Racism in Canada
She Cries Racism When She Doesn’t Get Her Way
Former Green Party leader, Jim Harris wants us to know he’s racist
To say that a Black woman, “cries racism when she doesn’t get her way” is racist and shameful. It denies the racism that Black Canadian women experience. It’s a dog whistle that feeds into the racist Canadian trope that calls Black women’s experiences false. Especially as Black women are already not believed when they say they’ve been racially abused.
… 2019 survey indicates nearly half of Canadians believe discrimination against Black people is “no longer a problem” — even as 83% of Black people in Canada say they are treated unfairly at least some of the time.
Annamie Paul is the first Black woman to lead a major Canadian party. Present tense will soon be passed as she’s currently embroiled in a legal fight to have her rights respected as she is pushed out from her role as leader.
Ms. Paul called her time as leader of The Greens, “…the worst time of my life” citing the racism, sexism, and antisemitism she experienced.
Jim Harris is a former Green Party leader (2003–2006) criticized Annamie Paul saying
“When she doesn’t get her way, she calls racism. Now, racism, sexism, and violent metaphors like ‘walking over shards of glass’ and ‘spitting up blood’ get headlines, but what we have to judge a leader by is their performance and Annamie’s performance as leader has resulted in the Green Party’s worst performance in 20 years,” he said.
Of course, Mr. Harris has the right to comment on Ms. Paul’s leadership. This is a party he helped found and then lead. He’s invested. Nonetheless using racism to repudiate racism is racist and has nothing to do with leadership.
At some point in our lives, our careers, Black women have heard these words or had them hurled at us. Usually to silence us. To make us question, if that really just happened? Racist gaslighting is the standard operating procedure when white people want to deny racism. We’re accused of playing the “race” card. As if experiencing racism is a game.
Maybe it is if you’re white. If you’re Black, not so much. It’s more debilitating pain than fun.
Mr. Harris, you’re keen to resist the reality of racism, even while using it. And you do so knowing that the Green Party’s own report exposed racism in the party you led.
In April 2021, the Toronto Star reported that Zahra Mitra, the (Green) party’s diversity coordinator had written a “scathing condemnation of high-ranking officials who denied there is discrimination in the organization after the Star reported on internal discord affecting Annamie Paul.
The Mitra email said the party has a “very real problem with racism” and that top-ranking officials have hampered efforts to make the organization more inclusive.
Mr. Harris, your behavior becomes more reprehensible when we consider you most likely already knew the Greens have a problem with racism, particularly at the leadership level.
Your vulgar and deceptive rhetoric doesn’t just hurt Ms. Paul. It harms all Black women in Canada because racism is an issue we face and experience almost daily. And what you tried to do is give racists a “get out of racist jail free” card by casting racism as our goto sweet spot.
In spite of your own party’s report. In spite of studies and analyses that prove that racism exists and that we experience it. You did the work to undermine Canadian Black women. That is what makes your words unforgivable.
You gaslighted her and us by saying there’s no racism despite the Green report exposing racism within the party.
It’s exhausting, this lack of she said he said.
“There is systemic racism at the governance level of the party, which needs to be, but is not being, addressed,” says the report from the party’s ombuds and appeals committee, which was released internally in mid-July but not made public.
Here’s what I heard you say.
“ … cries racism when she can’t get her way”
C’mon folks I’m a real down-to-earth guy. A man of the people. We all know blacks always see racism everywhere. We all know were wasn’t really any racism. She’s a troublemaker. Bossy. Aggressive. She’s gotta make it about her.
A lotta cake for eight words.
Here’s my response to your eight-word offering: We all know you’re trying to appeal to whites. We all know you’re exhorting white people to stick together. We all know your code words. It’s okay.
Thank you for letting me know how cozy comfortable you are continuing the well-worn Canadian tradition of blaming the target for your hit.
Can we get some applause that in 2021 the target of racism doesn’t need a report to be believed?
Mr. Harris your words are intended to be a hard stop to dialogue and conversation. They’re meant to silence, cause doubt, and instill fear. At this juncture, you want Blacks to second guess themselves. To question our experiences.
Mr. Harris you working hard to tell us that racism is Black people’s secret default position and that “racism” isn’t real unless you define it as so.
More than that, you’re announcing to whites that “racism” is a ploy used by blacks to strike fear in whites.
Since you found us out, we should now hang our heads in shame, because Big Daddy found our playbook. The next step, we’re to be quiet and listen while Big Daddy tells it like it is.
The grand revelation being, why there’s no racism.
Well, thank you Mr. Harris.
