Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 - Backhouse, Constance

Clean, tight, unmarked; slight wear to back inside corners; otherwise absolute minimal wear; appears unread; The year was 1901, the eve of the first Canadian census of the 20th century. The federal government dispatched a tidy and compact set of instructions to the faithful civil servants charged with surveying the nation. The races of men will be designated by the use of 'w' for white, 'r' for red, 'b' for black, and 'y' for yellow. What was eminently clear was that colour and race, two twin conceptions, were inseparably intertwined. Canadian history is rooted in racial distinctions, assumptions, laws, and activities, however fictional the concept of 'race' may be. To fail to scrutinize the records of our past to identify the deeply implanted tents of racist ideology and practice is to acquiesced in the popular misapprehension that depicts our country as largely innocent of systematic racial exploitation.
Near Fine
Soft cover
University of Toronto Press
1999
Toronto, ON