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      Historical racial theories : ongoing racialization in Saskatchewan

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      Date
      2006-12-11
      Author
      Baker, Carmen Leigh
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      Throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, theories of race contributed to the justification and authorization of global European imperialism and the colonization of indigenous people. In Canada, racial theories influenced perceptions of each citizen as either superior or inferior. Although European and American theorists constructed hundreds of ideas about race, there are several key ideas that continue to linger in the minds of Canadians. This thesis examines the socio-ideological context of racial theories and provides an historical account of the construction of race. The historical account highlights four prominent ideas: white superiority, non-white inferiority (marked by low intelligence levels), the belief in inherent racial characteristics, and racial purity and contamination. In Saskatchewan, these ideas continue to surface in discourse about Aboriginal people and relations between the non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal population. Although constructed ideas about race are scientifically unsound and grounded in the belief in white superiority, these ideas are often normalized as common sense and not easily recognized as constructed. Discourse and practices that appear to be emancipatory for Aboriginal people but rely on constructed ideas about race need to be re-examined. This thesis provides several examples of where these ideas surface in Saskatchewan discourse and recommends anti-racist education as an alternative.
      Degree
      Master of Education (M.Ed.)
      Department
      Educational Foundations
      Program
      Educational Foundations
      Supervisor
      Miller, Dianne M.
      Committee
      St. Denis, Verna; Chinnery, Ann; Cannon, Martin; Woodhouse, Howard
      Copyright Date
      December 2006
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-01162007-134258
      Subject
      social Darwinism
      white superiority
      common sense racism
      historical myths
      culturalism
      hybridity
      Eugenics
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