SOCI 3300 Reading Reflection 2: Ties That Bind & Ties That Blind

To examine the social relations of working-class adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds, Orlowski observed and interviewed students from four non-European racial groups: Vietnamese, First Nations, Indian, and Chinese. His data analysis reveals that the denigratory attitude of many Eastern Asian immigrants towards Aboriginal people is due to their lack of understanding of Aboriginal/Canadian history; the arrogant attitudes that some Chinese people hold towards Vietnamese is tied to their preconceived judgements on ‘wealth hierarchy’; and the overt racist attitudes expressed by the white working-class youths against Asian immigrants may be fueled by ‘fear’ of competing against and losing economic status to a non-white race.

What is unique and interesting about Orlowski’s analysis is that he draws on Marxist notion of class awareness and calls for “collective effort on the part of all minorities” (p. 264) to challenge white supremacist racial hierarchy. He suggests that working-class youths from different racial groups need to develop an awareness of social-class interests and realize that they have more in common with each other than with the European-Canadian capitalists. Just like other readings we have done in this course so far, Orlowski’s ethnography recognizes the role of education in nation-building––in particular, in imparting racist ideology and sustaining white hegemony; but on the flip side, it also embraces Paulo Freire’s notion of critical pedagogy and sees education’s transformative capacity to empower working-class minorities to counter racist national discourse and fight against different forms of oppression and inequality.

References:

Orlowski, P. (2001). Ties that bind and ties that blind: Race and class intersections in the classroom. In C. James & A. Shadd (Eds.), Talking about Identity: Encounters in race, ethnicity, and language (pp. 250-266). Toronto: Between the Lines.

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