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Exploring Blackness from Muslim, Female, Canadian Realities: Founding

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Exploring Blackness from Muslim, Female, Canadian Realities: Founding EXPLORING BLACKNESSS FROM MUSLIM, FEMALE, CANADIAN REALITIES EXPLORING BLACKNESSS FROM MUSLIM, FEMALE, CANADIAN REALITIES: FOUNDING SELFHOOD, (RE)CLAIMING IDENTITY AND NEGOTIATING BELONGINGNESS WITHIN/AGAINST A HOSTILE NATION By JAN-THERESE MENDES, B.A. Hons. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Art McMaster University © Copyright by Jan-Therese Mendes, September 2011 ! MASTERS OF ARTS (2011) McMaster University (Religious Studies) Hamilton, ON TITLE: Exploring Blackness from Muslim, Female, Canadian Realities: Founding Selfhood, (Re)claiming Identity and Negotiating Belongingness Within/Against a Hostile Nation AUTHOR: Jan-Therese Mendes, B.A. Hons. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Celia E. Rothenberg NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 159 ! ""! ABSTRACT From what specific socio-cultural “positionality” are African-Canadian Muslim females living their realities? What methods do these women employ to locate, (re)claim, and/or assert an autonomous selfhood from these (peripheral) spaces within the white nation-state? How does their shared socio-religio-racial and gendered marginality, potentially, act as a site for inciting a sense of camaraderie towards one another? Such, increasingly telling, queries frame the content of this thesis which commissions qualitative research methods to unearth answers that rely upon the “particular”--by taking an intimate gaze at thirteen Black Muslim women’s gendered-racialized experiences in Toronto, Ontario. Dividing analysis along the lines of religious status this work examines the dynamics distinct to 1. convert and 2. born/“life-long” Muslim participants’ cultivation of an independent religious as well as racial identity. The anti-Black and anti- Islamic discrimination that continues to punctuate contemporary, urban, “multicultural” Canada later collapses investigation into a unified survey of the ways African-Canadian Muslim women in general, contend with the oppressive socio-cultural forces attempting to infringe on their humanity. Ultimately, research concludes that the adverse or hospitable responses of surrounding communities (these are: the ethnic-majority Muslim community; the non-Muslim Black population; Eurocentric secular society at large) to these women, influences how they both place themselves in their environments and interact with their Black-Muslim female fellows. This thesis argues that the persistent ostrasization of African-Canadian Islamic women within the religious and secular-public spheres of society establishes a necessary, defensive solidarity amongst these individuals; specifically, their communions can erect a nurturing platform to challenge or minimize the impact of oppressive forces--particularly protecting against the mental and social violence inflicted by racist-sexist Islamophobic white supremacist powers. ! """! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout the course of earning an M.A. my mind and soul have grown old in a space, time and intensity insufficiently conveyed through the linearity of months and years. I have “come into my own” so to speak, unveiling me to me as I toiled, cried and rejoiced over the manuscript you now hold in your hands and encountered trials in life and love that mirrored its completion. However, I write these words without finality since the development of “I” has not been concluded. The path leading towards this feat has been prompted by the unwavering support of my thesis supervisor, Dr. Celia E. Rothenberg. Thank-you Celia, for hearing something worthwhile in my undergraduate ramblings on enslaved Black Muslims. Thank-you Celia, for allowing me to complete this work in such a human manner. Thank-you Celia, for not censuring me but instead constructively evaluating, encouraging and nurturing the cord that directly connects each chapter to my heart--never rejecting the sides of me that flow through these pages. To my committee member Dr. Liyakat Takim: you lent me your name and your contacts without which accessing research subjects would have been a much greater challenge than it was. To you I extend my gratitude. You shared your expertise, pointing me to the relevant literature, without which rudimentary research would have been a more taxing period than it was. To you I offer my appreciation. Dr. Christina Sinding--my third reader--I remember your face glowing with enthusiasm for my project; you saw my vision and respected my objectives without hesitation--your immediate interest and confidence in me was heartening. Thanks Chris. Dr. Ellen Badone, you were with me from the beginning and shared your knowledge from the start. Thank-you for helping to guide me for so much of the way. To the women who have gifted us with a lesson in human will and elevated consciousness through the testimonies they have entrusted me and to the Muslim community leaders who led me to these gems--I flounder to express the depth of my gratitude for I am held speechless by