Looking to decolonize your public library? Address Aporophobia First 

John Pateman and Margaret Demillo 

 

 

Abstract                                      

This article will examine some of the deeper conversations that need to happen 

before a public library can fully institute a decolonization and reconciliation plan. 

Using mass observation as evidence, the authors argue that acts of 

discrimination are often mistaken as racism, when in many cases the ‘us versus 

them’ mentality is rooted in a perverse and often unconscious fear of poverty 

and of the poor. A decolonization plan cannot be fully implemented until 

aporophobia and to a greater extent, the confines of capitalistic society are fully 

understood by library staff. 

Introduction   

Under the leadership of John Pateman the Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) is 

addressing the issues of racism, decolonization and reconciliation head on. As 

these uncomfortable discussions unfold, some emerging themes have emerged.  

There is no doubt that racism exists in Thunder Bay, Ontario and that TBPL is 

one of many Eurocentric public organizations that exudes institutional racism.  

But current discussions, both direct and indirect are highlighting an undercurrent 

to the perceived racism issue - economics. In fact, it is the fear of poverty and of 

the poor (‘aporophobia’ to be precise) that is at the root of many decolonization 

and race relation discussions.  

Thunder Bay, Ontario is a city with a population of slightly over 107,000 people.  

The city sits near the head of Lake Superior and is often referred to as the 

‘Lakehead’.  The city is revered for its geographical beauty, slate blue skies are 

reflected in the largest of the Great Lakes.  A large formation of mesas  

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa) on the Sibley Peninsula 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley_Peninsula) in Lake Superior 

                                            Information for Social Change ISSN 1364-694X, (39) Winter 2020/21 

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(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior) resembling a reclining giant has 

become a symbol of the city that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous 

communities recognize as ‘Nanabijou’ or the ‘Sleeping Giant’.  The natural 

beauty of the area is haunted by the community’s reputation as the ‘murder 

capital of Canada’, a city with its racism headlining in national newspapers and 

the focus of Tanya Talaga’s book Seven Fallen Feathers that captured the 

tragedy of Indigenous youth within the City. 

Pateman has started very serious and awkward discussions within the library 

and the larger community, stating: “Thunder Bay Public Library recognizes, 

accepts and acknowledges that racism exists in Thunder Bay and at TBPL. 

Racism is the problem and only a strong anti-racism response is the answer.” 

(Press Release, Thunder Bay Public Library, 2018).  

The TBPL board approved an action plan to support the advancement of 

initiatives in decolonization, anti-racism, reconciliation and relationship building 

with Indigenous peoples - in direct response to the findings from the Truth and 

Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action.  The library is the only public 

institution in the city that has actually taken such proactive steps to enact 

change. 

Thunder Bay Public Library 

In 2018, TBPL held a number of Community Conversations (focus groups of 8 -

15 people) to inform the development of its Strategic Plan for 2019–2023. Every 

sector and demographic were engaged in this process, including arts / heritage, 

business, criminal justice, community, faith, Indigenous, health / well being, 

seniors, women and youth. The aim of these conversations was to identify 

community aspirations and concerns so that TBPL can become both community-

led and needs based. Community intelligence was also gathered via an online 

Community Survey. TBPL’s community consultation groups – the Community 

Action Panel, Youth Advisory Council, Indigenous Advisory Council – as well as 

TBPL Board members and staff, were used to validate and prioritize the primary 

themes which emerged from the community conversations and survey. These 

themes formed the basis of the following strategic objectives: 

 

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 Foster a safe, clean and healthy community 

 Challenge institutional and systemic racism 

 Cultivate diversity and inclusion 

 Mitigate the impact of homelessness and poverty 

 Encourage and support youth 

These strategic objectives are aspirational for any organization. However, some 

people have suggested they are beyond a public library’s ‘raison d’etre’.   

Can a public library be a catalyst for change? The library is “a very seditious 

organization because we can engineer social change in a very quiet way” - 

quoted from Pateman in the Globe and Mail (Galloway, 2019).   

Interestingly, the Thunder Bay Police have aligned their strategic directions with 

TBPL. In the same article, police chief Sylvie Hauth stated the police are “…with 

them (TBPL)” when it comes to trying to change things in the city. 

