Why french Canadians are often antisemitic?

Question

In the US, calling a black man by the N** word is not a thing to do.Attacking minorities and race is not politically correct in many Anglo-Saxon country.

Although Quebec is part of Canada, they don't share the same respect for minorities and the political correctness.In the province of Quebec, cradle of french Canadian in Canada, you can attack a black man by bringing-up negative stereotype and that wouldn't cause any scandal.

In radio talk show, they often attack Jews and denied the holocaust.Should french Canadian stay distinct in their racism?

Answer 1

We don't have the same information :
- I've read that 44 percent of all prisoners in the United States are black (Although blacks account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population)
- I've read about the police violence in USA
- I've read about first nation situation in USA

But I don't believe all American are racist !
It's the same for Canada and Quebec
It's peaceful place with less violence than USA .

I've also read :
- The Grand Council of the Cree reached a $3.4 billion deal with Quebec for hydro
- and Canada and Quebec have laws to protect minorities.
(it's impossible to have a kkk website in Canada but for USA it's another story!)

Answer 2

Hmm, interesting. I would take it as one example, but yes, you still don't want to hear that kind of stuff on the radio. I wouldn't block it from airing on the radio, freedom of speech allows you to listen to that radio show and laugh and shake your head about what idiots the station manager and radio host are.

As for attacking Jews in Quebec here is my perspective. Quebec has a large Jew population, one of Canada's largest Jewish populations is in Montreal. They are just that, a culture that clashes with the Quebec culture when Quebec French Culture feels threatened. It's politics, those Jews may act more like Canadian than Quebecers. When votes come along to separate, the Jews are there voting a higher percentage to stay in Canada. When they vote for a leader, they are there again with a higher percentage vote opposite what the French-Canadians do.

I think they mostly get along, but some of the French-Canadian Separatist Radicals, find them the typical scapegoat that is keeping French down.

Answer 3

Antisemitism and xenophobia is deep seeded inside Quebec's french Canadian history.During a long period,the french catholic church establishment was opposed to immigration of European Jews to the province while everywhere else in Canada, they gladly invited anyone who could help on the effort to develop the economy and grow the population. The slow decline of the french Canadian population and the influx of new immigrants to embrace English language is a direct result of the laws of the past.

It is true that french Quebecers, in general,are unashamed to insult a black man by calling him the N** word in french but it's not completely their fault. Education is a factor, post secondary education only started late during early 1970s "revolution tranquille" era.

Racism is a direct result of ignorance. After Montcalm was defeated and France despoiled of the new world territory, the entire intellectual caste went back to France, living the uneducated farmers, courreur des bois(fur trappers). Quebecers are smart, but ignorant, its a two different thing.

The Quebec francophone intellectual leaders are not as Sharp as European french or American.Instead of leading the french Canadian people to evolve and become open minded like the rest of the civilize world, they push them to be more nationalist.

Answer 4

Wow! Let me preface with this - In America anyone can do the same things. The problem is that if your voice gets to much attention, you are liable to find yourself in a heap of trouble with black groups, attorneys, and the general public.

So. ..I don't think the radio talk shows should be distinct in their racism, they just shouldn't be VOCAL about it! There are faaaaaaaaaar to many other subjects worthy to discuss.

EA

Answer 5

I think you're confused; the Quebecois are not much different from the rest of North America. They do have their idiots, even in the media, much like Howard Stern.

Some points:
- the French-Canadian identity is strong; they identify with themselves as a group and feel that "this is their land", so anyone else is an outsider - even if they've lived there all their life.

-they have felt oppressed because since England conquered them in the 1760's, they have typically been ruled by English "bosses". This has added to their resentment on non-french, and helped develop the separatist (independence) movement. For example, one of the main proponents of Quebec Separation in the 60's wrote a book "White ******* of North America" (n-word censored?) about how the English treated Quebecers. Of course, they've run their own government since the early 20th century, so this is somewhat of a bare arguement.

The separatist chief in the last referendum on separation blamed their loss on "money and ethnics" - i.e. rich English interests and the foreigners and English who make up 20% or more of the overall population of Quebec and tend to vote "NO" to separation. Thus, to separate from Canada, they need to persuade 50% of the population from among 80% who are French - or 5/8 of the french, 63% of them, just to win. They feel that this isn't fair.

-part of their identity is their religion, a strong Catholic heritage. Remember that anti-semitism was a strong trait in much of the heavily catholic areas of Europe, and the same applied here. Especially among the older members of the French-Canadian community, this attitude may still be there - reinforced by resentment of "outsiders", as many Jews in Montreal are of other enthnic extractions, i.e. German (yiddish).

-because they speak a different language, they are strongly insulated from the scrutiny of the press and cultural currents of "political correctness" that have gone way overboard in the rest of North America. We tend not to hear the nuance and double-entendres embedde in their language.

(For example, former prime minister brian Mulroney in parliament once heckled an opposition member when she was asking a long-winded question with the taunt "acoucher, achoucher". This literally means "give birth", but can also be interpreted as "get to the point...". Probably a better translation would be "Get it out..." Anyway, she was a large lady and took this as a fat joke. If he had said something similar in English, he would have been raked over the coals, but in French, fewer people got it and they didn't care.)

French-Canadians also, until recently, had a history of very large families (10 children was not uncommon- Celine Dion has 12 siblings, IIRC) and a very French attitude to certain matters like sex, dirty jokes, and drinking. Unlike the rest of Canada and USA, they never had an episode of prohibition or restrictive liquor laws. In the rest of Canada for years, alcohol was only available from government outlets, while in Quebec it was sold in corner grocers.

French has many more ribald and explicit words that would not be allowed on American TV. The "French Channel" CBC in many English-Canadian cities was famous for showing artsy movies with racy scenes in them, even back in the 60's and 70's when bare breasts on TV was otherwise a no-no.

The talk-show people (especially radio) that you're thinking of, like Howard Stern, are out to shock. In Quebec, this "shock" harder to do. (One Quebec premier during election remarked off-handed that his opponent would "get down on all fours and suck". I can't imagine an english politician even thinking about saying this, due to the repercussions.) To get reactions, the radio personalities say things much more blatant than english radio would. Unless it becomes so offensive that it gets widely reported, it's usually ignored. After all, do you know what Howard Stern said yesterday? I don't...