Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Without knowing the racial composition of the student body, how do Canadian universities determine whether racism may exist in the admissions process?
Nobody knows what race you are when you apply. Religion and race are not questions that are permissible in Canada on application forms (on job applications you are also not permitted to ask someone's age, race, marital status. Nor are you allowed to ask them such questions in interviews - not allowed to ask whether they have children or if they plan to have children, etc.
The one question that consistantly appeared on many application forms, from jobs to military induction was "Religion' and that was the basis for a far reaching type of discrimination that I believe outclassed anything of a racist nature that might have happened in Canada.
Woebegone the poor guy who was Catholic and wanted a job at the local Protestant owned flour mill. Even to the young girl who brought a cotholic suitor home to meet ma and da! Whooee!
The very town I currently live in was settled origionally by black underground railroad arrivals who were given land grants if pledging allegiance to Great Britain and being willing to fight America. Cute eh? Historians stumbled upon overgrown graveyards to eventually discover this history long after the town had become a scottish bastion in the later 1800's.
.....No one is saying they do not exist, we are saying that the voices are not loud enough or pronounced. Did you bother to watch the Video I posted from Mr. Walcott?
Okay, I watched the video (or at least the first 13 minutes of it out of 16 and then it froze up my computer, but I got the gist of it).
I do not wish to make any comments about Obama although I will say if his election has made black people happy then I'm happy for the black people but I don't think his election is pertinent to Canada.
That gentleman on the video is a black immigrant from Barbados and you, Edward, (if I recall correctly) are a black immigrant from somewhere in the Caribbean who lived in Canada for awhile and then decided Canada wasn't good enough for you so you moved to America.
You and that gentleman are both saying that the voices are not loud enough or pronounced enough in Canada. I ask you this - by whose standards are they not loud enough or pronounced enough? Canadian standards or Caribbean standards or American standards?
If you feel that you are being discriminated against then by all means you should speak up long and loudly about it until you get the results you want where you are. However, if you are saying the voices aren't loud enough or pronounced enough by American standards then I think you will have to wait until Canada catches up to America and has 10 times the general population it does now and 10 times the black population - just like America presently has 10 times the general population that Canada does. Then the voices of blacks and Asians and Mexicans and Muslims and whoever else might feel they're being discriminated against may be louder and more pronounced because presumably there will be 10 times more of them all in evidence to be louder about it. And maybe by that time they will no longer feel it's necessary for there to be louder and more pronounced voices speaking out against racism and discrimination.
I think I will drop this topic now - sorry but it's boring me now and frankly I'm tired of Americans and people from other countries questioning or trying to exert their influence on Canadian affairs - but in closing I will tell you this.
If I was going to get onto the bigotry and racism and discrimination bandwagons in Canada (or even USA for that matter) it would be the First Nations bandwagon first and foremost. The First Nations people are who have my greatest sympathies. The First Nations people have gotten more of a raw deal here in North America than any other race of people I know of here or anywhere else. They are the people in North America who most need loud and pronounced voices to speak up on their behalf for them by their own people and by people of other races and heritage.
I'd honestly have to research the application forms for the colleges at which I applied many, many years ago. My sense is that this question isn't part of the application itself but a separate, voluntary form. Many schools place a value on having a diverse student body, so such information in helpful toward achieving that goal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshineleith
Religion and race are not questions that are permissible in Canada on application forms (on job applications you are also not permitted to ask someone's age, race, marital status. Nor are you allowed to ask them such questions in interviews - not allowed to ask whether they have children or if they plan to have children, etc.
The same is true in the United States. These are protected classes under the Civil Rights Act.
I'd honestly have to research the application forms for the colleges at which I applied many, many years ago. My sense is that this question isn't part of the application itself but a separate, voluntary form. Many schools place a value on having a diverse student body, so such information in helpful toward achieving that goal...
If you google different university application forms, they'll usually pull up in pdf form.
The ones I pulled up (American universities) all had a race question on them, although it indicated that it was optional to answer it.
I understand your bolded point, and have mixed feelings about it. At one point in my career I worked for a company in Alberta that had an affirmative action hiring practice. Their goal was to have an equivalent percentage of employees that were Native Canadians as was the population percentage of them in Alberta. Ideology-wise it made sense. In practice? It caused a lot of problems. There were a number of instances in my department alone where the less qualified individuals got the jobs.
Affirmative action hiring also fosters the phenomenon that we currently see in both Canada and the USA called the "straight white male discrimination" phenomenon. If companies are filling quotas (whether they be to hire more women, more LGBT, more of a particular race or language group) then the decision is not based on qualifications / merit. My son is experiencing this right now, trying to get into the RCMP. He'd have a better chance to get in if he had ovaries :
The RCMP plans to make white, male police officers a minority on the force within a generation as it struggles to better reflect the multicultural face of Canada.
Under new hiring benchmarks set this month, senior Mounties say that new classes of recruits should comprise 30 per cent women, 20 per cent visible minorities and 10 per cent aboriginals, The Globe has learned. If the benchmarks are met, it would be the first time “minority†hires would actually represent a majority of RCMP recruits.
Nobody knows what race you are when you apply. Religion and race are not questions that are permissible in Canada on application forms (on job applications you are also not permitted to ask someone's age, race, marital status. Nor are you allowed to ask them such questions in interviews - not allowed to ask whether they have children or if they plan to have children, etc.
Correct- they do not ask the race..when they see the name Wong or Hu..they know what "race" they are- but it does not matter much these days because Asians are the majority at the University of Toronto. Take a walk though the area and you will notice that in time those of Asian heritage will rule the roost by sheer numbers..Not taking a racist stance..that is just the way it is...I except things the way they are.
I do resent the inaccuracy of terms such as visible minority when making reference to what is a majority. Recently the subway broke down and the platform was flooded with people who were not of the old European lineage- There were one thousand people we consider not white...and only three that are white...I was one of them...I was the invisible minority- but I can handle it...cos I'm the KING....lol.
And when they see the name Brown, or Smith, or Jones? I know many people of different races with non-descript surnames. In fact one friend is named Wong and she's white as snow (although her children are 50-50 ).
What is racial breakdown of students? Pardon me, that sounds to me like some form of racism but perhaps I am misunderstanding. I've worked in colleges in Canada and have never heard of racial breakdown of students. Is that some sort of segregation of students according to race? Or is it something else? Perhaps it is something I know of by different terminology. How is racial breakdown done and what is the purpose? Please explain what that is as you know it to be.
Oh, and who is Connie Chung and what is the Connie Chung syndrome?
.
her comment doesnt really make sense...I think by doing a racial breakdown..you are in fact focusing on differences/segregation instead of seeing people as just people.
And the US is hardly full with Asian Americans on TV, in news or movies/tv
Last edited by darrensmooth; 05-01-2012 at 02:30 PM..
For instance, there are many African-Americans who prefer to seek colleges that are considered "historically Black." Howard University in DC is one. I am Asian-American and bein aware of the demographics of a school was important to me- as it was, for many of my fellow students. This was already many years ago. Dont try to insinuate racism as you have already.
Apologies if such honesty is hard for you to take in.
Connie Chung info is available thru google.com
thats just it, we don't try to go out of our way to seperate ourselves, at least based on what I can see in Ontario, colleges are quite mixed, of course white people will be the majority (they are the majority overall so that makes sense)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
:
).
