Abstract
The first week of February 2014 saw the tragic deaths of two young people in Québec: Naïma Rharouity, a Muslim woman and mother of two who died following an accident in a metro station and Alain Magloire, a Black man and father of two killed by the Montreal police. Muslim women and Black men are racialized within Québec society in significantly different ways from one another, in life as in death. This article analyzes the reactions to and representations of these two deaths in the specific context of Québec and how they fit into heavily racialized scripts. A Muslim woman is strangled to death when an escalator catches her clothing; her hijab is blamed, making her a victim of her culture and dead because of the scarf she wore on her head. A Black man holding a hammer outside a metro station is deemed as so dangerous, violent, and threatening by armed police officers that he is shot dead. Both were victimized but also blamed for their untimely deaths. The challenges these stories pose disrupt assumptions and demand alternative narratives about racialized bodies. This article reveals the different processes of racialization of Muslim women and Black men, and argues that exposing the internal logic of this comparison promotes critical understanding of the ways in which racialized scripts shape and influence our lives. This further highlights ways to work towards building stronger solidarities to resist and challenge narratives that demand tragic endings for racialized bodies.
Highlights
During one of the coldest weeks in winter 2014, two tragic deaths took place in Montreal, Québec’s largest city
On Thursday, January 30th, a Muslim woman—Naïma Rharouity—died accidentally when her clothes became entangled in the escalator as she entered the Fabre metro station in the city’s north end
A Muslim woman is reported to be strangled to death on an escalator, her hijab is blamed, making her a victim of her culture, oppressed—and in the end, dead—allegedly because of this particular kind of scarf; a Black man holding a hammer in the middle of the day outside the bus station of a major Canadian city is deemed so dangerous, violent, and threatening to a group of armed police officers that they hit him with a police cruiser and shoot him dead
Summary
During one of the coldest weeks in winter 2014, two tragic deaths took place in Montreal, Québec’s largest city. On Monday, February 3rd, a Black man named Alain Magloire was murdered by the SPVM (City of Montreal Police Service) outside of another metro station, near the city’s main bus terminal. Both Magloire and Rharouity were in their 40s, both were parents of two children, and both were racialized by Montreal, Québec, and Canadian societies. Our analysis looks at how Rharouity’s deadly accident and the shooting of Magloire by police were rapidly taken up in public discourse in ways that cast them into pre-existing scripts that racialize and deracialize them In both cases, these processes of racialization are informed by gender, religion/culture, mental health status, and immigration histories. In different, yet overlapping and mutually constitutive ways, both Rharouity and Magloire were cast as victims while implicitly blamed for their untimely deaths
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
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
