Interrogating Race and Racism/Race, Racialization and Antiracism in Canada and Beyond/Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of 'A Few Bad Apples'

Vijay Agnew (ed.), Interrogating Race and Racism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), x + 417pp. Cased. £48. ISBN 978-0-8020-9356-1. Paper. £22.50. ISBN 978-0- 8020-9509-1. Genevieve Fuji Johnson and Randy Enomoto (eds), Race, Racialization and Antiracism in Canada and Beyond (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), xiii + 252pp. Paper. £22.50. ISBN 978-0-8020-9504-6. Carol Tator and Frances Henry, Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of 'a Few Bad Apples' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 304pp. Cased. £48. ISBN 978-0-8020-8714-0. Paper. £22.50. ISBN 978-0-8020-8666-2. There is agreement within these three books that racism persists in Canada, particularly in what are described as subtle forms, despite anti-racist initiatives and formal commitments to equality by the Canadian state. Two of these books are collections of papers with multidisciplinary approaches that cover a wide range of Canadian institutions and which include some comparative material. The third is mainly about policing in Toronto in a critical analysis that focuses on the discourse and practices of racialisation and its consequences. The main emphasis of the collection edited by Vijay Agnew is contemporary racism, explored through analysis of topics such as immigration law, citizenship, inequalities and discrimination in the workplace and racial profiling. Agnew introduces the collection by emphasising the social construction of racism and providing an interpretation of key concepts, including racism, which 'is not merely a set of attitudes, but finds expression in ... practices, institutions, and structures' (p. 13), racialisation and whiteness. The first of the book's four sections focuses upon immigration. Peter Li opens this section with an exploration of discourse about race, drawing out apparent inconsistencies in opinion polls and illustrating ways in which encoding may disguise reference to race. Sharryn Aiken employs a critical race perspective to examine immigration law and policy, questioning whether it challenges or perpetuates systemic racism. The greater part of section two is based upon studies of income inequalities, making use of census and immigration data. Pendakur and Pendakur employ econometric methods to analyse differentials in earnings from 1971 to 1996, taking account of gender, Aboriginal status and visible minority status as key variables. Wang and Lo summarise data on Chinese immigrants, considering language expertise and education levels as factors affecting income levels. These authors draw attention to persistent income inequalities associated with Aboriginal and visible minority status. Themes of national identity are explored in section three with Charles C. Smith writing about racial profiling in Canada, Ezra Yoo-Hyeok Lee focusing upon the treatment of Japanese-Americans and Arab-Americans, and Robin Ostow discussing the Jewish museums in Berlin. The final section returns to issues of identity. This includes a discussion by Agnew of gender and diversity in two Royal Commission reports about women and a study of the experiences of African migrants to Vancouver by Gillian Creese. The final chapter is based upon the transcript of an interview of Frances Henry by Vijay Agnew. Framed by an introduction that refers to identity, boundaries and marginality, this interview reveals some of the intersections of personal experience, academic work and policy development in Frances Henry's distinguished career. It concludes with some comments about change in the justice system, in human rights and elsewhere within Canadian society: 'Generally there is a much greater awareness and acceptance that racism exists. Things are changing, albeit slowly' (p. 411). The collection edited by Genevieve Fuji Johnson and Randy Enomoto is focused upon systemic racism in areas such as education, work, media and urban planning. The dozen chapters in this book are based upon papers presented at a conference entitled 'End Racism! …

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