Institutional Inclusiveness: ~ Putting Multiculturalism To Work~

1. Institutional Inclusiveness:~Putting Multiculturalism To Work~ Maria Bobila Kerri Maitland Nicole Green Sherrie Jardine Kisha Brown

2. Multiculturalism At Work • The concept of putting multiculturalism to work is concerned with promoting diversity at institutional levels. • This can be otherwise referred to as institutional inclusiveness • Institutional inclusiveness is defined by Fleras as institutional accomodation. • It involves a process by which institutions incorporate diversity by adjusting institutional design, operation and outcomes to make them more “minority friendly” • An embracive institutional environment is nurtured where both workers and clients feel culturally safe than excluded or at risk.

3. Four models of Inclusiveness • Reform model: this model attempts to remove discriminatory barriers. • Everyone has equal rights. • Individuals are not discriminated against or given special priviledges because of their differences. • Transformative model: The incorporation of diversity in institutional rules, agenda and priorities. • Incorporates diversity by including more minorities at all levels in institutions. • Goal is to “ethnicize” the system by redesigning the institution. • Parallel institutions: minorities working apart and creating their own institutions but modeling them after mainstream institutions. • Separate systems: separate institutions that are designed by minorities for minority people. • “Inclusiveness as separation is based on the principle that certain minorities have the right to construct self- determining structures that reflect their realities and priorities rather than those of mainstream”

4. Five components of an Inclusive Institution • Workforce representation: workforce should be representative • Employment Equity program is concerned with hiring of minorities in federally regulated workplaces in numbers consistent with Canada’s labour diversity pattern. • Organizational rules and operation: rules of an organization cannot discriminate against minorities, hindering them from training, promotions, and the recruitment and selection process. • Workplace climate: the working climate must promote well being and success. • Diversity is promoted • Harassment is not tolerated • Service delivery: institutions ensuring that their services is community based and culturally sensitive. • This entails the institution involving the community. • Community relations: institutions communicating with the community and allowing them to become actively involved by allowing their input and power sharing.

5. Policing In A Multicultural Milieu • Even though media and education defines what is acceptable behaviour for society, the criminal justice system and police remains to be the backbone of institutional inclusiveness for they have the task of controlling and regulating the extent of “normal behaviors” by enforcing the law to protect its diverse citizens. • Increasing reports of discriminatory treatment of minorities by law enforcement through misplacing (either slow response rates to crime or excessive coverage) have lead to the criminalization of minorities. Instead of being at the forefront of the institutional inclusiveness, police-minority relations center on reports of police harassment, brutality and indifference (a FIDO attitude) and has become an institutionalized pattern.

6. The Minority Experience • Statistics show that Blacks are more likely to be stopped, charged, arrested locked up, and denied bail in our criminal justice system. • While white kids are taught to see the police as their friend, many black kids are taught by their parents how to “survive the police”. “Any normal reaction is taken as an over-reaction, any quietness of temperament is taken as arrogance. You see a black person as being, for lack of a better term, “cool” under circumstances, it’s taken as arrogance. So you can’t win. You either say something and be termed as violent or you say nothing and be termed as arrogant.” • Alarmingly, when dealing with “minority crime”, police in Canada have been accused of preferring to shoot first and talk later. (Ex. In Montreal between 1988 & 1993 of the 10 people shot by the police 5 were Black and 3 were Hispanics) • Continuing patterns of racial discrimination by the police leave minorities estranged and the legitimacy of the police as protectors are considered null which results in thriving crime rates

8. Bridging the Gap: Community Policing • While police are accused of the bluntly assuming that minorities are predisposed to crime. Police have disputed these claims by arguing the increase attention on minorities has nothing to do with discriminatory practices but is instead a response to the flourishing number of street crimes that provoke police attention. • In turn, minority youths see themselves as rebelling against the white-dominated society and the white establishment that polices society • As a response to the uneasy relations between minorities & white law enforcement, all police services in Canada has endorsed multicultural policing which encourages and the recruitment of visible minority police that reflects the local population. • Community-based policing • Aimed at establishing a more trusting relationship between the police and the communities they serve. • Transforming the police from a “force” to a “service” • Involving communities to be part of crime control and prevention and developing a partnership rather than a domineering indifferent authority figure assigned to protect white interest.

