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Racism in Canada

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Submitted By Iamclasse
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Running head: Racism and Caribbean Peoples in Canada

The Synopsis of “Racism Revisited” by Dr. Althea Prince

February 11, 2015

In “Racism Revisited,” author Althea Prince reminisces on her own experience as a new immigrant from the Caribbean upon her arrival in Canada. She arrives in Toronto in September 1965, at what is today, Pearson International Airport. A young and naïve 20-year-old Althea, arrives hopeful and full of life, ready to start her new life of opportunity. Her sister, a nurse who migrated from England to Toronto a year earlier greets her at the airport. They retreat to a coffee shop in the airport before heading off to her sister’s place in downtown Toronto. While at the coffee shop, Althea comes face to face with the issue of race and the gravity of it. White people were staring awkwardly at her, gawking as if there was something wrong and the negativity was very prominent. Confused, Althea wonders what is wrong, and it is then that her sister tells her that the ill-mannered stares are due to the small number of Black people in Toronto. Once considered her “land of milk and honey,” Althea’s perception of life in Toronto changes, as issues of race and discrimination become more and more prevalent. She starts to accept the harsh reality that her “land of milk and honey” is not as she thought when she states “it finally penetrated my conscious that I was being told that my skin color made me an undesirable person (p.29)”
Later, she encounters more situations of subtle, as well as blatant racism, something not out of the ordinary in the 1960’s in Toronto. The colour of her skin is problematic for white people in the city. Although different forms of racism, the subtle and blatant racism directed towards her hold the same gravity and affect in her everyday life. As she tries to find a suitable place to rent, she realizes how much of a struggle

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