‘Gone, leave, go, move, vanish’: race, public space and (in)visibilities

Abstract

This chapter is a discussion of the various ways Canadian-born young men of colour (aged 17–26) experience (in)visibilities in the public spaces of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I begin this chapter by analyzing the different ways ‘visibility’ and ‘invisibility’ have been conceptualized in the scholarly literature, including literatures on homelessness, public space, and race. Invisibilities include ‘invisible homelessness’ as well as material invisibilities in which young men of colour both purposefully and accidentally navigate public spaces in ways that affect whether they are seen or unseen and by whom. This research emphasizes the contingency and indeterminacy of varying (in)visibilities. Despite the various ways they move between visibility and invisibility in public spaces, young men of colour experiencing homelessness maintain an explicit presence in urban street spaces. Understanding their experiences of (in)visibility in urban space helps us understand the geographies of race and racism in the GTA and in North American cities more broadly.

Keywords:

• race
• gender
• youth
• homeless
• visibility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. McKittrick discusses ‘black Canada’, but the present paper discusses ‘people of colour’. There are certain differences between the experiences of different racialized groups in Canada, but this research has not disaggregated ‘people of colour’. Granted, there are black men among the sample, but their unique racialized experiences are not explored separately from those of other racialized groups. Such unique experiences should be the subject of further research.

2. For a more complete discussion of the ways race and masculinity interact in the relationship to city space, see Jeff May (2014, 2015).

3. This ‘hassle project’ is likely a sub-set of the explicit practice of Toronto Police ‘carding’ of black and brown youth. This practice involves stopping young people on the street and asking for identification, whether or not such a stop is warranted. ‘Carding’, and its unjust character, has come into Toronto news in times more recent than when this research was conducted (Toronto Star, 2015).

4. Regent Park and Moss Park are poorer areas of inner-city Toronto.