Liberal leader Justin Trudeau listens to a question at a campaign rally in Saskatoon the day after images of him in blackface became public.
Images of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau in blackface invoke vile, racist, and offensive stereotypes, says Windsor Law professor Reem Bahdi.
“Trudeau’s conduct ridicules racialized communities. It signals to them that they are second-class citizens,” she wrote in an article published Sunday in the Conversation. The Conversation is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered direct to the public. “His behaviour must be understood in political and social context.”
Bahdi says that while Trudeau apologized using terms like “micro-aggressions” and “unconscious bias,” it’s not clear he has internalized these concepts: “Until the prime minister demonstrates a real grasp of the dynamics of discrimination, his apologies will ring hollow.”
Read the entire piece, “Trudeau’s blackface apology rings hollow and highlights anti-Arab stereotypes,” in the Conversation.