Racializing Indigenous People

One tactic of colonization and assimilation was the racialization of Indigenous Peoples, or the creation of the Other. Edward Said coined this term to explain the process of colonial discourse and the social constructs used to contrast the European ideal (Burney, 2012). The harmful effects of colonization persist today, and it is characterized as both a racial and literal crime (Schultz et al., 2021).

Shultz et al. (2021) explained that racism occurs when discrimination is directed towards a specific racial group, and typically affects minority individuals. The four main types are interpersonal, systemic, epistemic, and internalized.

• • Interpersonal racism occurs when external actors, i.e. other people, are racist towards someone, which may manifest as discrimination in employment, healthcare, or education.
  • Systemic racism results in social marginalization due to policies that favour or exclude one group of people. This may or may not be intentional.
  • Epistemic racism is related to how the systems of knowledge that shape a culture’s worldviews are valued. Hierarchies of knowledge are created, valuing some cultural understandings, knowledge, and worldviews over others. This positioning of knowledge contributes to policy and decision making, thus perpetuating systems of discrimination.
  • Lastly, internalized racism impacts one’s own sense of self and is linked to shame, stemming from the belief that one is inherently flawed. This is the most damaging to the person, leading to acts of self-sabotage, social exclusion, deep internal trauma, and low self-worth.

The racialization of Indigenous People through media, stereotypes, and cultural bias, although being rectified, has been very harmful, perpetuating discrimination and exclusion from the services and benefits received within a society. Loppie et al. (2020) argued that harmful stereotypes regarding Indigenous Peoples, including issues like substance abuse, joblessness, and violence, have consistently caused harm. These stereotypes undermine the independence and self-determination of Indigenous communities, negatively impacting their self-image and affecting the lives of generations who adopt these negative views. One of the policies to assimilate Indigenous Peoples was the abolishment of Indigenous knowledge, culture, and spiritual practices that are intricately linked to the land.

References

Burney, S. (2012). Orientalism: The making of the other. Counterpoints, 417, 23–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42981698

Loppie, S., Reading, C., & Leeuw, S. (2020). Social determinants of health. National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health. https://www.nccih.ca/docs/determinants/FS-Racism2-Racism-Impacts-EN.pdf

Schultz, A., Nguyen, T., Sinclaire, M., Fransoo, R., & McGibbon, E. (2021). Historical and continued colonial impacts on heart health of Indigenous Peoples in Canada: What’s reconciliation got to do with it? CJC Open, 3(12), S149–S164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjco.2021.09.010