The Role and Practice of Racialized Discourse in Culture and Cultural Production

Abstract

This article examines the discursive processes through which the cultural élite, including journalists and editors, and other cultural "authorities" responded to a controversy over three cultural events, the "Writing Thru Race" conference, "Into the Heart of Africa" and Show Boat. In analyzing the protests against racism in cultural production, the press employed a discourse aimed at delegitimizing dissent and stifling debate. Within a discourse of liberal principles and values the media and other cultural producers articulated and transmitted powerful and negative narratives, denigrating images and ideas about ethno-racial minorities. The authors contend, that in a racialized society, the repertoires of representation and representational practices are used to signal racial difference and signify the racialized "Other." The paper illuminates how social inequality is constructed and maintained through discursive practices in the cultural spaces of Canadian organizations, institutions and systems.