Black Immigrants and Indigenous People

Some black immigrants in Canada believe in the same stereotypes about indigenous people, that led to the Catholic Church to murder and bury 215 kids from the Kamloops Indian Residential School, like animals. By black I mean new immigrants from Africa, Asia and other black and brown continents.

You don’t look Native.

Must be nice to get free college.

Can you give me an Indian name for my dog?

Excerpt. P.210, Fire Keeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley.

First of all, what does a Native person look like? It is not verbalized, but it must fit the stereotype. The stereotype allows new immigrants to treat indigenous people in a degrading manner or throw them looks that say I know what you are, and not who you are.

The who relates to a human being and it’s up to people to identify themselves. Stereotypes take over that function. Ontario has the largest number of indigenous people. Manitoba, my province is ranked the fourth.

Most black immigrants come to Manitoba to work in economic hubs that would not exist, if it were not for First Nations. The private sector and government workers know that their livelihood depends on serving First Nations.

Unfortunately, they pick up the stereotypes from their jobs. Few black immigrants have a valid explanation why they would call First Nations unclean. They give dismissive answers like ‘They’re like that.’

When one woman said it, I retorted, ‘Like you.’ She was shocked and said people from her original country are not like that. What fails to amaze me is how someone from Africa or Asia, who was called names by the British and French colonialists that invaded her country, cannot see the correlation. 

I do.  I grew up in apartheid South Africa.

This is another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang.