Daniel Quan-Watson answers Rex Murphy's questions on racism in Canada

February 8, 2022 6:27 PM

Back in in 2020, in the midst of the BLM demonstrations, a media figure who for a loooong time has staked out the “curmudgeonly” view of Canadian politics, and who has been invited time and again to share his views on the national broadcasting system, wrote a National Post editorial, asking questions about how racist Canada actually was. In December, Deputy Minister Daniel Quan-Watson decided to answer those questions from his personal point of view. It's a half hour long but worth watching. If you don't feel inclined to sit through it, there's a transcript.
posted by brachiopod (26 comments total)

Goddamn, that was powerful and very moving to read. Thank you for sharing it.
posted by tinydancer at 7:42 PM on February 8, 2022 [9 favorites]

Quan-Watson is great, and his story is shocking and required reading. Murphy is... Don Cherry with a copy of Roget's.

In continuing to publish Rex Murphy, the National Post gives hope to all of our grandpas and uncles who aren’t invited to family BBQs anymore because they can’t stop talking about QAnon.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:52 PM on February 8, 2022 [17 favorites]

That was so affecting - even more so for its matter-of-factness.

I hope that at least school bullying has been reduced - I keep hearing about zero tolerance policies for bullying and denigrating others, and an ongoing focus on inclusive classrooms. (I'm sure they're not anywhere near universal, but the very existence of zero-tolerance bullying policies anywhere is a massive change from when I was in grade school.)

If there has been a shift in the way kids behave around each other, I wonder whether that might evolve into less racist generations of adults.

I sure hope so, anyway.

Racism is one of those overwhelming problems that feel like there's nothing I can do to change it. But I need to remind myself that I CAN - aside from working on my own unconscious bias, I can support anti-racist projects and try to advocate for diversity in whatever spheres I encounter.

Quan-Watson's long, long list reminds me of the urgency of doing what I can, however small.

Thank you so much for posting this, brachiopod.
posted by kristi at 8:18 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Re: these interactions that Quan-Watson describes, so so so many of them are based on the "Asians are perpetual aliens" strain of white supremacy. E.g. "A Canadian Border Services Agency officer told me that I could not use the line that I was in because it was for Canadians only. I was actually travelling on a Canadian Diplomatic passport having represented Canada abroad. He had not checked my passport before making the comment."

And on top of that is that we shouldn't have to be citizens to receive humane treatment.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:27 PM on February 8, 2022 [10 favorites]

Funny, I work in the GC and came across that article a few weeks ago and what started as a casual read became so much more engrossing. I sure hope Rex took the time to read it as well.
posted by furtive at 8:57 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Max Pointy!

Great response by Quan Watson. Almost worth having Murphy around to elicit it.
posted by CCBC at 11:22 PM on February 8, 2022

I remember reading about this and being quite struck by Quan-Watson's thoughtful tone when recounting the vile things he has encounted when confronted by racists. As someone who was born in in small town BC in the 60s this does not surprise in the least, nor does it now.

Being a white male in a blue collar work environment, so many times I have heard shitty, racist from fellow white males who assume I have the same values. I don't. Some of them don't talk to me anymore, either, because I started pushing back. I'm fine with that.

No one should have to put up with this shit, and his response should be required reading for this entire country.

This country has its share of racists, we're just politer about it.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 12:51 AM on February 9, 2022 [11 favorites]

I am exactly onboad with Phlegmco(tm) in my lived experience. For me the huge eye opener was a short stint living in rural Nova Scotia, for me it was like stepping through a time portal to my 70s childhood in terms of the levels of casual and assumed racism.

Outside the large urban centers Canada is on the whole an incredibly white and racist place.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:58 AM on February 9, 2022 [8 favorites]

It's quite prevalent in urban centers too; it's just not as public - just go to the right coffee shop at the right time and you'll hear it come out. Or these days, in front of the legislature.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 2:03 AM on February 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

Very good reading - thanks.
posted by whatevernot at 3:50 AM on February 9, 2022

Rex Murphy literally makes me think of that Grandpa Simpson clip of "old man shouting at clouds."
posted by Kitteh at 4:57 AM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

Yeah a few years ago at the McDonalds just off of YVR this white guy remarked, "The place has changed a lot, since 1997". Like, I'm an Asian American walking right past your table with my McDonald's food tray and you have the gall and insensitivity to say that?

