Last year on May 10, I was made the target of overt racism at a club in downtown Peterborough. I was told by the bouncer of the club that I was a “smelly East Indian in need of a deodorant” and I “should go home and get one.”
It wasn’t the first time I had been discriminated against, subjected to racial stereotypes or experienced micro-aggressions but it was so blatant and so shocking — I had been happily dancing by myself, feeling the music and feeling comfortable in my own skin.
After being humiliated and disgusted, I reported it to the owners of the club.
They trotted out the “she was drunk” defense.
This may all sound painfully familiar to women who have tried to report a sexual assault in a club or other social setting. The only thing I wasn’t charged with is wearing something that would naturally lead to a racist assault on my being.
They said I was “drunk,” trying to make my experience dubious and invalid. The fact is that I do not drink alcohol. Ever.
The culture of denial and pervasive silence is not confined to Peterborough.
In 2011, the Huffington Post reported an incident where Colleen, a woman of mixed heritage (Cree, Metis, Ojibwa and Scottish) was twice denied access into a club in Vancouver. When she protested that her moccasins bore a strong connection to her ancestors and tradition of hunting, the bouncer told her she should “hunt outside since there were no buffalos inside the club.”
After she reported the incident, spokesperson for the club simply stated that the woman was “unruly and intoxicated.”
In my case, after failing on the “drunk” defense, the club owner emailed me to assert that I displayed “drunk-like” behavior. The painful character assassination began and instead of trying to rectify the problem and taking ownership of the issue. The club now had issued “drunk-like” behavior.
Peterborough reported the third highest rates of hate crime in 2012 per 100,000 populations in 22 cities across Canada in “Hate Crime in Canada” by Statistics Canada.
Police in various communities like Peterborough have a long history of not reporting hate crimes properly.
In 2009, six racialized students from Trent University were targeted and beaten up downtown which was a hate motivated attack and local police refused to register as “hate crime” and preferred to go with “assault and bodily harm.” It didn’t matter that these students were told “go back to where you came from” and “go home terrorist.”
Deciding to do something about that night at the club not only changed the way I see things but it also made me stronger in pursuit of justice. One of the many reasons that I decided to take it to the Human Rights Tribunal is because way too many racist business owners get away with it. These incidents can be more significant in small towns where racialized and indigenous populations are completely marginalized. When incidents of racism are reported in any community, it has wider implications.
Most racialized people are afraid to be a future target of similar incidents and do not want to stick out in their neighborhoods for very obvious reasons. When incidents of “casual” racism, dismissive attitude, and invisibility occur on a daily basis people often let it go. For both the perpetrator and the target, the daily rituals of “casual” racism normalize these encounters and make it difficult to step back and confront it.
According to Statistics Canada’s report Hate Crime in Canada in 2012 about half of all hate crimes (704 incidents, or 51 per cent) were motivated by hatred toward a race or ethnicity (or ancestry) such as Black, Asian, Arab or First Nations populations. Statistics Canada reported an increase of 82 incidents more than in 2011. This will only get worse if we do not face the issues head on and challenge racist behaviour in different venues.
Dr. Paula Butler of Trent University and Dr. Michael C.K. Ma published a report titled “Spaces of Racism II” in 2008 where participants said that 84.6 per cent of the time they have seen or experienced racism in clubs in downtown Peterborough.
In 2013, when a local paper asked the Mayor of Peterborough about having one of the highest hate crime rates in Canada, he said “I’d like to know the source of the actual data.” An online poll conducted by the same paper seemed to indicate that his constituents felt differently.
Rather than accepting that towns like Peterborough have a systemic issue of racism, town officials chose to question the data, rather than acknowledge the problem and do something about it.
After a failed mediation at the Human Rights Tribunal Ontario, my case was set down for a hearing on September 12, 2014. My “day in court” turned into a lengthy back and forth where the club owner and I sat in different rooms. Eventually I was able to settle my human rights application and here is the outcome of it. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
What I can say is that I consider the process and eventual settlement a victory for my self-esteem and confidence — not just for me but for the larger community that supported me. I picked one battle out of many daily slights, and felt like I had challenged structural and institutional racism.
Even though I do consider my struggle a win, I will wait for the day when no one will have to knock on legal system doors for their right to be free from racism. Because then it would not be just about upholding the law, it would be about respecting racialized people and communities and we would be actually equal under the law.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
