Trapped in the Bigger Leagues

Chatting with a couple of fellow academics. And fellow men. It seems there is a common story. White men have been largely driven out of the teaching profession, the academic profession, as they have of several other professions as well.

JB’s story was this: out of graduate school, he applied for a teaching job, and did not get it. The guy who got it was quite obviously less qualified than he was; but his skin was some fashionable shade of brown. Naively, he phoned up the Human Rights commission. He reported that he was pretty sure he had been refused a job because of the colour of his skin. The interest was immediate. He gave the details of the case. “And what is your ethnicity,” the woman on the other end of the line asked.

“I’m of European extraction,” he answered.

“This conversation is over,” she responded, and hung up on him.

At that moment, he realized he would have no fair chance to pursue his career in Canada. He left the country, and has never gone back. He has been obliged to make his life in exile.

RB, no relation, was listening. He then told his story. He was teaching in BC. Some female colleague got angry at him and threw a glass of water in his face. Naively, he went to his employer’s equity commission to complain. He felt he was the victim of sexism.

Big mistake. They went to the woman, and she promptly accused him of stalking and harassing her. His reputation was destroyed. He had to leave the job. He decided it was not safe for a man to work in Canada; he would have to leave the country to have a chance to pursue his career.

He has only been back briefly since.

There are a whole lot of Canadians living abroad. It is striking. Everywhere you go, in expat communities, you seem to find more Canadians than British or Americans. Mostly men, with Asian wives.

Most men dare not talk of their experiences until they know you pretty well. They know that if they open up to the wrong person, they will be immediately charged with racism and sexism. We living European males have frankly been cowed into silence, and submission. Most of us have learned to keep our mouths shut and our deepest thoughts to ourselves. It is as Richard Wright said about Bigger, the subject of his novel Native Son: it is risky for a nigger to get uppity. There is no telling what might happen to him.

It makes me suspect that something could blow here. When the change comes, it could come fast, and hard. A lot of people have been keeping things quiet for a lot of time. A lot of people have anger they do not know what to do with. It has reached the point of a plain breach between appearance and reality.

I am particularly fascinated that so many of us—including JB and RB—immediately after telling their stories, nevertheless endorse the current state of affairs, endorse the concept of "diversity" and the need for this sort of discrimination. The “Uncle Tom” phemonenon is endemic. It is the standard survival strategy. It may also have something in it of the Stockholm syndrome. As Martin Luther King Jr. observed, no man is oppressed without his own implicit acceptance of the fact.

JB goes on to tell of his experience at U of T Faculty of Education. He claimed that, because of racial quotas, there were two distinct groups of students there when he went through: European men in their thirties of forties with advanced degrees, seeking some form, any form, of academic employment; and women and “men of colour” in their early twenties, fresh out of undergrad programmes. He said that, because of the wide disparity in qualifications, the latter group was generally not able to participate much in classes. The discussions were well beyond their ability and expertise.

He went on to say that he heard from a friend of his working somewhere in the civil service that at one point a large group of white males in his office were fired from their positions. Then the positions were all filled with “visible minorities.” Then most of the white men were brought back again on contract to do the actual work. This all to meet “affirmative action” demands.

And yet, he concludes, it is all worth it, for "diversity."

I suspect he is a closet conservative, but is not ready yet to admit it to me. He is sounding me out.

One day, if it ever looks safe to speak out, the whole thing is going to blow. It's going to blow.