MAGAZINE B y W 0 MEN 0 F COLOUR YOKO !CHINO BEYERL Y SALMON Marva Jackson Zanana Akande THE VERTICAL MOSAIC IN CANADIAN THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN LATIN PERCEPTIONS OF VISIBLE MINORITIES AMERICA: BALANCE AND PERSPECTIVE Susan Korab Luz Helena Sanchez Gomez THE JESUITS AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT CANADA'S NATIVE PEOPLE WOMEN'S ROLE IN THE INT'L ARENA Susan Daybutch Hare Margarita Papandreou Denied personhood, and so the right to the to perform as they thought they should; push- vote until 1921, women in Canada are lateco- ing them to legislate social reform which pro- mers to the political scene. Women had burst tected the powerless, provide for those with- into the political arena after-many years of out, and established services to respond to collec~ive opposition to the 'status quo. But changing social patterns. the aggressiveness and determination which Such political roles, though too often un- characterized their successful struggle to a- recognized, or acknowledged as only secon- chieve their political rights has not spanned dary, are as necessary to politics as the front the years to achieve any more than women's line politicians. token representation in the legislative assem- Gradually, but steadily, more women are blies of our municipalities, provinces and concluding that their ,causes might be best country. championed by women who share their inter- Their goal, the franchise, achieved, women's ests; or that it might be more expedient to collective aggression disipated; wrapped in carry the torch rather than only to light it and the security of the possible, they turned their hope that it will be used to illuminate the attention to moral questions. This was a issues of importance to them. For ultimately dimension considered more appropriate for the results depend on the effectiveness of the their focus, although the real leadership was politicians. left to male church ministers and preachers. Now, bolstered by years of suffage, and the In 1988, 67 years after women's personhood examples of successful women politicians, still was recognized in Canada only a handful of too few, but existing in numbers at least suffi- women have been elected and appointed seats cient to deny exceptional status, increasing in the Federal government. The Provincial numbers of women are standing for election. governments do not boast consistently greater This issue of Tiger Lily features and will percentages, and the Municipal arenas add continue to feature thumbnail sketches of only an occasional increase to season the pol- women politicians in different political set- itical pot. tings. Their causes and issues may include When we focus on the existence of visible those of special interest to women, but more minority women in government the numbers importantly, they bring to the legislature an are too often reduced to zero. Identifying as analysis of all issues to reveal the possible they do with two groups whose_political rights affects on the many constituents within the were bitterly opposed, one on sexist and the population. Such analyses are generally more other on racist grounds, they came late to the complete, perhaps for three reasons: i) They meeting. are done by a group sensitive to the concerns And when they came, impeded and retarded of women, concerns which were and still are by the fears and reality of bias, they preferred too often ignored or under-represented. ii) to apply their skills, knowledge, and dedica- They are studied by a group for which the fair tion to the necessary, but often unrecognized achievement of the goal is key, for the equita- activities of the political manoeverings behind ble and fair treatment of all groups will ensure the scenes. Many assumed the detailed and these achievements for women. iii) The impor- endless tasks of political parties, helping to tance of the relatively minor and personal form policies, raising funds, launching cam- issues seems, in women's view, undiminished paigns, canvassing for votes. Others preferred by the larger political picture. to work from outside the political ranks, Zanana Akande championing causes; battering the politicians Volume 1111uc4 TIGER LILY TIGER LILY ' MAGAZINE 1 EDITORIAL 3 SOCIAL ISSUES: THE VERTICAL MOSAIC IN Publisher CANADIAN PERCEPTIONS OF 'VISIBLE MINORITIES' Ann Wallace SusanKorah 5 ffiSTORY: THE SHADD SCHOOL OPENING Editor Adrienne Shadd Zanana Akande 9 ESSAY: THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA: BALANCE & PERSPECTIVE Editors Luz Helena Sanchez Gomez Marjorie Agosin, Zanana Akande, Ayanna Black, Margaret Chen, 12 POETRY Leah Creque-Harris, Marva Jackson, Marlene Philip Victoria Lee, Susan Korah, 14 ffiSTORY: THE JESUITS AND CANADA'S Karen Tyrell NATIVE PEOPLE Susan Daybutch Hare Contributing Editors 16 EDUCATION: BEVERLY SALMON Luz Helena Sanchez Gomez, Zanana Akande Susan Daybutch Hare, Rosario Ferre, Margarita Papandreou, 18 FICTION Marlene Philip Rosario Ferre 21 PROFILE: YOKO ICHINO Research Editor Marva Jackson Adrienne Shadd 23 ESSAY: POLmCS: WHERE VISIBLE MINORITY WOMEN ARE