Two academics say when Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau went toe-to-toe with Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau last year; it was much more than a simple charity boxing bout.
Kim Anderson, of Wilfred Laurier University, and Brendan Hokowhitu, of the University of Alberta, say what was at the time termed as “The Thrilla on the Hilla” played into racial stereotypes.
Hokowhitu says in the fight Trudeau played into the role of the white gentleman boxer with Brazeau the Aboriginal savage.
“And it comes down to this gentleman discourse because Trudeau basically just jabs and has been taught, you have a long arm just jab jab, and that’s all he did,” he says. “He kept on jabbing and jabbing him and in the end it worked. So it does tie back into this (narrative) that the cultured white guy can beat up on the uncultured Indian guy.”
Anderson adds these racial stereotypes are subconscious and not always easy to detect, but nevertheless, they are certainly there.
“I don’t think people think about it, that’s what I am saying, these things become ingrained in the consciousness of the Canadian mindset and it becomes something that we keep reproducing because it’s something we expect and don’t question.”
Anderson and Hokowhitu were both presenting at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference at the University of Saskatchewan yesterday.