Abstract
While studies of racism have focused primarily on large urban centres, its effect on young visible minorities living in smaller centres has only recently been given increased attention. Using data collected from over 850 surveys, this article will analyse junior and senior high school students’ observations of racism. The results suggest that youth living in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada believe that racism is more as a problem at the provincial- and national-level despite overwhelming evidence that they have witnessed it at their school and in their city. While for these youth racism is both fluid and contextual, they also employ a number of strategies in order to appear non-racist.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. While there have been very few publicized racial incidents in the province, in June 2014, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a 11-year-old male had been the victim of racism and bullying at his school on the west coast of the island portion of the province. While this research occurred well before this incident, it nonetheless speaks to the value and importance of improving research on racism in smaller jurisdictions.
2. There are a little more than 3450 visible minorities living in the St. John's CMA. The largest ethnic groups are Chinese, South Asian (including, for example, East Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan) and Black.
3. does not include those respondents who chose neither agree nor disagree as their response nor does the tables include individuals who self-identified as a visible minority.
4. There are only three dedicated ESL schools in St. John's: two junior high and one senior high. One junior high and one senior high were reported in this example. The other junior high school chose not to participate in this research.
5. Any responses from visible minority respondents were not included in this total.
6. Following the example of Matsuda (Citation1989) and Essed (Citation1997), this article does not spell out racial slurs unless it is necessary for comprehension.