interculturalism + arbitrary dualisms
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Quebec's interculturalism attempts to assuage white francophone fears of minority contamination and the potential loss of Quebec's established francophone identity. It serves a moral contract aimed at preserving a mythic ideal of Quebec nationalism—an ideal that disregards the history of genocide and ecocide against Indigenous populations and lands.
Mahrouse argues that the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, designed to assess Canadian and immigrant concerns about Quebec identity and diversity, only reinforced racial hierarchies and ethnocentric ideals. Despite its participatory, dialogic framework, the Commission's structure maintained a power imbalance, positioning white francophones as arbiters of what constitutes Quebecois identity, while minorities were placed on the defensive, forced to justify their presence and commitment to "Quebec values."
Racism and hierarchy are subtly sustained through these binary constructions, which mirror dichotomies like self/other, Orient/Occident, etc. This dynamic sets up a superior subjectivity against which the "other" is defined in opposition. It's a flattening effect: the moral white francophone, supposed to be convinced by a homogenous group of minorities that they are not violent, sexually backward, morally depraved. The Commission fails to recognize this.
(the evolution of Western notions of Muslim sexuality: first conceived as polygamous, effeminate, now considered sexually-stunted, violently-masculine).
What I found most depressing was the position this Commission put Muslims in. On one hand, they were reluctant to engage in a forum that reinforced East vs. West dynamics; on the other, opting out risked further stereotyping Muslims as unwilling to engage in civil discourse.
These dualisms are full of contradictions and hypocrisies, as seen in the Quebec Premier's decision to keep the crucifix behind the National Assembly speaker's chair while advocating for anti-hijab policies. Such dualisms uphold false narratives about the West, fostering a savior complex and reinforcing the notion that white men must "save" brown women from brown men.
Bilge's essay also explores how these dichotomies—West vs. Muslim, Secular vs. Religious—are supported by historical processes of colonialism, modernization, and the spread of nation-state fictions that posit the West as the pinnacle of human progress. Global capitalism spreads these Western fictions as universal truths.