Prologue Is Not Prescription
Up too early, I started with the Times-Colonist "Letters" online. Hearing a scoff of disgust from my partner, I inquired and was led to a local news item that described a 1912 event taking place in what was described as Victoria's "violently racist" past. The article adds weight to that assessment by citing a secret plan to deport South Asians from Canada and describes a "march" of 1000 Sikhs to a new Gurdwara (place of worship) led by the champion of the battle to defeat that deportation, Sant Teja Singh Ji.
The author observes that there were greater numbers of non-Sikhs, white folk, at the parade. No violence took place on what was a long walk to celebrate the opening of Canada's first brick (think permanence) Gurdwara, the third in the country. In 1912.
Occasioned by the 2024 discovery of a photograph taken on the day, the article acknowledges the find and the importance of the man, noting the Provincial declaration of July 1, 20231 as Sant Teja Singh Day. Yet, somehow, these old eyes received this well intended piece as a backward look at racism rather than a forward look acknowledging how very far we have come toward the promise of tomorrow.
Readers are positioned to receive a lesson through a framing of a violently racist legacy. The scoff I heard was in response to the implications of that legacy.
Mine was in response to the positioning.
An alternative approach could be to note that as early as 1908, an immigrant to Canada successfully overturned racist policies of the federal government and helped to establish rights of permanent residency for the Sikh population and continued through studies, legal and community work to establish the Sikh Dharamsala in London in 1910, Gurdwara in both Victoria, B.C. and Stockton, California. This leader's history is an exemplar of the contribution of immigrants to Canada from its earliest days and the continuing successful participation in Canadian public life where the current Leader of the Opposition in Parliament today is Sihk Jagmeet Singh.
It is the incremental achievement of such rights that has defined Canada as a pluralist society, one that draws lessons from past injustices to shape a brighter future for all.
That's my take, at any rate.
I do not in any way mean to diminish the fact or harm caused by racism, past and present. Indeed, when I arrived as a new immigrant to Canada with the observing eyes of a 12 year-old, I saw that it was real, and different in both tone and target. I had gained insight into racism beyond its most obvious forms through early exposure to one of the worst slums on the Eastern Seaboard as well as to an elite world of intellectuals, artists and "old families." Summer camp friends were descendants of Mayflower pilgrims, others of the "New York 400."
Amid such extremes, hypocrisies emerge with a clarity that invites one to a remove for deeper observation. I noted that the East Indian was regarded as the "exotic," a (no less racist) curiosity, in some circles but was strongly denigrated in my new home. Observable, too, was that the black scapegoat defined in my 1960s childhood experience of Arkansas and Texas—and Connecticut—had become the exotic in a place where black people were rare. Prejudices, flipped.
This confirmed my evolving perspective that the scapegoat of one place, time and culture is the "curiosity" of another.
The propensity to define an "identity" by only a sliver of the whole person is a far greater and more persistent failing than any local, or general, understanding of racism. As we devolve into identity politics today with a force and determination justified by "good intent," I fear for the future.
Like the map of sundown towns that Winkfield Twyman writes about in his post, Blackness is Your Super Power, there is truth to be observed and understood in our past. And, we must be very careful in how we take that forward into our present and future.
The story to tell need not, should not, deny past wrongs. Neither should it carry them forward to diminish advances made.
When we see racism, or any number of -isms, as part of our DNA, we enable its continuance. We are building a future that we can inhabit together. Collaboration is in our DNA.2
Sikh communities celebrate Sant Teja Singh Day annually on July 3. The shift in date ensures a proper recognition separate from national celebrations on Canada Day, July 1.
The idea that humans are hard-wired to collaborate is received by many as the antithesis of competition as our primary motivation. Emmens, Harari and others explore the topic. I posit that it is neither either/or. Rather, we have the capacity to grasp nuance and context and act accordingly. Whether we do that wisely is another thing altogether.