Why ‘whites-only’ posters are so chilling

Those peddling this brand of racism in Canada often have little to fear from the Criminal Code

Images of posters sprouting in B.C. are pointing to the alarming reality that far from being defeated, Canadian racism is taking off its usual concealments to become more brazen. They evoke at least two uncomfortable truths: the role of inaction that has emboldened overt racists, and the role that white women have played in entrenching white supremacy.

The posters, advertising playgroups of “whites-only moms and tots” in the Metro Vancouver cities of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, began circulating on social media Sunday. “Are you looking for somewhere your children can play with others that look like them?” they begin. “Are they tired of being a minority in their schools or daycares? Escape forced ‘diversity’ and join other proud parents of European children as we create an atmosphere in which our kids can feel like they belong.”

“Belonging,” the message tells us, is for white people. Attempts to help anyone else belong are “forced diversity.”

A QR code and a web address lead people to a space on the Telegram messaging app, which often keeps vile racists cosier than do more mainstream social media apps.

We could take succour in all the white people who were outraged by the poster. In this day and age, I don’t take that support lightly. We could feel comforted that officials in both cities quickly and clearly denounced the posters as “vile garbage” and “disgusting.” Or in knowing that Coquitlam RCMP were investigating to see if there is any criminality involved.

It’s no doubt tempting to find comfort in this, but let’s not buy into the myth that the people behind the posters are just a few “bad apples” among good Canadians, just like the myth of bad apples infiltrating the otherwise noble RCMP and police forces, the bad apples standing for elections, the bad apples among apparent freedom-loving people in convoys, the bad apples among bankers who bring about financial crises.

The truth is, incidents like this don’t happen in isolation. Rather, they reflect something much larger and harder to confront. It’s easier for many people to deal with the idea of a few bad individuals and say “racism has no place here” than it is to dismantle a system that serves them well.

It’s easier to keep the peace than to push back against the prejudices among one’s friends, families and co-workers.

In Canada today, the “whites-only” brand of racism reflected in the posters have often had have little to fear from the Criminal Code. To be sure, that code decrees it illegal to “advocate genocide,” “publicly incite hatred” or “wilfully promote hatred” — but only when it is against any identifiable group. We’ll see whether this case meets the legal bar.

It’s as if the posters proclaiming “It’s OK to be white” that popped up around the country in 2018 were a test to see how far the racists could go. But apparently there were no mechanisms for accountability at that time, and it’s easy to see how that opened the door to this evil.

White pride isn’t a particularly new sentiment in Canada.

It’s just that our preferred method of enacting white supremacy is unspoken exclusion. Racists, it seems, are no longer feeling that need to hide.

The posters force us to openly confront the role of white women in solidifying the project of white supremacy, helped along sometimes by women of other backgrounds who internalize the inferior status imposed on them.

Why would the poster-makers think a call to women to segregate their children would find an audience? While far-right movements are known for anti-feminism, women have increasingly become the target of white supremacist recruitment in roles such as broadcasters, researchers say.

“Female social media influencers have helped to generate millions of views and media attention for farright causes,” write researchers Julia Ebner and Jacob Davey in a George Washington University paper. “By acting as an accessible and enticing part of fringe groups, these women help normalize misogynistic gender dynamics, as well as xenophobic and racist ideologies.”

Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern is one example of such an influencer. But women also play the role of recruiters and organizers.

Think of the supposed “freedom convoy” in Ottawa last year and the role of organizer Tamara Lich. Or the recruitment and propaganda efforts of women like Erica Alduino, who organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Or the open racism of American politicians such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spreads QAnon ideology, and Lauren Boebert, who called a Muslim lawmaker a “suicide bomber.”

These women may be on the fringes, but they are not harmless. They are part of a historical line of women who have hidden behind patriarchal notions of niceness and innocence while becoming instruments of racial injustice. White women were deeply invested in slavery and were violent participants in it. While they were denied many rights, they had the right to buy, sell and manage slaves. The more slaves they owned, the more marriageable they were.

After the Civil War, women founded the United Daughters of the Confederacy chiefly to romanticize the antebellum South and downplay the role of slavery in the war and make it about states’ rights.

Many became members of the Ku Klux Klan, some of them leaders. Their “innocence” turned into a weapon against Black men, who were lynched based on false accusations of rape. The same idea of protecting supposedly vulnerable white women from non-white men led to a racist Canadian law in 1912.

“The Act to Prevent the Employment of Female Labour in Certain Capacities” criminalized “Chinese” men from hiring white women in their business. “Shocking fate of white girls,” shuddered Regina’s The Morning Leader newspaper in September that year, calling such instances of white labour a “grave moral peril.”

Of late, the far-right has wooed white women by focusing on issues such as child benefits and education. They’ve pitted blue-collar working women against immigrants and fanned new moral panics around so-called “parental rights,” creating common cause with a diverse range of right-wing groups.

It’s not a coincidence that one of the loudest voices against supposed gender ideology sweeping schools emanates from the group Moms for Liberty.

Who better than moms to use the most innocuous of activities, a playgroup for children — “tots,” for heaven’s sake — as a site to spread racist ideas?

No, those who partake in racist projects are not mere bad apples. Nor the ones who remain silent “harmless” fools. This is about those who promote or uphold a toxic hierarchy, reaping the benefits of whiteness even while claiming innocence.