Academics explain Canadian multiculturalism’s blind spot, polite racism: 'The art of saying no with a smile'
Although Canada has long been perceived as multicultural “mosaic” where different nationalities can co-exist in harmony, new research shows that this idea is far from reality.
As University of Ottawa PhD student Karine Coen-Sanchez explains, bubbling beneath the surface of Canada’s civility and DEI practices lies a subtler form of racial exclusion: “polite racism”.
This type of racism is “distinctly Canadian”, she says, because it hides behind the veneer of our trademark politeness: it’s harder to see and harder to name, but it still has the power to decide who gets hired, who gets promoted, and who truly belongs.
According Coen-Sanchez’s research, “Polite Racism and Cultural Capital: Afro-Caribbean Negotiations of Blackness in Canada”, Black Canadians (her research focuses on first- and second-generation Haitian- and Jamaican-Canadians in Ontario and Quebec) continue to face systemic barriers in hiring, promotion, and daily workplace interactions, despite high levels of education and professional qualifications.
These patterns persist even among those with strong educational backgrounds and professional credentials.
Instead of being about open hostility or explicit discrimination, polite racism is about how institutional politeness can be weaponized to maintain the status quo, Coen-Sanchez explains.
“In my research, I define...
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