Responding to reports that Thunder Bay had the most homicides per capita of all 

municipalities in Canada in 2018, Chief Hauth followed, “It’s no surprise…. we do 

have very high socio-economic issues in our community.” (Turner, 2019) 

These socio-economic issues are often the topics of hushed whispers about 

‘those people’.  Like many public libraries, TBPL is a sanctuary for the homeless, 

the new immigrant, those economically disadvantaged, those with mental illness 

and others disenfranchised by society.  Often the perception of sanctuary is 

matched by library staff’s perception of an unsafe work environment.   For a 

marginalized patron, the library is warm, dry and quiet compared to the streets.  

Library staff members, however, see the library as smelly, messy and full of loud 

people who are not necessarily borrowing books.  The ‘us versus them’ mindset 

festers in this maligned psychological space. The antipathy towards this patron is 

based on fear, real or perceived, not because of physical violence but a fear of 

the patron’s poverty status.   

Aporophobia 

‘Spain's prestigious language foundation Fundéu BBVA has chosen ‘aporofobia’ 

(aporophobia) as its word of the year for 2017’ (Dunham, 2017). Aporophobia 

can be roughly translated into English as a fear of poverty and poor people. 

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Fundéu BBVA credits Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina with coining and 

circulating ‘aporofobia’ in the press to bring attention to the fact that xenophobia 

and racism are often used to explain the disdain shown towards migrants and 

refugees when that aversion is often caused by their poverty status rather than 

for being foreign. 

Thunder Bay has a long history of a working class, union-strong society with a 

relatively leftist leaning political tendency.  Regardless of these roots, the 

community was never able to fully realize its ideological potential as a socialist 

state and became entrenched in capitalistic thinking. With this thinking came the 

inevitable losers of capitalism - the poor. Poverty implies scarcity, discrimination, 

isolation, crime, ill health, homelessness, antisocial behaviour, and 

powerlessness.  The notion of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ creates ‘us’ and ‘them’.  

For the purposes of this article, ‘us’ can be described as a front-line library 

worker, likely female between the ages of 29-54 with at least a high school 

education and a median salary of $48,000CDN. ‘They’ are more difficult to 

define, firstly because the library does not collect data on patrons regarding 

socioeconomic status. ‘They’ are perceived and classified as ‘the other’ arbitrarily 

and unequally by staff; that is, not all staff will consider the same patron as ‘the 

other’. There are times when one staff member's ‘them’ is another’s ‘us.’  It can 

be asserted, however, that ‘those’ patrons are from a considerably lower income 

level, likely on some form of government assistance and are regulars at the soup 

kitchen and shelters near the various library branches. A definite gender bias is 

evident with an eighty/twenty split as male/female, with both genders 

represented between the ages of 29-74.   

In her article ‘Please Admit You Don’t Like Poor People So We Can Move On’, 

(2018) Hannah Brooks Olsen captures how witnessing poverty and perceiving 

scarcity creates biases in people who are not poor.   

Perceptions of poverty have substantial impacts on the way people collectively 

think and act. Imagine a community meeting about a proposed homeless 

shelter, wherein self-proclaimed ‘concerned’ neighbours begin every testimony 

with something along the lines of ‘I care about the homeless! I really do! But…’ 

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and then follow their opener with something that expresses an unfounded bias 

about people living in poverty - 

‘…I’m worried about increases in crime.’ 

‘…why do we have to pay for their housing?’ 

‘…they’ll just trash it!’ 

‘…how will I explain them to my children?’ 

These sentiments — which assume that homeless individuals are criminals, that 

they’re freeloaders, that their very existence is somehow damaging to children 

— are not based in research, nor do they account for the complexity of 

socioeconomic status. They are, instead, based on a reaction to poverty and 

scarcity that is intimately linked to our own survival mechanisms. 

TBPL is not exempt from such sentiments. This exact same conversation 

happened recently when an attempt was made to establish a Transitional 

Housing facility for Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay. Fear of ‘the other’ – 

expressed as fear of crime, violence, drug dealing, gangs and guns – dominated 

the discourse, and drowned out the very real needs of young Indigenous people 

who are literally dying on the streets because their basic needs, including food 

and shelter, are not being met. The perceived crimes of drugs and guns are 

prioritized over the real crimes of hunger and homelessness.   

