Yasmin Jiwani - Racism Yasmin Jiwani offers a convincing interpretation of how media representations of violence to sustain the dominance hierarchies through what she calls the discursive denial of systemic racism and sexism. Jiwani main concern is the perpetuation of racial and gender inequality in Canadian government policy and media in the past 20 years. But the discourse of denial is also about identity, and how standardization of these discourses of denial affects the experiences of girls and women of color in Canada. Using a Foucauldian approach that focuses on "the structures of power and discursive devices used to maintain them" (xiii) The statements of denial reveals how the media and government policies are not just gender and race, but they are the corollaries of the settlement and its legacy of violence, Jiwani provides a greater understanding of contemporary social relationships, both intimate and institutional level through the identification and mapping of complex, interconnected field of racism, sexism and violence embedded in everyday negotiations, speeches and texts. (Stokes, 15-99)

Discourses of Denial is a rich and concise book in general, organized into four sections. The first concerns the theoretical and methodological approaches used in their analysis. Despite claims Jiwani is not writing for an audience "well versed" in theory, the book delves into postmodern theory, critical anti-racist, feminist and little mercy. Jiwani argues that discourses of morality and mobility are crucial in governing bodies of racialized women of color, and the mainstream media propagates these discourses. Thus, the media hides the violence of race and racism, "reflecting an imagined community, hegemonic ideals, and his fiction of assimilation." (29) If this first section is a bit dense, it may be necessary a raid on a subject that is so intangible and so integral to our way of thinking. The reader is rewarded with an empirical sense of balance in all three sections. (Stoler, 36)

The second part of Discourses of denial gives an analysis of representations of the media highly publicized killing of Reena Virk and the equally sensational Vernon "Slaughter". These two incidents occurred within a year of each other, in 1996 and 1997, both in the province of British Columbia. Reena Virk was a 14-year-old South Asian origin who was brutally beaten and drowned by a group of 14 to 16 years of age. While this group of seven girls and one boy mestizos, the two main instigators of the murder of Virk were white. Through the Reena Virk case, Jiwani clearly demonstrates how the focus on violence-in girl-girl representations of the media obscure the strategic role of racism and the interconnection between race and gender.

Jiwani argues that the privilege of gender and the absence of any discussion on racism, whether in news coverage or subsequent legal proceedings made possible by the "common sense" of "everyday racism", in what is at stake both what is said and what is not spoken. By contrast, media coverage of the Vernon "Massacre" is an example of how racism and sexism are diverted through what ...