reverence. To my siblings Faith-Ann, Melanie and Manuel--thank-you for showing me what real love looks and feels like; you were always so sure of me throughout this process which helped me be sure of myself. To every family member and friend who has supported me (emotionally, spiritually, mentally) before, during, and after--I am gladly and humbly indebted. To Phillip, you are my love and I yours. ! "#! In memory of Camilla Mryglod one of the earliest, most genuine fans of my work and a once upon a time person sized life preserver. My ideas brewed, swelled and overflowed in front of you--encouraged to eventually take shape within the mould provided by the sincerity riddled across your face and the trust in my success fluent in the tenor of your voice. I can not repay you for these things. But with the seal of this ink, I immortalize your kindness. “To Camilla” There is a space in my mind where you rest./ Crouching,/ backed against a brick wall,/ rolling your infamous cigarettes./ You are 20 years younger./Your hair is 10 inches longer./And 5 shades darker./ Your mouth is opened in an “O” and you are luminous./ I love and I loved and I am loving you,/ born from you “schooling” me on how not to hate myself./ Yet I still ask, “What am I good for?”/ “What is the ‘good’ in me that earned you,/ that deserved you?”/ And, “What couldn’t sanction your stay?”/ This is not a love sonnet in the usual sense/ but it is still a transcription from my heart./ We share hearts/ herstories/ wine/ laughs/ frozen pizza/ tears/ and Nietzsche./ You are my friend/ my councilor/ my Mother/ my Aunt/ my analyst/ my thesaurus/ my mirror./ My REAL./ And even without your limbs--you are still these things./ Even as a red stain across those tracks/ you are more than the person that once was./ You still make an “IS”/ And you IS in my life/And you IS in my mind/And you IS in my anger/ And you IS in my frustration/ And you IS the object of this lament/And you IS going to fade/ But you IS NOT, going to fade out./ This is a requiem/ to you,/ to us,/ to what we will become/ because your residence in the hereafter is not far enough away/ for you not to be present,/ for you not to be pertinent/ here/ after. ! #! TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract … iii Acknowledgments … iv-v INTRODUCTION: “Traversing Blackness, Engaging with Islam” Point of Entry … 1 Here Are My Objectives…. … 3 A Short History of Blacks in Canada … 6 A Muslim-Canadian Presence … 10 Fieldwork … 13 Operational Definitions … 19 Chapter Summaries … 21 CHAPTER ONE: “A Literature Review; Blackness is the Shell, Islam is the Center: Thinking Through Black Canada” Overview: The Black-African Diasporic Community … 25 Social Marginalization of the Black-African Diasporic Community … 31 Gendered Understandings of Racial Oppression … 36 Black Religiosity as a Tool of Resistance … 42 Conversion to Islam in the West … 48 CHAPTER TWO: “What is it to Embrace Islam?: Writing on African-Canadian Female Converts” Overview … 58 Converting … 59 Reception by the Muslim Community … 66 Forming Their Identities … 73 A Black Convert “Sisterhood”? … 79 CHAPTER THREE: “Life-long” African-Canadian Muslim Women & the (Dis)similar Experiences of Black Convert Women” Overview … 84 Generational Shifts with the Individual Construction of a Muslim Identity … 85 Life-long Muslim Women and their Interactions with Black Converts to Islam … 94 CHAPTER FOUR: “Black Like Me?: Negotiating Racial (Dis)harmony, Contending with Anti-Islamic Prejudice” Overview … 102 A Defensive Camaraderie … 103 The Boundaries of Blackness for Black-Canadian Muslim Women … 110 Discrimination As Part of Life in Toronto … 121 Responding to Anti-Islamic Stereotypes and Discrimination … 127 CONCLUSION: “Point of Departure: This End Marks A Beginning” Where We Stand Now: What This Thesis Has Contributed … 135 I Concede That There Are In Fact Problems with this Thesis…. … 139 For Whose Advantage?: Placing this Thesis in Space, Deciding Ownership … 142 Topics for Future Study … 144 Acknowledging My Status as Insider/Outsider; Placing Myself in Academia … 145 BIBLIOGRAPHY … 149 ! #"! M.A. Thesis - Jan-Therese Mendes McMaster University - Religious Studies Introduction: Traversing Blackness, Engaging with Islam Point of Entry Ask me about my experiences growing up in the white, middle-class suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area and I will tell you how a Black girl learns to hate herself. Ask me about my earliest conceptions of a Black self and I will explain to you that my Blackness was a murky swamp in contrast with ripe barrels of peaches and fresh bowls of cream; it is here that I would offer you a blueprint of my most pesky “difference” spanning ages seven to nineteen. So, ask me what being Black meant at that time and I will recount the taunts correlating my brown skin to the colour of shit, to the colour of dirt. It was not until much later that I came to see that my brown is the colour of Mother Earth--that, yes, brown is the colour of my skin and my skin encloses “me.” If you had asked me back then what represents Blackness in Canada I would have told you solely about the underground railroad.
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