How Multiculturalism Policy Constructs Cultural "Difference" in Canada
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Thobani's analysis of how Canadian multiculturalism policy constructs "difference" reveals something fascinating about how power operates through seemingly progressive policies. Drawing on Bannerji's work, she argues that rather than simply managing existing cultural differences, multiculturalism actively produced difference as the primary lens through which to view social relations.
What's particularly interesting is how this shift allowed Canada to maintain systems of inequality while presenting itself as tolerant and inclusive. Instead of explicit racism, the policy marked people as culturally different - a more palatable form of othering. This wasn't just semantics - it fundamentally shaped how people could understand themselves and organize politically.Think about how this played out practically: state funding went to cultural organizations rather than groups organizing around economic inequality. People became defined primarily by their "cultural difference" regardless of how long they'd been in Canada. Meanwhile, English and French culture remained the implicit norm against which this difference was measured.
The genius (or perhaps insidiousness) of this approach was how it seemed to celebrate diversity while actually constraining how difference could be understood and expressed. It's not that cultural recognition isn't important - but by making it the dominant framework, other axes of difference and inequality became harder to address.This relates to what scholars like Sara Ahmed have noted about how institutions can use diversity initiatives in ways that actually preserve rather than challenge existing power structures. The celebration of difference can become a way of managing and containing it.