It's a Brown New Word, Now What?
Milton Wong is an icon in the city (I was familiar with him through the dragon boat community). He was the chancellor of SFU from 1999-2005 and felt the responsibility of universities was to build a more just society. He was a champion for indigenous rights long before we all started talking about reconciliation. SFU has really built their reputation as becoming Canada's most community engaged university and there was a lot energy in the room, where people were excited to have this conversation.
Dr. Petter himself was at the event and said that their interest in bringing Dr. Al-Solaylee to Vancouver was in response to Trump's proposed travel ban, to facilitate a discussion on why being brown matters and the future of liberal democracies.
A little about Professor Al-Solaylee. He's a Yemeni immigrant and a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto where he's been for 11 years. Prior to that he was a theatre critic at the Globe and Mail for a number of years. He is also the author of two books, first - Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes which is about his experience as a gay man growing up in the Middle East and Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (To Everyone) - where he talks about brownness based on experiences of brown people from 10 different countries. The latter formed the content of the lecture where we spent a couple of hours talking about many aspects of brownness. How did we get here? What does "brown" mean? Where do we go from here?
Brown is an ambivalent term that relates to a couple of things. First the world of brown skin and the "pursuit of a lighter skin tone as a global status symbol." Second, brownness in politics, the economy and in mental health. The framework to understanding all of this is to acknowledge that indigenous conquest and slavery underpin the oppression and exploitation of the brown workforce.
"Brown" exists in a continuum that seems to be open to political interpretation (and weaponization). It's not a distinct ethnic group (there's no brown race or language) but a group held together by common experience. There is no box to tick in a census form. It comes down to the idea of who's white and who's not. Brown workers are often invisible, working late hours where they literally aren't seen by the majority. Yikes, so true. When looking at power structures in his book , brown is in the middle; on the cusp of whiteness at the same time being on the edge of blackness. How brown is both the oppressed and the oppressor, something much better explained in his own words.
Labour
Brown is seen as the source of cheap labour. It has missed out on gains in the industrial world and is now looking for their fair share. Our economies depend on brown labour because they often take on jobs that frankly, white people won't do - primarily in farming, taxi cab driving, hospitality, care and healthcare sectors to name a few. All that being said, they are also very present in the knowledge economy (especially in the tech and medical industries).
Professor Al-Solaylee spent a lot of time focusing on personal experiences of brown people. He spent 2 years interviewing people from 10 different countries about their experience of brownness. 9/11 was a pivotal event that really was the catalyst for the recent moral, economic and cultural panic around brown people and labour. Brown started to be the colouring of Muslims which has led to heinous practices of things like racial profiling and hate crimes. As we are seeing in North America, there is an uneasiness and anxiety of migration from specific areas. President Trump set the tone when he opened up his campaign for President by calling out Mexicans, Muslims, undocumented immigrants as morally abhorrent peoples equating all of them with drugs, violence and rape causing unnecessary fear of the brown immigrant vs. US born citizens (white men have been responsible for most of the mass shootings as of late).
Narrative and Language
Importance of truth and facts. FACTS STILL MATTER. That got huge applause. There is no evidence that correlates illegal immigration and a jump in violent crime. There is no correlation between illegal immigration and non-violent crime. There are far more arrests of American born citizens than immigrants. Those kind of benign facts don't sell newspapers or garner clicks on a website.
Globalization
It's not just North America facing these issues. Brown people were needed and brought over to rebuild European countries post WWII. Brown people have been told for decades that "you are here because you were there." No. It should be " you are here because we needed you." The global economy depends on people whose lives are caught up in it - to make a better life for their children. Look at all of the Filipino care aides and domestic workers who leave their children to raise someone else's. Our standard of living is high because they make our lives comfortable and it is our responsibility in the labour movement to look after those workers when they come to our communities to work.
Societies want immigrant WORKERS not PEOPLE.
And while we are at it, why are white immigrants referred to as "ex-pats" and everyone else is an "immigrant?"
The Q&A covered so many topics. We looked at brownness in the rural/urban divide. Empathy as a selective emotion - why are we empathetic for the Syrian refugees and not the Yemeni refugees. Power dynamics within the brown group, moving towards essentialism. The unsettling of indigenous people. White allyship and tokenism. Windrush generation and solidarity.
It was an interesting night and I've said it a million times before. I am very fortunate to live in a city where discourse and dialogue about difficult subjects like race, economics, class and politics are encouraged and facilitated in safe spaces.
This post isn't meant to speak on behalf of brown people but to share what I learned and heard at the lecture.
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