FCS Midterm InClass Essay

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Indigenous women have been victims of racialised violence ever since the establishment of the North American Colonies (Gov of Canada, 2021; Rindfleisch, 2020)

• Settlers have raped, murdered, abducted and geographically destabilized Indigneous women for control and material benefit

• Today, this historical violence continues in the form of disproportionately high numbers of MMIWG within Canada and North America (Gov of Canada, 2021)

  • Indigenous peoples have been requesting a call to action for a very long time, but not much successful action has been taken to rectify this injustice (MacGregor, 2025)

• Much of the racialized violence IW face can be attributed too

  • Systematic racism: when racist practises and ideology are deliberately and historically embedded into social systems.

  • Racial capitalism: A form of systemic racism where people are purposefully racialized for the material benefit.

    • Includes mechanisms like exploitation and uneven distribution of resources.

Paragraph 2: Thesis and Argument

In this paper, I discuss TOPICS of systemic racism, racial capitalism in relation to the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s epidemic

• Seek to answer the QUESTION “What systemic changes must take place to create a safer society for Indigenous women and girls?”

• I propose that there are two areas where systemic racism is prevalent and should be addressed to create a safer society for IW: the public and legal system

• 1. systemic racism within the public shows up as PREVAILING IGNORANCE towards the MMIWG epidemic and Indigenous culture.

  • This causes the public to believe negative sterotypes of IW and subject IW to victim blaming, creating an unsafe society for IW (Lopez et. Al)

• 2. mechanism of racial capitalism within the legal system appears as an UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES.

  • This allows staff to ignore IW when they report themselves as victims of abuse, and subject IW to more trauma through increased levels of police violence and victim blaming (K and G).

    • These mechanism of racial capitalism further endanger IW, keeping them unsafe in modern society (K and G).

• I conclude by outlining the complexities of moving away from SR and RC and outlining that change to a more equal society must be slow, deliberate and unified through collective action(leong).

• Increasing positive images of IW and culture is vital.

• In this way, society can shift to become a safer society for IW.

Paragraph 3: Systemic Racism in the Public

• Systemic racism in the public appears as the PREVAILING IGNORANCE against Indigenous women and Indigenous culture.

  • This ignorance causes the public to believe neg stereotypes of IW and BLAME IW for undergoing racialize violence.

• IW have been historically stereotyped negatively as promiscuous, criminals, violent and as bad mothers (H D; K G)

  • these stereotypes have become culturally imbedded into North American culture, affecting the way IW are perceived.

• Lopez et al’s (2024) study on cognitive invisibility describes how many settlers believe these negative stereotypes ab IW because they don’t know Indigenous peoples personally and don’t see positive images of IP in the media.

  • This causes them to have high levels of Cog Inv. Towards IW

  • having high levels of CI is linked with low levels of ACTIVISM related to MMIWG and these people are more likely to BLAME IW and BELIEVE NEG STERO ab IW.

  • ** Keeping IW invisible through this systemic erasure and slander causes the public to “not care” for Indigneous women and Indigenous rights, keeping IW unsafe

• The HISTORIC GEOGRAPHIC SEGREGATION of IP further contributes to high levels of CI, leading to more victim blaming and less activism (cite)

  • The historic segregation of IP causes many IW to live outside of highly populated areas (cite).

    • As a result, many settlers dont have the opportunity to KNOW IW AND HUMANIZE IW, further increasing levels of cog invisibility

• ***This continues to make society unsafe for IWaG because if IW are not perceived positively or perceived at all, the public won’t believe IW are “worthy” of help.

• **This systematic erasure and slander of Indigenous women and culture in the pubic leads to increasing levels of ignorance against IW. This ignorance reduces levels of activism for MMIWG and increases levels of victim blaming. This should be addressed to create a safer society for IW.

Paragraph 4: Mechanisms of Racial Capitalism within the Canadian Legal System.

Mechanisms racial capitalism within the legal system appears as an uneven distribution of resources, which causes staff to ignore IW when they report themselves as victims of abuse, and subject IW to more trauma through increased levels of police violence and victim blaming (K and G). This further endangers IW, keeping them unsafe in modern society (K and G).