If I confronted every instance of insidious racism, it would probably consume my life. Like what he said in the video.
posted by polymodus at 5:31 AM on February 9, 2022 [8 favorites]

What an awesome public servant; I don't think anyone in the US government would do the same, for ugly political reasons.

I don't have time to watch the whole thing because I have to leave for work, but OMG this is so very, very good so far.

I had to stop at "I've been called a ch*** several thousand times," which made me laugh in shared pain with him, but mostly because of his excellent matter-of-fact delivery.

Thanks, brachiopod! Cannot favorite this enough.
posted by honey badger at 7:30 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

polymodus, your McDonald's story is *so* common, and I have no idea how certain white people have the GALL to say something like that, but they do! And often! And all over North America!

It's so sad that your story is not a standout in any way. And you're right, I wouldn't want to re-visit the most painful experiences of my life simply because of my face. But that's what happens to a person who is not white-presenting in North America, isn't it?
posted by honey badger at 7:34 AM on February 9, 2022

Outside the large urban centers Canada is on the whole an incredibly white and racist place.

This is true in the US, also. Drive about 45 minutes outside any large urban centers in the US.
posted by honey badger at 7:35 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thank you so much for posting this. As a white American, I've had these conversations with friends who are Black and know Daniel Quan-Watson's experiences are sadly typical.

When my daughter was around 18 years old, she was a counselor in a summer program serving kids of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. The program was operated in a school located in a notoriously racist area of our city. One day she was returning to the building from an outdoor play area with her youngsters. A slightly older boy (about 9 or 10 years old, I think) came rushing past them, clutching his stomach and crying. She stopped to help him and find out what happened.

Apparently this boy been shooting hoops with a few much older (19-20ish) neighborhood white males. The boy called foul on one who then called him the N-word. The boy's—naturally childish—reaction was to hit the much bigger male who then punched the boy very hard in the stomach.

My daughter sent the boy into school to see the nurse. She then turned around, marched to the basketball hoops, and called out the young adult white male. She told him that he initially behaved badly, provoking the boy, and then responded inappropriately. She asked how he'd feel if someone called him a "cracker"—he said it wouldn't bother him. Her small group of children was still with her.

This young adult was unrepentant (not surprising), indicating that those people didn't belong in his neighborhood, and further saying that the children with her wouldn't want someone white in their neighborhood. One of her kids let him know that he was wrong about that.

This was over 20 years ago and described as well as I can remember from what I was told. There are a couple things about this encounter that stick with me. My daughter was very brave but did not perceive herself that way—she just reacted to the situation by doing the right thing. More importantly, while her reaction apparently didn't have a positive effect on the perpetrator, I'm guessing it had a profound impact on the young children who witnessed the interaction.
posted by Scout405 at 8:27 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

If I get asked one more time, "No, but really, where are you from?" in Toronto again, I'll ... realize it's Thursday.

I won't hear another "But this isn't us! This isn't my Canada!" squeal. Only by acknowledging that, yes, this is very much us, a systemically racist society, that we can ever start to remedy our problems.

And Rex Murphy? I find it helps that "Let's Talk About Rex Murphy" works as a perfect rhyme in Salt-N-Pepa's 1990 hit ...
posted by scruss at 9:08 AM on February 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

We don't talk about Rex Murphy.
posted by bonehead at 10:43 AM on February 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

"[...] I would estimate, now in my mid-fifties, that I would have faced something in the order of 10,000 slights, insults, decisions or actions directed at me based on race over the course of my life. I might be out by a couple of thousand in either direction, but not by much."