In 2018, TBPL solidified its partnership with Anishinabek Employment and 

Training Services (AETS).  AETS is an incorporated, not-for-profit organization, 

with over 21 years as part of a national network delivering an Indigenous Skills 

and Employment Training Program.  The objective of the national program and 

each of the regional agreement holders is to increase the participation of 

Indigenous Citizens in the Canadian labour market. This partnership enables 

AETS to accommodate its continued growth to empower the Anishinabek and 

support the TBPL’s strategic plan in Community Hub development, 

decolonization, relationship building and facilities renewal at two library sites.   

Library staff members were not happy at this development. Some staff members 

were candid with their opinions and shared them respectfully with management.  

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Some of these opinions had rationale - the library was losing space for the 

collection (AETS was taking over almost an entire floor at two library locations) 

or concerns over shared resources in TBPL’s unionized environment. Some staff 

worried that the library would lose its status as an institute of society and simply 

become a landlord. These legitimate (and more importantly, legitimately posed 

questions) were few and far between, and were answered in an open forum via 

TBPL’s weekly staff newsletter.  Most staff, however, chose to voice their 

concerns to patrons, politicians and the public and then engage in acts of micro-

aggressions.  A TBPL board member, already influenced by some of these staff, 

asked at the desk, ‘How are you going to keep the smokers away from the front 

door once those people move in?’ When asked to clarify, the board member 

explained that once AETS moved into the library, there would be increased 

traffic by Indigenous people, and ‘they’ smoked without heeding the signs to 

stay clear of the entrance.  Rumours in the coffee room included the suggestion 

that TBPL entered into the partnership because ‘only Indigenous organizations 

are given money. This is Pateman’s way to get government funding.’ TBPL staff 

expressed resentment when hot breakfasts were delivered to AETS early 

morning meetings: ‘My tax money is paying for that bacon’. The biases identified 

by Olsen emerged.   

When TBPL management addressed the murmurs and micro aggression, the 

tone of the murmurs became one of raised eyebrows and suggestions that free 

speech was under attack. Instead of ‘My tax money is paying for that bacon’, 

comments like ‘I’m not going to say anything but it sure must be nice to be paid 

to eat’ were observed. TBPL staff resisted realizing the partnership potential with 

AETS; they knew where AETS was located and that they did some sort of 

training and that their clientele was indigenous, but the resistors insisted they 

didn’t know why AETS was in their library. Meet and greet events were 

organized so the two groups could learn about the other. TBPL staff questioned 

the expense of the catered events; some staff refused to attend. Six months 

after sharing a physical desk with AETS, many TBPL staff still stated that they 

didn't understand the partnership; the ‘us’ and ‘them’ dynamic permeated 

TBPL’s already fragile organizational culture.  

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Around the same time, patron-banning and incident reports were on the rise 

across the library system.  TBPL staff complete incident reports when the 

behaviour policy is breached. The behaviour policy has a number of 

considerations ranging from unattended bags to weapons in the library. Patrons 

can be suspended temporarily for being among other things noisy or intoxicated, 

threatening staff or for acts of physical violence. Most incidents do not result in 

suspensions and even less result in banning letters.  Staff members are 

encouraged to capture all incidents, minor and serious in an incident report so 

risk assessments can be better addressed.  At about the same time as AETS was 

settling onsite at one library, incident reports at another branch spiked.  The 

increase in reports wasn’t necessarily alarming, as cyclical spikes are common 

(cold weather, government pay days, full moon). What was alarming was an 

increased notation of race in the reports such as ‘Aboriginal patron’, ‘Indigenous 

man’, ‘First Nations woman’.  

Racism       

Racism has long been an issue in the broader Thunder Bay community but had 

always been simmering on the back burner at TBPL. Management insisted it was 

time to address it head on. Part of that process included mandatory intercultural 

competency training. External consultants were brought in to facilitate joint 

training sessions with AETS and TBPL staff. The groups worked together during 

the day on self assessments and development activities.  It was a long day in a 

conference room. The topics were deep and at times conversations were difficult.  

