Transforming meanings and group positions: tactics and framing inAnishinaabe–white relations in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Antiracism research often examines how stigmatized groups transform the meanings associated with their group. A complementary approach analyses the tactics that dominant and subordinate groups use to defend or advance their 'group positions' in situations that threaten the status quo. A case study of the proposed relocation of an Aboriginal child welfare facility to a rural Ontario township sheds light on both processes. Before rejecting the proposal, white residents and municipal councillors used delaying tactics, searched for race-neutral justifications, offered unsolicited advice, created new rules, and censured 'traitors'. The Native agency (and its few white 'allies'), guided by traditional decision-making practices, initially tried to provide 'neutral' information, stay positive, and emphasize common interests. When these tactics failed, they considered others before foregoing the opportunity to appeal to an independent tribunal. Ultimately, this case shows how laissez-faire frames and small-town dynamics can limit the choice and effectiveness of antiracist tactics.

Contact Theory in a Small-Town Settler-Colonial Context

“…In my fieldwork, I observed at least one case that could fit this description. Over the next two years, three more "critical incidents" briefly shattered the veneer of racial harmony: threatened blockades over an ongoing local land dispute, white backlash to the proposed establishment of an Anishinaabe group home in nearby Alberton (Denis 2012), and even stronger backlash to a First Nation community's construction of a highway toll booth to protest government neglect. 23.…”

Playing It Straight: Framing Strategies Among Reparative Therapists

“…“As interpretive lenses for organizing experience and guiding action, frames enable us to make sense of situations and define our identities and interests. They also may be used strategically, to try to change others’ opinions or behaviours” (Denis :455). The literature on frame analysis is dominated by work on social movements, in which frames are deployed in order to garner support, bolster recruitment, and circumvent challengers, all to achieve a movement's particular objective (Benford and Snow ; Buechler ; Snow et al.…”

Teaching and Learning about Settler-colonial Racism: A Case for “Unsettling” Minoritizing and Multicultural Perspectives

“…He identified cultural appropriation of "Indianness" in sports as a form of colonial domination that Indigenous peoples have long resisted. The recent work of Jeffrey Denis (2012Denis ( , 2015 provides another exemplar of sociological research that extends race-based theories with insights from Indigenous studies perspectives. In examining the social/colonial relations between Anishinaabe peoples and white Euro-Canadians in a small Ontario town, Denis (2015) relied on theories of intergroup racial threat and interpersonal contact shaped by ongoing settler colonialism.…”

“…This useful racebased interpretation, however, leaves unspecified the colonial structures and ideologies being defended. Using an imperial/colonial frame that claims to know what is best of American Indians not only elevates whiteness but also naturalizes settler-colonial authority and contributes to justifying present-day land dispossession (Denis 2012(Denis , 2015Steinman 2016;Wolfe 2001). Likewise, claiming that "Indian" mascots provide educational opportunities for children certainly reproduces white supremacy, but this "move to innocence" also rewrites a multicultural American identity in terms of conquest, hierarchy, and domination, denies foundational settler violence, and constrains "the ability of the non-Indian community to relate to Indians as contemporary, significant, and real humans" (King and Springwood 2001:8).…”