"So what I hear you saying is, possibly as few as 7,000 slights, insults, etc?"
- Rex Murphy or some other dumbass motherfucker, probably
posted by elkevelvet at 3:56 PM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

*Torontothesaurus Rex
posted by little eiffel at 3:38 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Outside the large urban centers Canada is on the whole an incredibly white and racist place.

This is true in the US, also. Drive about 45 minutes outside any large urban centers in the US.

Racism isn't a urban/rural problem. In my experience, the racism is just different: people whose only exposure to Asian people came from 90's Chinatown episodes of Law and Order are different from people who are afraid that there are too many street signs in Chinese. And those people are different from the jackass on Metafilter who tried to tell me that most Asian Americans have arranged marriages because he read an article in the San Jose Mercury News this one time.

He's not having passport issues at small, rural international airports.
posted by Comrade_robot at 4:48 AM on February 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

He's not having passport issues at small, rural international airports.

I agree with Comrade_robot but take issue with that last line. Being a border services agent at a large urban airport doesn’t necessarily mean you live in or are from an urban area. My paltry anecdotal sampling suggests a good number of police and other highly paid service workers commute huge distances into town by choice. Having the union muscle to cram shifts into shorter work weeks can sometime mean being able to share apartments for down time and then drive home for days off. Lots of people are culturally aligned with the idea of huge houses, macho trucks and reeeeeeaaally noisy outdoor recreation.
posted by brachiopod at 7:26 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

reeeeeeaaally noisy outdoor recreation

in these parts, there is barely an off season.. perhaps a few weeks, either end of winter, where the combination of colder temperatures and general slogginess keep the skidoos in the garage and the ATVs similarly stowed away. Otherwise, that racket is a fact of life. It's bad enough, I will drive 20 min to relative seclusion to walk with dog. what the hell is it with these chuckleheads? I'll spare the details, but it's not just the damn noise, it's the sense of entitlement.. exactly one time have I attempted to point out that a person was on a trail with clear signage "NO ATVs"
posted by elkevelvet at 7:59 AM on February 10, 2022

I agree with Comrade_robot but take issue with that last line. Being a border services agent at a large urban airport doesn’t necessarily mean you live in or are from an urban area.

Of course, from the perspective of somebody experiencing racism, racism occurring inside the city because of nebulous rural outsiders sneaking into the city during working hours and racism from people who actually live in the city -- not much of a difference, eh?
posted by Comrade_robot at 10:57 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Thank you for sharing this powerful and eloquent testimony.
posted by invokeuse at 12:27 PM on February 10, 2022

I particularly love Quan-Watson calling out dismissive, trivializing, minimizing reactions of white Canadians -- some of whom he had considered friends -- upon hearing him recount just one of these incidences.

So much of this shit is about control. I've pointed out to some white folks, who I know well enough to trust that they will think deeply about my words, "People from higher up the hierarchies like to arrogate being judge and jury to themselves: 'Does this one incident really qualify as something that justifies cybercoitus interruptus's reaction?'"

Judge and jury, based on their zero experience of growing up as a visible minority in a white-dominated society. Based on assuming that they are the superior party to evaluate, in isolation, this one incident that I chose to disclose (out of thousands starting from age 5) to them.

Sure, maybe they didn't realize that it's thousands. They could have if they'd bothered to engaged their curiosity and humility: "Tell me more, if you're comfortable with it." Instead of arguing (!) with me.

I hope the white-supremacist-organized "freedom trucker" convoy persuades more white Canadians to deal with their deep-down racism, and that of their white friends and relatives. A Korean-Canadian friend in Toronto was walking down the street last week and a white guy detached himself from his convoy to run up to her all "We're winning against you people!"

My first FPP, in 2006, was about The Question "Where are you really from?" 3 of the 5 links are dead now, but re-reading the thread, I mourn the BIPOC folks who left Metafilter thanks to macro- and micro-aggressions. Site culture is way better now, but it cost so many good people. I'm doing everything I can to whittle down my own ignorances (tops lately: disability rights; Indigeneity and colonization; carcerality). I don't want to do to others the shit that people have done to me and mine.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 3:14 PM on February 16, 2022 [3 favorites]