• Indigenous women are one of the demographics that are mostly likely to experience abuse from the Canadian police and RCMP (H D; P)

  • RCMP have been reported to justify their abuse of IW because they know they wont get caught (P).

  • These consistent experiences of violence cause IW to refrain from contacting the police when they are in danger out of the fear of being abused.

  • ** Instead of RETRAINING STAFF the RCMP leaves things as is (P).

    • This further endangers IW and exemplifies the mechanisms of racial capitalism embedded into the CLS.

• Furthermore, Indigenous MOTHERS report that, after contacting the CLS to report abuse, they are immediately ignored (K and G)

  • Many women report their kids being taken away because they are perceived as ‘bad mothers’

  • ** Instead of being provided proper case sensitive resources, Indigenous mothers are either not given any resources at all or are given resources that make the situation worse.

• Male Indigenous abusers are not incarcerated with access to anger management — a resource proven to reduce rates of domestic violence.

  • ** The government chooses not to provide this resource to Indigenous men while settlers get access to anger management training, further highlight this uneven distribution of resources.

• **Instead of spending resources retraining staff, firing racist staff or providing proper care for IW, the CLS chooses to save those resources and continue to operate within a racist system. These mechanism of racial capitalism within the legal system must be addressed to create a safer space for IW.

Paragraph 5: Next Steps

Moving away from practises of systemic racism and racial capitalism are complex because these racist practices have occurred since North America was colonized (R). Racism has become so deeply embedded into North American culture to the point where it is hard to get rid of (L).

• Leong (2013) calls this dilemma the transition problem

• Many people would suggest to just immediately end racist practises all together. While this is ideal, doing this would likely run into a double bind (L)

  • describes how immediately ending all practices of systemic racism and racial capitalism through legislation, WITH NO CULTURAL CHANGE BEFOREHAND, would likely turn out in a societal freeze where society would remain stratified along racial categories. Leads to divide.

  • To avoid the double bind, change away from systemic racism would likely be most affective with slow, deliberate and unified change as a large social collective.

  • Change should aim to unite people across all racial categories and to shift the culture to a more inclusive direction.

• This could be affective on the micro level with things like

  • People recognizing everyday practices that stem from systemic racism and understanding the harm they cause (L; S)

  • PENALIZE colonial practises by SPEAKING OUT (L)

    • If culture is defined by the actions of people within it, this collective individual action allows for movement that is gradual enough to avoid the double bind, but impactful enough to move away from systemic racism.

    • THIS WOULD ONLY WORK IF PERFORMED CONSISTENTLY WITH A LARGE SOCIAL COLLECTIVE.

  • Changes to make society safer for IW must also occur at the macro level

    • Diversity training: education on MMWIG for people, especially government workers so they can care

    • INCREASE POSITIVE INDIGENOUS IMAGERY : hire IW in influential positions, hire Indigneous actors, make sure the displays if IC are positive

• These steps for change are not guaranteed to be affective and there is must more I am unable to address in this essay (like allocating resources) but theses are good, systemic adjustments that could be made for a safer society for IW.

Paragraph 6: Conclusion

In this essay, I

• sought to answer “what systemic changes must occur to create a safe space for IWG”

• Systemic racism and racial capitalism are in the public and legal system.

  • Ignorance of Indigenous culture and of the violence Indigneous women face, fuelled by geographic segregation and systemic erasure of IW, cause people to believe negative stereotypes about IW and not advocate for them

  • The uneven distribution of resources in the Canadian Legal system prevent IW from reporting when they are in danger due to increased levels of abuse, victim blaming from CLS staff and police.

• Conclude by saying slow deliberate change through a large social collective is good and we must increase positive imagery of IW

• ** The prevailing violence against IW is a complex issue and there is much I could not cover, like the lack of research going into the cases and the allocation of funds for MMWIG.

• ** I acknowledge that change away from systemic racism is not as simple as I presented and there are many more systemic changes that can take place

• Despite this, there are always changes that we, as individuals, can make together and hopefully create a safer space for IW