Many people did not want to be there; some even stated so to the facilitators.  

About three quarters of the way through the first day, a profound conversation 

occurred between TBPL and AETS staff at one of the tables. It went something 

like this: 

AETS staff: ‘We’ve never had to deal with issues like we are dealing with now. 

We never had problems before we moved into the library.’ 

TBPL staff: ‘What issues do you mean?’ 

AETS: ‘Those people. We’ve never encountered smelly people, sleeping people, 

violent people, people with mental health issues, people who just hang out all 

day. We’ve only ever had to deal with our clientele - people who want to work. 

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TBPL staff to TBPL staff: They get us!’ 

This revelation revealed the larger truth. The discord was not necessarily about 

race. The AETS staff who spoke of ‘them’ was Indigenous. The TBPL staff was 

white. The two bonded over their fear of the poor patron, and more importantly, 

their own fears of scarcity and they became ‘us’. ‘Them’ was the mentally ill, 

smelly, ragged, poor patron. 

And then something similar happened. The facilitators told a story that happened 

on the day they arrived in Thunder Bay. They had never visited the community 

before but were familiar with race relations as reported in national newspapers.  

The story goes that after an almost hour wait for a taxi at the airport, they got 

into the cab and started a conversation with the driver. 

Facilitator: ‘Why is there such a long wait for a cab at such a small airport in 

Thunder Bay?’ 

Taxi driver: ‘Nobody wants to drive a cab up here. Our company has nineteen 

cabs, but we only have two drivers. All these people come to the city from up 

north. They don’t want to work. No one wants to work. In the old days everyone 

worked at the mill but now none of these people want to work. I’m Polish, my 

family is Polish. We work hard. But these people nowadays they just sit around.’ 

The facilitator listened intently to what was said. He took careful note of what 

was unsaid or implied. In his first encounter in Thunder Bay on his way to 

deliver intercultural competency training, the facilitator witnessed racial bias in 

the first hour of his arrival. This bias was presented as somehow predicated on 

an economic value system: ‘All these people come to the city from up north. 

They don’t want to work’. The perception that ‘people nowadays they just sit 

around’ manifests in the driver’s fear of his own potential scarcity. Poverty, the 

perception of poverty and ultimately the fear of poverty instilled in those who 

are not poor is often at the root of race relations. 

Colonization 

Colonization flourished throughout the world as a means of gaining access to 

land and labour resources. It was an outcome of imperialism motivated by 

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economic greed.  The act of decolonization scares some people. Decolonization 

implies the current economic imbalance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous 

people - in favour of the non-Indigenous person - could in fact shift in favour of 

Indigenous people. In a decolonized Canada, even the most remote Indigenous 

communities might enjoy the same standard of living as their non-Indigenous 

neighbours, with access to clean water, healthy food and equitable education. It 

is even possible that the economic divide lessens to the point there is no winner 

or loser, no ‘us’ and ‘them’. For some people, especially those used to a racial 

divide, the closing of the economic gap and possibility of parity is as disturbing 

as the concepts of poverty and scarcity. 

Colonization in Canada, like slavery in America, needed an intellectual and moral 

justification to hide its real motivation, which was purely economic – to extract 

the human value of Black slaves in America and appropriate the property value 

of Indigenous land in Canada. The pseudo-scientific justification for these 

economic activities was eugenics – the belief that the human population can be 

divided into separate races with distinctive characteristics, including intellectual 

ability. The Black slaves in America and Indigenous Peoples in Canada were re-

invented as inherently inferior to the white man who was inherently superior. 

This ideological and cultural mind set continued long after the end of slavery and 

the colonization process, although these also continued in more nuanced and 

sophisticated forms. When slavery and colonization ended this was presented as 

a moment of conscious enlightenment when the white man realised that what he 

was doing to Black and Indigenous Peoples was morally and ethically wrong. In 

fact, there was no such ‘light bulb moment’ because the real reason why slavery 

and colonization ‘ended’ was pure economics and nothing to do with morality or 

ethics.  

