Double-Edged Discrimination; Narrative Experiences of being Black and Muslim in an Urban Canadian Community

• In Event: Racial Discrimination and Prejudice and Related Issues

Abstract

In recent years, members of the Somali-Canadian community have found themselves at the center of heightened police scrutiny as a result of a perceived increased involvement in drug, weapons, and gang-related activity among some members of the community. Through CSSP (Canadian Safety and Security Program) funding, our participatory research project interviewed 90 Somali Youth (ages 16-30), 30 police officers, and 25 key stakeholders. Several youth interviews offer contested versions of discrimination where participants say they were not discriminated against because they were Somali, but then go on to describe experiences of discrimination that they attribute to being Muslim. This offers an interesting avenue of inquiry - and highlights the double-edged sword of being both black and Muslim. In several cases, participants brought up the events in Ottawa, and the resultant increased fear within the community of Muslims, and discrimination towards them in the Canadian context. This single event seems to have, from the perspective of participants - polarized public opinion rendering Somali-Canadians subject to discrimination on the basis of religion. From the participant narratives, this seems to be communicated as 'different' than discrimination on the basis of being ‘Somali’, a perspective that will be further explored in this paper.

Authors

• Erin Osterberg, University of British Columbia

• Sara K. Thompson, Ryerson University

• Sandra Bucerius, University of Alberta