I don’t play by those rules. I’ll tell you why what you said is racist. How you knew it was racist. And why do you choose to spew your bile anyway?
Doubting the lived experience of racism is akin to asking what was she wearing?
This might shock younger readers, but a long long time ago…who am I kidding it’s always been going on. Shameless people thought it was okay to not believe those who said they’d been raped or victimized because…say it with me — what was she wearing?
This was the universal code for if you wore a short skirt that meant you wanted to be raped. You were asking for it.
Here’s the crime
When you’re Black and you experience racism because you failed to play by white people’s rules, it’s not really racism. Thus if you cry racism — then it’s not really racism. Do you follow?
It’s a twisted version of did she forget she was Black and did she expect to be treated the same as white women?
There in a nutshell was Ms. Paul’s crime. She foolishly expected to be treated with the dignity and respect of a leader of a major Canadian party and not the contempt that suited the color of her skin.
Green party members are allowed to dispute her leadership. Allowed to question her political stance. But the Greens went beyond that. They fell back on the hard line of racism.
Why what you said was racist
Whatever concerns you and the Greens had over Ms. Paul’s leadership, considerations over leadership don’t lead or end with, “She Cries Racism When She Doesn’t Get Her Way.”
That’s racist.
Why you say it anyway
Mr. Harris, do you know why you would say something so incredibly foul, rude, dismissive, racist, and stupid?
It’s not because you’re ignorant. The simplest definition for ignorance from Dictionary.com is “lacking knowledge, unlearned.” You received your Bachelor’s degree from one of Canada’s top universities. You worked as an environmentalist before being elected leader of the Greens. You’re not lacking knowledge. So, why the foulness?
You’re a racist.
Attempting to wrestle your words into a we-need-to-talk-about-Annamie’s-leadership moment doesn’t work. Because your use of racism immediately recasts the conversation into one about your racism.
Mr. Harris, you’re considered a “leading innovation speaker. One who “opens people’s minds to new ideas and thought processes” as your Ted Talk bio says. Using racism against a Black woman who’s spoken of the racial trauma she’s experiencing after your own party has already said there’s racism in the party, isn’t innovative. It’s ugly.
You’re not using new ideas. And you’re not displaying leadership when you choose to support racial inequality.
If hurling racial abuse is what you advise your corporate clients to do in order to build a new future, that’s not innovation. It’s repackaging your historical hate to pretend relevancy when you’re far from relevant.
I’m fairly certain that your allies in White Supremacy will reward you handsomely for doing White Supremacy work — keeping a Black woman down. However, your willingness to utilize racial terror as your go-to when you don’t get your way speaks to your desire to continue racism into the (non) innovative future upon which you’ve built your business.
And we’ve seen where that road leads, to more injustice and inequality. Innovation for you appears to be a primer on “How to repackage White power to continue White domination.” I suppose that’s what makes you an in-demand speaker.
White people like to pretend you don’t know anything bout any racism. Not true. You gave birth to it, nurtured it, and pull it out each time you want to inflict damage. Racism is all yours.
In that light Mr. Harris, it’s time to summarize the truth.
You knew your words would cause harm. You intended to cause harm. You tried to shame Ms. Paul. To blame her for the Green Party’s racism by pretending this “racism” didn’t exist. You intended to blame the victim for the racist, sexist, anti-Black abuse she was forced to endure.
Annamie Paul also knows what racism is, and she knows when it’s used against her.
“…systemic racism in the workplace can result in hitting up against a glass ceiling. In addition to facing microaggressions…Black(s)…have low rates of sponsorship and find hidden biases in promotion processes.”
Characterizing racism as some type of “safe” place Black people can retreat to when they “don’t measure up” to (white) standards is sickening.
It’s like saying women secretly yearn to be raped.
Get this, women don’t want to be raped. Black people don’t want your racism.
Matter of fact, we’d prefer if we never again had to talk about it, feel it, experience it, or live with its consequences.
White power loves racism. White power holds it close and knows exactly when and how to deploy it. As you eagerly demonstrated.
Like the Liberals and Conservatives, the Greens (after the loss of Annamie Paul) will be yet another White Canadian political party that clings to White Supremacy. I fervently hope the Greens never claim power, at least, not before they thoroughly examine their souls and consider what they have to offer to democracy.
We already have the Liberal party led by a blackface-wearing White Supremacist and the Conservatives who’d like nothing more than to die defending their sacred right to be racists.
That’s plenty.
Mr. Harris, your words show exactly who uses racism to get their way. And it’s not Black people.