When slavery and colonization were no longer profitable to the white man, he 

used the profits he had extracted from these processes to invest in an even 

more lucrative project called capitalism. And as is often the way with the white 

man, he was able to have his cake and eat it. He was able to distance himself 

from slavery and colonization while at the same time benefitting from the 

continuation of its ideological base which was embedded in people’s minds, i.e. 

white people were superior to Black and Indigenous Peoples. He could then use 

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this ideology to divide and rule and entrench his power and wealth under 

capitalism. He used capitalism to continue enslaving and colonizing the minds of 

the people he continued to oppress and they became agents of their own 

oppression. 

 

Capitalism     

To challenge capitalism is a huge step to take because it requires that we 

completely turn a long accepted and entrenched world view on its head. We are 

required to not only stand in someone else’s shoes and view the world through 

someone else’s eyes, but also to reprogram our brains so that we can see their 

world through our own eyes. It is possible, but by no means easy, to 

intellectually imagine how this might happen. The barrier to creating a new 

world view is not our intellect but our emotions, because one of our most 

powerful emotions – fear – is at play here. Fear is used by capitalism as a 

deliberate tactic to ensure that we always look downwards upon those below us 

- for answers to our questions and sources of our frustrations and challenges – 

rather than upwards at the real, and common, source of our problems.  

The middle class look down on the working class, and the working class look 

down on the underclass. Meanwhile, the ruling class looks down on all of us. 

Imagine if this sequence was reversed. Imagine if the underclass looked up to 

the working class to help them climb up the social and economic ladder; imagine 

if the working class looked up to the middle class to use their resources and 

connections to break through glass ceilings. And imagine if the underclass, 

working class and middle class all looked up at the ruling class and realised that 

this tiny one per cent elite was their common enemy. Then some real change 

might be possible.  

But in the real world the ruling class in America, Britain and Canada can 

convince the middle class that their enemy is the working class and that the 

greatest threat to the working class comes from the underclass. When Trump 

says ‘Make America Great Again’ this assumes that America was great at some 

time in its past and that someone is responsible for bringing it down from 

greatness. But instead of pointing to the real culprits – corporate America – he 

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singles out the undocumented migrant worker trying to cross the Rio Grande. 

The same argument was deployed during the Brexit campaign in Britain and the 

recent federal elections in Canada. The enemy was not the rich and powerful 

(who we should revere) but the poor and dispossessed (who we should fear). 

This classic divide and rule tactic is used by the ruling class to entrench their 

wealth and power. 

Middle class library workers are fearful of working-class library patrons. Working 

class library workers are fearful of underclass library patrons. White library 

workers are fearful of Indigenous library patrons. This fear has several 

elements: fear of the other, fear of poverty, and fear of revenge. Fear that ‘the 

other’ might take what we have from us; fear that we may then become ‘the 

other’; and fear that ‘the other’ may exact revenge on us for what we have done 

to them. This fear has been used to justify the oppression of colonized, enslaved 

and working-class people. The ‘logic’ behind this argument is that the ruling 

class (with the support of the middle and working classes) have to use 

increasingly cruel and vindictive methods to hold down ‘the other’ or they will 

rise up and inflict a terrible vengeance on us for all the injustices we have done 

to them. There is an inherent recognition within this argument that wealth and 

power imbalances have negative consequences but, instead of using this 

recognition to correct these imbalances, we project our fear of revenge on to 

those we oppress. This makes us all complicit and compromised by the capitalist 

revenge system. 

Vengeance, vindictiveness and revenge are used to maintain the status quo. 

These mechanisms justify the oppressive actions of the ruling class, they 

compromise and make complicit the middle and working classes, and they 

constrain the capacity of the oppressed to resist and fight back. Black people in 

America have a long and proud history of resistance from slave revolts to ‘race 

riots’ in Chicago and other major cities. One of the primal fears underpinning 

Trump’s America is that the white man will become a minority within ‘his own 

country’ and that ‘the other’ will overwhelm him and take his wealth and power. 

The response to this perceived threat is to use all the forces at the white man’s 

disposal – most notably the militarised police state – to suppress and subdue 

‘the other’ and act as a constant reminder of who is in charge.  

