Book Review: Taking Responsibility, Taking Direction: White Anti-Racism in Canada. By Sheila Wilmot. Publisher: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, $22.95
Review by Alan Sears
As a long-time white leftist, I was rather shocked to realize I had a lot to learn about anti-racism. I had marched in protests against apartheid in South Africa and police violence in Toronto. I had read about the history of slavery and slave rebellions, the brutal suppression of indigenous people and the racism of Canadian immigration controls.
I was quite surprised, then, when a student in a theory class I taught at the University of Windsor told me my course was completely eurocentric. I taught the course as if the historical experience of white heterosexual men as captured in European social thought provided the only meaningful perspective for seeing the world. I took time to digest this criticism, as I had so thoroughly assimilated the dominant assumptions of my society and of the subject I teach (sociology) that I could not recognize the blinkers I wore. This, despite the fact I was in some ways a conscious anti-racist.
White anti-racism is not easy. The core assumptions of this society and the officially approved ways of thinking taught in school and echoed in the media are deeply rooted in racism, even after they have been cleansed of some of the most disgusting overt white supremacism. Many white Canadians believe this country is genuinely striving towards a model multiculturalism, gradually purging the worst aspects of the undeniable racism that marked its past. Coming to a genuine anti-racism means unlearning many of these ideas, recognizing that whiteness functions as a set of rose-coloured glasses allowing us avoid the reality that Canada is founded on the crushing of indigenous peoples and maintained through everyday brutalities of exclusion, marginalization and silencing.
Sheila Wilmot’s wonderful book does not try to make white anti-racism sound easy, but she does argue it is possible and necessary. This book provides a powerful theoretical analysis of the challenges of white anti-racism, rooted in reflections on activism. Wilmot examines the development of a specifically Canadian experience of whiteness through the lens of a rich and supple historical materialist theory.
The book argues white people must not avoid the challenges of taking up anti-racism, even though it is not easy. White anti-racism requires a genuine modesty and a commitment to taking direction from people of colour that is really difficult for those of us soaked in the historical experience of privilege. That modesty needs to be combined with a willingness to take action and speak out, as we have a responsibility to take part in the struggle to end racism.
We will make mistakes in trying to get the right balance between taking responsibility and taking direction. The commitment in this book is to learn from these mistakes rather than trying to avoid making them by abstaining from the struggle. We need to find ways to be both allies and interested parties in anti-racist struggles if we seek a truly just society.
This book is one of those powerful resources reminding us that theory is an essential tool for activists and not the exclusive purview of people with lots of university degrees. Wilmot engages powerfully with many of the most interesting theoretical analyses of whiteness, providing fascinating critiques and identifying crucial issues.
This book is a model of the kind of left analysis we need to develop if we are to learn the lessons of the past and begin to rebuild our capacity for dissent. It is a vibrant example of an open socialist theory, resting on firm foundations while actively engaged in dialogue and debate with a variety of perspectives grounded in the experiences of racism and the struggles to end it.
I still have a lot to learn about anti-racism, because it is an unfinished project that requires ongoing work at the individual and group level. This book provided me with powerful insights and essential resources.
