THE CONSEQUENCES OF RACE AND GENDER

The Consequences of Race and Gender

The Consequences of Race and Gender

Introduction

This study is based on two interviews how are giving their views on race and gender. Participants were informed about their rights as research participants and those who decided to participate signed an informed consent which provided me with their authorization to conduct individual interviews varying from 1 to 2 and a half hours. Also, participants were asked to sign a consent form to allow for participant observations sessions to take place in their homes. Participant observation sessions varied from 3 to 6 hours.

Interview No. 1

The following interview excerpts, drawn from this critical ethnography, illustrate Hall's point on 'culture' and 'not culture'. A family caregiver working in a health care facility spoke about racism at his workplace: One day at work, a woman co-worker told me: “You're just a damned Negro.” It doesn't matter since I know that I am a Black man, a 'Negro', and I don't care about it. It doesn't matter if you are Indian or Black because I didn't pick the color of my skin. I had no choice. A middle-aged woman, juggling many roles as health care practitioner, primary caregiver for her aging parents, and mother of young children reported how racial and gender discrimination operated at work: When I was working at (name of a clinic), I had a few problems with a healthcare professional and this was extremely difficult. It was almost a disaster. I was very depressed (Silence). May I ask you the nature of the problem you encountered? Please feel free to answer or not. (Remained silent but she nodded her head for yes). He said things to me… (Silence) Can you tell what he said?

He said: “People who come to this clinic are very educated, very educated, and you can't work here.” He told me that it was not a matter of being well dressed and nice. He told me: “Do you know what I mean?” He even told me that I was chasing clients away. Lather points out that “the search for ways to operationalise reflexivity in critical inquiry is a journey into uncharted territory”.[40 p63] For instance, I noticed my lack of understanding about polygamy. This critical incident heightened my awareness about the impact of gender in the field, as women researchers can be perceived as sexual objects. This phenomenon has also been identified in research among Western populations. Every researcher harbours preconceived ideas and I did not enter the field tabula rasa. My preconceived ideas on sexuality may have influenced my interviewing skills with the Haitian-Canadian men. I experienced difficulties when interviewing men because of the issue of polygamy that I documented in some interviews and in participant observation sessions. To understand men's perspectives and to establish a dialogical exchange with the men participants, I was required to move beyond the limitations of my Western cultural framework. To paraphrase Schutte, I needed to step out of my colonial boots and adjust my Western ...