Just Kids? Peer Racism in a Predominantly White City

Year of Publication: 2013

Author: James Baker

Publication Source: Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees

Journal Volume/Issue: Vol. 29 No. 1

Category: ,

DOI: https://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/view/37508

Language: English

Keywords: St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, adolescents, racialized refugees, visible minorities, racism, coping, hermeneutics

This article examines the effects of racialized name-calling on a group of twelve visible minority refugee youth from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Through one-on-one in-depth interviews, the author discusses their experiences in order to better understand how this important group of adolescents conceptualizes, constructs, and copes with racism while living in a highly homogeneous white Canadian city. The author concludes by noting that these experiences are having a negative effect on their social integration and that increased efforts by teachers and administrators are needed to help combat peer racism in this predominantly white city.