Challenging Racism in the Arts

'Challenging Racism in the Arts is a welcome and timely exploration of a theme too often neglected in studies of race and representation - even in a multicultural and multiracial society: the role public cultural events play in inclusion and exclusion. Its wide range of astutely chosen, controversial occasions allows a complex and nuanced sense of how culture can and must be seen as a site of political struggle.' -- Linda Hutcheon, author of Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony

Framed by their contention that 'cultural production is one way in which society gives voice to racism,' the authors examine how six controversial Canadian cultural events have given rise to a new 'radical' or 'critical' multiculturalism.

In this thoughtful and lucid analysis, framed by their contention that 'cultural production is one way in which society gives voice to racism,' Carol Tator, Frances Henry, and Winston Matthis examine how six controversial Canadian cultural events have given rise to a new 'radical' or 'critical' multiculturalism.

Mainstream culture has increasingly become the locus for challenge by racial minorities. Beginning with the Royal Ontario Museum's Into the Heart of Africa exhibition, and following through with discussions of Show Boat, Miss Saigon, the exhibition of the Barnes Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the 'Writing Thru Race' conference in Vancouver, and the ill-fated attempts to acquire a licence for a black/dance radio station in Toronto, the authors examine manifestations of racism in Canada's cultural production over the last decade. A 'radical' multiculturalism, they argue, is difference as a politicized force, and arises whenever cultural imperialism is challenged.