Abstract
This article explores narratives of humanitarian compassion as rendered intelligible through the relational intersecting concerns about Syrian refugees and the suicide crisis in the Indigenous community of Attawapiskat, Ontario. Fuelled by a combination of anti-refugee rhetoric, racism and ongoing colonialism experienced by Indigenous people and communities, public and media discourse reveals how humanitarian governance is constitutive of the genealogy of settler colonialism. I suggest that examining the political genealogy of humanitarian governance in white settler colonialism assists in revealing the centrality of racial colonial violence in producing public and media discourse that is contingent upon the relational currencies of anti-refugee rhetoric, racism and humanitarian compassion. As expressions of a grammar of racial difference in liberal settler colonialism, these discourses ultimately reveal how racial colonial violence is constituted through the genealogy of humanitarianism. Este artículo examina las narrativas de compasión humanitaria entendidas a través de las preocupaciones interseccionales de relación sobre los refugiados sirios y la crisis de suicidios en la comunidad indígena de Attawapiskat, Ontario. Alimentado por una combinación de retórica antirrefugiados, racismo y colonialismo persistente experimentado por los pueblos indígenas, el discurso público y mediático revela que la gobernanza humanitaria es constitutiva de la genealogía del colonialismo de asentamiento. Propongo que un examen de la genealogía política de la gobernanza humanitaria en el colonialismo de asentamiento blanco ayuda a revelar la centralidad de la violencia colonial racial en la producción de un discurso público y mediático que es contingente a la moneda de cambio relacional de la retórica racista y antirrefugiados y de la compasión humanitaria. Como expresiones de la gramática de la diferencia racial en el colonialismo liberal del asentamiento, estos discursos finalmente revelan cómo la violencia colonial racial se constituye a través de la genealogía del humanitarismo.
Highlights
The New York Times heralds the triumph of Canadian citizens in their aid of Syrian refugees
Despite Canada being symbolically heralded for accepting Syrian refugees, a wave of anti-refugee activity flourished on the ground
Some of these activities included a petition signed by 50,000 Canadians demanding that the government stop resettling Syrian refugees, anti-Muslim graffiti in places of worship, anti-immigrant demonstrations, and a hate crime incident where Syrian refugees were pepper sprayed at a Vancouver welcome event (Kanji 2016)
Summary
The New York Times heralds the triumph of Canadian citizens in their aid of Syrian refugees. These events demonstrate how public and media discourse trades in anti-refugee rhetoric, racism and moral outrage in order to constitute humanitarian discourse In this particular case, the historical legacy of racialized embodiment in the settler state is arguably manifest in the rates of self-harm and suicide among Indigenous youth. The calls to “help our own” versus the humanitarian crisis “over there” served as a pivot point for anti-refugee rhetoric and for some Indigenous people to articulate outrage at state inaction in relation to the levels of self-harm and suicide among youth This public and media discourse can be used as a portal to address how the historical legacy of the distinctly Canadian version of humanitarianism (in its different historical iterations) has always required a different positioning for Indigenous and other racialized people. How is the racial project of the modern liberal state in Canada made possible by positioning different of Indigenous and racialized people dialectically against one another in the formation of new regimes of racial governance?10
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