9. Community Policing Partnership Perspective: amends the public’s perception of the police. A working partnership is established and crime control is not seen as “the police jobs” but are seen as “resource personanle” who cooperate and work with the citizens to prevent crimes. Prevention/Proactive: instead of using law enforcement as a deterrent to criminal offending, prevention through partnership with the community is endorsed. Attempts to deal with the problem before it arises focuses on preventive programs designed by the community in partnership with the police. Problem-Solving: works to remedy the problem of continuous responses to recurrent incidents by repeat offenders which have the effect of criminalizing an entire neighborhood. The strategy looks into identifying the underlying problems rather than merely responding to symptoms Power-sharing: sharing or even transferring authority to community leaders to loosen organizational structures and implementing mutually-agreed upon goals

10. Media & Minorities: A contested site • Media has been criticized for inaccurate coverage of Aboriginal Peoples and racial minorities because the media continues to stereotype them and ignore them as irrelevant and inferior. • The media has the ability to construct reality. They have the ability to depict what is acceptable, important and desirable in society. • The ruling class interests are better served by the media than minority needs. • Visible minorities are reduced to an invisible status through under representation in programming, staffing, and decision-making • The media does not know how to portray minorities. When they portray minorities in a positive way they are criticized for being unrealistic. Ex. Cosby Show. When they portray minorities as poor they are accused of perpetuating stereotypes. It is a lose-lose situation for the media.

11. Is Disney Doing Diversity? What Do Children Learn From These Racist Depictions? • Children are taught that appearances outside the imprint of white middle-class culture are inferior, deviant, irrelevant, or threatening. • Children of color learn to dislike who they are. Accounting For The Problem • Key personnel are unsure of how to integrate Canadians of color into the media without being accused of paternalism or tokenism. • Ads that prominently display minorities in a variety of controversial situations are praised by some as progressive, others see them as exploitative and insulting. • Media constitute systems of propaganda.

12. Is Disney Doing Diversity? • Behind the playful animation of Disney lie cultural naiveté or political insensitivity and sexism and racism in a subtle and disguised manner. • Disney has long had a race problem. Examples: • The Jungle Book lampooned South Indians • David Crockett reveled in racist representations of Aboriginal Peoples • Lion King; Africa as nothing more than an Animal Kingdom and does not look at Africa’s culture and people.

13. Multicultural & Anti- Racism Education There are 2 approaches to Anti Racism Education and they consist of: Monocultural Education- Teaching students the values and ideals of the dominant culture. School systems in Canada used to enforce monocultural education by enforcing euro centrism. Multicultural Education- Thrives towards inclusiveness. The goal is to teach students to live together with differences.

14. Multicultural education has two different styles, moderate and radical. There are three forms of moderate multicultural education: • Enrichment- Aimed at all students who are exposed to a variety of cultures and are assigned projects with multicultural theme. The goal of enrichment is to promote tolerance, sensitivity and harmony. One of the negative aspects of enrichment is that it does not focus on values and beliefs; it focuses on the exotic aspects of the cultures. Another negative aspect is that it focuses on the history of culture rather than current events. • Enlightenment- An analytical approach to diversity. Informs student of the relationship aspect of diversity. Provides students with the knowledge of how minority majority relations created and what would be needed to change the relationship. • Empowerment- Can mean creating a safe space within an existing institution for multiculturalism or it can mean creating an institution run and attended by specific minorities. Ex. Islamic Schools. Some feel separate schools go against the grain of multiculturalism.

15. Anti-Racism Education Anti-Racism education actively challenges, resists and fights racism through direct action. It is proactive and process-oriented andt prioritizes a sharing of power. Four processes listed by Fleras are: • Critical insight into those intersecting disadvantages that students bring in to the classroom • An informed discourse that focuses on race and racism as issues of power and inequality rather than matters of cultural difference • An interrogation of existing school practices to uncover the structural roots of multi-culturalism and inequality • Challenge to the status quo by fostering engagement through political and social activism.

16. Multicultural & Anti- Racism Education Multicultural Education celebrates differences and anti-racism education involves identifying and removing racial barriers within education and within the general public. Multicultural education is intolerant of racism and anti-racism analyses how racism was historically created and structurally stained. Anti-racism also focuses on the power of the dominant group and transformations in the system needed for true multiculturalism to exist.