INVISIBLE SusanKorah Cover Photograph David Street 25 ESSAY: THE PEACE MOVEMENT: WOMEN'S ROLE IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA Art Director Margarita Papandreou W. Horak 27 VISUAL ART: DREAMS & REALITY Margaret Chen Director of Photography Cathy Belleslies 29 HEALTH: THE POLITICS OF WOMEN'S HEALTH Victoria Lee, MD. Business Manager 32 BOOK REVIEW: Gloria Fallick JAMAICAN STORIES Leslie Sanders Advisory Board Gay Allison, Glace Lawrence, Ana Mendez, Ann Noonan, Arun Mukherjee, Beverly Salmon, Leslie Sanders, Anita Shilton, Rita Zikas ~~te~o~~l~n~:~~::~~~~af:~~sh~1~{ ~~~th~ne Women·~ Magazi~e (Ontario) Inc. P.O ..Box 756 •. Stratford, Ontario N5A 4AO. ISSN 0-832-9I99- Registration: 758390. self-addressed envelop A pyt' g 1'd l'. _o part of this magazine may be reprinted without prior permission. Unsolicited manuscripts or artwork should include a stamp . e. wri mg gu1 e me 1s available upon request. Tiger Lily Magazine receives financial support from Women's Program, Secretary of State. 2 Volwm 1 i-a 4 TIGER LILY The Vertical Mosaic in Canadian Perceptions of 'Visible' Minorities by Susan Korab Racism in Canada? Eyebrows shoot upwards Yet to my knowledge, nobody seems to talk and a startled, incredulous silence freezes the air about race-role stereotyping and very few are whenever I take a deep breath and plunge into the even aware of it. By attempting to break the Great topic. "The woman must be crazy or paranoid or Wall of Silence and to start a dialogue on the both", my white fellow-Canadians seem to sug- subject with white Canadians (even those with gest, although few are impolite enough to say so feminist leanings), a memberof a "visible" minor- openly. ity like myself runs the risk of appearing to be a What with the recent explosion of racial zany Don Quixote, tilting away erratically at violence in the U.S. and the brutal fact of apartheid windmills. in South Africa confronting us day after day in This race-role stereotyping colours the atti- screaming banner headlines, it seems like an act of tude of the vast majority of Canadians of Euro- sacrilege, or at least a violation of the rules of pean extraction, and can be subtly damaging to polite society, to talk about racism in Canada. non-white minorities. It can be a very real stum- Yet as an emigre from the so-called "Third bling block in the job market for example, or the World'', (India), I will gather up all my resources education system or even in personal relation- of courage and maintain that yes, racism is alive ships with white Canadians. (Would you be eager and well in Canada. to pursue a relationship with someone who as- It may not be the stuff of banner headlines. It sumes at first meeting that you must be a cleaning does not take the form of slow-simmering anger lady?) and hatred exploding in scenes of violence and carnage across TV screens. Race-role stereotyping, in my view, very often Racism in Canada may not take such spec- occurs at an unconscious or subliminal level. tacular, dramatic or institutionalized forms, but Because of deep-rooted and complex historical nevertheless it is here - subtle, insidious, diffi- processes- mainly several centuries of colonial cult to pin down and measure, next to impossible domination of the world by the "white" races - to fight. most white Canadians (and Americans and Euro- Feminists (of all colours) have recognized peans for that matter), carry a kind of "vertical one form of it and have called it sex-role stere- mosaic" image of race relations, deep within the otyping. Today, thanks to the persistent and con- innermost recesses of their minds. scientious efforts of the most articulate of them, Often working at an unconscious level, the mainstream Canadian society has become a little "vertical mosaic" model of the world's races more sensitized to the damaging effects of sex- pictures the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant male role stereotyping. at the top of some hypothetical hierarchy, and Yet a curious parallel to sex-role stereotyping otherracial groups arranged in a kind of descend- exists in white Canadian perceptions of other ing order, with women of the "visible" minorities races that make up the majority of the world's at the very bottom of the heap. This translates population. I would call this race-role stereotyp- itself into the notion that all other races are some- ing and those of us who happen to be female, as how inferior to, or "behind" Anglo-Saxons in well as "visible" are operating under a double set everything from material prosperity to articulate of obstructionist forces - sexism as well as ra- intelligence. cism - that seem to defy our best efforts. To put it another way, a nearly unassailable assumption of Anglo-Saxon dominance and "su- vo1umc1 bsuc4 TIGER LILY 3 periority" is built into the mental conditioning of persistence have enabled many South Asian men, most North Americans of European descent and to a lesser extent women, to gain entry level These unconscious mental processes reveal positions in fields such as medicine, teaching and themselves in various ways.