Article Review:
1939-1945
1939-1945
In the article “Race, Employment Discrimination, and State Complicity in Wartime Canada, 1939-1945” Carmela Patrias explores the employment discrimination of minority groups during the World War II in Canada, focusing on lives of people of Japanese, African and European heritage, as well as Jews and Native people. Even though in times of war minority groups represented a great source of labor, racial difference was a significant factor to disqualify a person from working in war industries. The author describes different assumptions about “foreigners” - minority groups, that lead to social and economic inequality, as well as consequences of such discrimination. The article is also focuses on the role of state officials in the labor market. The study is based on the records of federal government agencies, documents of voluntary organizations created by minority groups, that recorded employment discrimination stories; as well as wartime newspaper and magazines.
Carmela Patrias describes different racist views that were widespread in Canada prior and during the war. Such ostensible assumptions included the accusation of foreigners in “unpatriotism”, the believe that minorities avoid training for home defense and do not volunteer to serve oversees (Patrias, 2007, p. 20). Also, they were accused of sabotage and potential danger, for example, worker of German origin could sympathize to the Nazi (Patrias, 2007, p. 21). Moreover, some Canadians had an assumption that minorities just unable to perform skilled work, as before the War, minorities “were admitted to Canada only to fill the least desirable jobs in agriculture, construction, domestic service, lumbering, mining, and railway maintenance” (Patrias, 2007, p. 19).
During the wartime between 1939 – 1945 some groups of minorities were affected more than others. Visible minorities, such as people of different colour, people with accents or foreign-sounded names had experienced the most extreme and noticeable racist attitude and suffered the most from the employment discrimination. From 1941, Jews, African Canadians, and people of eastern and southern European descent were rejected from white-collar jobs, such as accountants, typist or secretaries. The live of Japanies Canadians during the war was even harder. Most of the men were separated from the families and moved to road camps, the only way for them to stay together was to move to sugar beet fields. They were also not able to engage in independent enterprise and very few white-collar jobs were open to them (Patrias, 2007, p. 36). The Aboriginal people were in similar situation, as they were able to work only in menial jobs. In many cases, “foreign” women were facing not only racism, but also gender-based discrimination. For example, only African Canadian males were able to work in Automobile industry (Sugiman, 2001).
The study of Carmela Patrias echoes with the research of James Barrett and David Roediger, that explored the racism against European immigrants in 20th-century America. As in Canada, the status of people from eastern and southern Europe was ambiguous, as they were above that of groups with heritage from Africa and Asia, with the distinctive colour of their skin, but below the people from Northwestern Europe, that had white skin (Barrett & Roediger, 1997).
The discrimination had an aggravating effect on the productivity in certain industries, as qualified people were excluded from workforce and tensions were created among workers. At the same time, a lot of state officials colluded with the racist employers and workers, following an idea that discrimination could be used to fill undesired and menial yet essential jobs by minority workers (Patrias, 2007, pp. 10–11). However, not all state officials were racist, some of them even belonged to racialized minority groups. Also, a number of Anglo-Canadian officials spoke up against racist discrimination (Patrias, 2007, p. 30). A number of voluntary organizations, created by minority groups protested against employment discrimination, among them Jews and African Canadians were the most active ones. Due to their active social and political position, by 1942 they were able to abandon temporary, ill-paid or dangerous jobs and were offered some new employment opportunities, although many white-collar jobs were still closed to minority groups (Patrias, 2007, p. 32).
Carmela Patrias’s article shows how employment discrimination based on racist views and assumptions was amplified during the World War II in Canada. The article describes the struggles of “foreigners” – people of Japanese, African and European heritage, as well as Jews and Native people in labor market, caused by different stereotypes and assumptions. The author is also defines the role of state in racist practices, as well as the role of diverse protest groups created by minorities.
References.
Barrett, J. R., & Roediger, D. (1997). Inbetween peoples: Race, nationality and the new immigrant working class. In American Exceptionalism? (pp. 181–220). Springer.
Patrias, C. (2007). Race, Employment Discrimination, and State Complicity in Wartime Canada, 1939-1945. Labour/Le Travail, 9–41.
Sugiman, P. (2001). Privilege and oppression: The configuration of race, gender, and class in southern Ontario auto plants, 1939 to 1949. Labour/Le Travail, 83–113.
