught at various colleges and universities in British Columbia, including SFU, UBC, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University before taking up an Assistant Professorship at York University in 2002. He became a tenured Associate Professor at York in 2005, and a full Professor of Geography in 2010. Professor Mensah is currently a member of the Senate of York University and the Chair of the Department of Geography. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples at York University (2010 to 2013); a Board Member of the Center for Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) from 2011 to 2013; the Coordinator of York University’s International Development Studies (IDS) program (2008 to 2010); and the Undergraduate Program Director for the Atkinson School of Social Sciences from 2005 to 2008. Professor Mensah is a founding member of the University of Ghana Pan African Doctoral Academy (PADA). Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, PADA runs short-term courses on selected topics for Ph.D. students across Africa. Professor Mensah’s research cuts across a wide range of disciplines, culminating in publications is such diverse and reputable journals as Health Economics, Higher Education, Studies in Political Economy, Housing Studies, Canadian Geographer, and Social Identities. He has written a number of book chapters and books, including the well-received Black Canadians: History, Experience, and Social Conditions, published by Fernwood in 2002 & 2010. Professor Mensah’s current research focuses on globalization and culture; transnational migration; and ethnicity, race, and identity formation. He has received several competitive awards and grants from the likes of SSHRC, the Gates Foundation, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and ILO. He was the recipient of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa’s (CODESRIA) Inaugural Diaspora Visiting Professor Fellowship at the University of Ghana in 2016. Professor Mensah has been a recipient of the highly competitive York University Faculty Merit Award for a number of years. He has been profiled in Who’s is Who in Black Canada since 2006. Professor Mensah lives in Brampton, Ontario, with his wife, Janet, and their two daughters, Nicole and Cassandra. Professor Mensah is an avid runner and a soccer enthusiast.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

1 Boomerang Ethics: How Racism Hurts Us All 1

Background 1

Boomerang Ethics: Objective and Underlying Assumptions 4

Is Racism a Matter of Conspiracy or Not? 10

Empirical and Theoretical Approach 13

Are the Authors "Dead" or "Alive"? 18

Social Locations, Perspectives and Potential Bias 21

2 Social Structure, Culture and Cognition: Critical Theorizations of Race and Racism 26

Rearing Ugly Heads: Racism, Human Hierarchies and Institutional Dominance 31

Bottom of the Barrel: Taking Stock of Anti-Black Racism 34

3 The First Boomerang: Racial Segregation and Ethnic Enclaves in Urban Canada 39

Theorizing the Residential Pattern of Immigrants 43

Understanding the Complexity of Immigrant Residential Patterns: A Typology 45

The Geography of Blacks in Canada 48

Blacks in the Context of the City of Toronto's Priority Neighbourhoods 56

Exploring the Consequences 61

4 The Second Boomerang: On Racism in the Labour Market and Its Impacts 78

Ethno-Racial Inequities in the Canadian Job Market 79

Understanding How Racism Plays Out in the Canadian Labour Market 87

Impacts on Blacks and Other Minorities 98

Boomerang Effects on Whites and Society as a Whole 100

Impacts on Society as a Whole 118

Conclusion 121

5 The Third Boomerang: Bad Medicine - Death, Disease and Racism 123

Prejudicial Prisms: Biology, Culture and the Imposition of Racial Meanings 125

Tragic Treatment: Misdiagnoses or Non-diagnoses 128

Multiplying Maladies: The Broad Impacts of Racism on Health 130

6 The Fourth Boomerang: How Racism in Education Ricochets to Hurt Us All 139

The Bell Curve: Science or Pseudoscience 140

The Ogbu Framework 150

Cummins' Integrative Framework 154

Blacks in the Canadian Education System 157

Manifestations of Racism in Canadian Schools 160

Consequences 163

7 The Fifth Boomerang: Racism in Sports - A Snake Chewing on Its Own Tail 175

Sports and the Black Atlantic: A Case against Methodological Nationalism 178

The Role of Sports in Society 180

Drawbacks of Sports 184

Blacks in Canadian Sport: Past and Present 186

Manifestations of Racism in Canadian Sport 194

Consequences and Their Boomerang Effects 210

The Case of a Snake Chewing on Its Tail 212

8 The Sixth Boomerang: Baleful Consequence 216

Racism in the Criminal Justice System - Targeted and Tagged: The Impact of Negative Credentials 220

Criminal Justice Racism as Multilateral Malignancy 222

Anyone Can Get It: Whites as Victims of Anti-Black Racism 229

9 Summary, Lessons and Ways Forward 231

Summary of Key Arguments and Findings 232

Overarching Lessons 239

Ways Forward 241

References 245

Index 273