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The Invisible Visibles:
Minorities in the Media
By: Henry Gomez
From: Currents Spring 1983 pp. 12-13
© 1983 Urban Alliance on Race Relations
As recently as ten years ago, Toronto was a city in which its
inhabitants were proud to say, when speaking of racial unrest: "This
is not the United States. This is Canada." They felt very smug indeed
as they compared the bad old U.S. of A. with its history of racism and riots,
to Canada the good.
Of course, Canada was lily-white then (that is if you excluded the native
Indians, the blacks in Nova Scotia and the Orientals who remained quietly
in their China towns or Japanese settlements). There were no large numbers
of articulate blacks or other ethnic types (apart from the Jews who could
either change their names or eradicate their accents) to challenge the dominant
Waspish attitude, so things remained Kosher. A province like Ontario, and
indeed the rest of Canada, could afford to be smug.
Ten years, one and a half million immigrants and many studies and surveys
later show that the picture has changed. Dramatically! Canada opened its
doors to many immigrants from Caribbean, Asian and other Third World countries,
and most of them flocked to the large metropolitan areas. Toronto and its
environs received about 58 percent of those who came to the province of
Ontario.
The man in the street knows this. So do the federal and provincial governments,
because they compile the statistics. But, do the people who control the
media know this? If they do, (and they should, because there's money to
be made on these immigrants), then why the insistence on portraying Toronto
and other parts of Ontario as places where life continues to be "peaches
and cream," with the occasional appearance of an "ethnic type."
Have they put on blinders or do they live in their proverbial ivory towers?
Furthermore, is their attitude the same as that of the white artist who
proudly displays a white painting on white canvas, with white highlights
and shadows and calls it "Canada - an abstraction?''
In September 1981, the Honourable Jim Fleming, Minister of Multiculturalism
addressed an Organization for Canadian Caribbean Initiatives seminar, at
York University. He said: "The media mirrors the way minorities are
perceived, plagued by stereotypes." He also said in part: "...there's
a need to reinforce in the minds of all Canadians, a sense of unity, to
promote better understanding and tolerance among all sectors of society."
In 1983, a person of African ancestry, or of another minority group may
be heard to say: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me do I exist at
all?" The mirror, of course, is the media, polished and held up by
the image makers, be they advertisers, radio station owners, private and
public television executives, producers, editors, writers or artistic directors.
As a collective body they help to reinforce the artist's concept of Canada
- it's white on white. No flies in the butter-milk.
An evening at home watching TV, a visit to our national theatres, or a casual
leafing through of some of our magazines is all it takes to bring one face
to face with the Canadian unreality - a country in which visible minorities
don't drive cars, drink beer, travel, eat food, shop, or own houses. According
to this mirror, they don't even interact with the rest of Canadian society.
Many meetings and discussions have taken place recently. They involved the
AdHoc Media Committee, the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC), the
Advertising Advisory Board, the Black Performers Committee, ACTRA, the Federal
and Provincial Governments, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and others.
Both levels of government have set guidelines and set up task forces to
monitor the use of visible minorities in their own advertising. Commendable.
But that's just what they are - guidelines.
Since visible minorities have increased their knowledge of how the media
operates (especially the advertising industry), it's become increasingly
difficult for the buck to be passed. But the word still comes down on the
grapevine, "Don't send any ethnics, especially the blacks." The
few in the industry who try to question such a directive are easily held
in line by the threat of lost business and the use of the epithet "Nigger
lover." The same holds true for stage, television, film and radio casting.
The image-makers still cannot see actors or models of visible minority groups
as doctors, lawyers, police officers, businessmen, civil servants or even
trades people participating fully in a Canadian society. They still believe
that only the super-stars have salability - hence Oscar Peterson, Geoffrey
Holder, Bill Cosby and Reggie Jackson.
That's why they often go through the motions. They invite visable minority
actors or models to auditions, knowing that they have no intention of casting
any of them in the available roles.
They know it, and the actors and models know it. But the game goes on. What's
to be done?
Legislation. Maybe. Maybe not. It worked in the United States, and it worked
for Canadian content in radio programming. And contrary to predictions,
people have not lost money.
Economics and embarrassment remain the only effective catalysts for change.
The Chinese community proved this in dealing with CTV's W5. The image-maker's
will not respond positively to the inclusion of visable minorities unless
they pool their resources and begin to boycott certain department stores
and products. They should also use their resources to picket certain television
stations for lack of affirmative action in the decision-making and creative
areas of their operations. They may prod Eatons, The Bay, CTV, City TV and
CBC to go beyond mere tokenism. It may convince them too that even in the
great white north, any other colour ink is better than red.
Henry Gomez is a Toronto actor whose work has been seen from Montreal
to Calgary. He is a graduate of the Graduate Theatre Programme at York University.
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