The illusion of multiculturalism
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Thobani criticizes Canada's 1971 embrace of diversity, contending that it was motivated more by practical state objectives than by idealistic ones. Multiculturalism avoided addressing the structural and historical causes of racial inequality by redefining racism as a cultural difference. Thobani draws attention to how the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism essentially erased Indigenous peoples and reduced immigrants to the status of cultural outsiders by establishing French and English settlers as Canada's "founding races." By portraying immigrants as contributors to "cultural enrichment" rather than as equal members of society, this paradigm upholds the supremacy of white settlers.
Das investigates how Tamil immigrants in Quebec negotiate the "two solitudes" of French and English while navigating linguistic and cultural politics. Speakers of Tamil frequently face prejudice and criticism, especially when it comes to their usage of nonstandard Québec French. According to Das, language integration frequently serves as a further location for the enforcement of racial and cultural borders rather than ensuring acceptance. In spite of their contributions to the province, Tamil refugees who arrived during Quebec's attempts to maintain its cultural identity are portrayed as perpetual outsiders, as Narayanan's essay highlights.
Blood Brothers by Nimo and Swap provides a moving viewpoint on these subjects from the prism of migrant goals and family separation. Nimo, who is headed to the United States, embodies the notion of the American Dream by romanticizing the country as a place of achievement and opportunity. The refrain, however, captures the sadness and disillusionment associated with migration: the conflict between achieving financial success and experiencing emotional loss, as well as between pursuing social mobility and facing the harsh realities of labour and racialization.
These stories echo Thobani's criticism of multiculturalism as a means of upholding white hegemony. She contends that multiculturalism absolves the state of accountability for fundamental injustices by redefining systematic racism as a failure of cultural adaptation. This framing marginalizes immigrants for their alleged incapacity to assimilate while preserving the dominant population's self-image of tolerance.