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This weaponised response is played out every time a white police officer pulls 

over a black driver in America. The interaction that follows is overlaid by the 

whole racial history of America, from slavery right up to the present day. The 

black driver is quite rightly fearful of the weaponised white cop. But the gun 

wielding white cop is just as fearful, and maybe more so, of the black driver. 

This fear is driven in part by his knowledge of all the injustices that white people 

(including the white cop) have wreaked upon black people and also by the white 

cop’s perceived fear that the black driver he has pulled over might take the 

opportunity to wreak his personal revenge. The same dynamics come into 

operation when a white police officer interacts with an Indigenous person in 

Thunder Bay. The white cop is playing his historical role as the agent of white 

oppression that is enshrined in law by the Indian Act; at the same time, he 

knows at some psychological level that this oppression is not justified, and he 

fears that the Indigenous person may want to take revenge. This raises the 

stakes on both sides of the encounter – real fear combined with perceived fear – 

with often tragic consequences.  

Perceived ‘acts of revenge’ not only manifest through mass actions such as ‘race 

riots’ in America or ‘stand offs’ between Indigenous people and white police in 

Canada, but also in everyday one to one interpersonal interaction between white 

people and ‘the other’. These interactions happen on a daily basis at Thunder 

Bay Public Library, but few would locate them within the context of fear, 

vindictiveness, vengeance and revenge that we are suggesting in this article.     

Social Class 

If library workers can recognize their settler colonial world view, understand 

what makes them view welfare mothers and homeless people for example, 

unfavourably, and recognize that poverty - not poor people - is the problem, 

that poverty can be reduced if not ended, and that the most vulnerable and 

dispossessed among us are citizens and neighbours who deserve compassion, 

support, and respect - then there’s a real chance to change their heads and 

hearts.  But first they must be able to frame their understanding in terms of 

class rather than race.  

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Talking about class is as difficult as talking about race, even though class is a 

real economic construct whereas race is a perceived social construct. People feel 

very uncomfortable talking about class because it forces them to recognize that 

class exists, also it reminds them of where they are in the class pecking order. 

For those in the working class this can trigger feelings of resentment but, as 

previously mentioned, these feelings are often misdirected downwards towards 

the underclass, rather than upwards at the real class enemy. This powerful 

resentment among the working class is particularly evident among those who 

have made it out of the underclass. Instead of lowering a ladder down to their 

former brothers and sisters who remain in the underclass, they pull up this 

ladder, distance themselves from the underclass, and enjoy the benefits of their 

new class status.  

There are many immigrants who, after establishing themselves in their new 

home country, argue vociferously against more immigrants being let into the 

country. This is because they fear the economic competition that continued 

immigration may bring and the related fear that this competition may push them 

back down into the underclass. The same dynamics exists between the working 

and middle classes. Working class people who make it into the middle class (if 

such transitions are truly possible) often start to despise the very class they 

have escaped from. They argue ‘if I made it so can you, and if you don’t it’s 

because you are stupid or lazy.’ They fail to recognize that they were only able 

to ‘escape’ from the working class because it serves capitalisms interest to let 

them do so. The middle class works hard for the ruling class and are its eager 

agents, even though there is very little possibility that many people from the 

middle class will make it into the top one per cent. What keeps the middle class 

working hard for capitalism is not their hope that they will make it into the ruling 

class but their fear that they will fall back into the working class.                                           

Discussions about class are often hijacked or diverted by two dominant 

narratives that are used by the ruling class to maintain their hegemony. One of 

these narratives is that class no longer exists or is no longer relevant. If the 

ruling class can get people to buy into this narrative then they can make the 

class question disappear altogether, along with all the inequities that go with it. 

If this narrative does not work, they fall back on a second, even more beguiling 

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argument: ‘we are all middle class now’. Not only does this obscure the true 

nature of the class system but it motivates people to buy into that system by 

suggesting that it can be a tool which can be used to get on in life. During the 

recent federal election in Canada there were many references to the ‘middle 

class’ but very few mentions of the working and ruling classes. The campaign 

narrative was dominated by ‘the middle class and those who are working hard to 

join it’, the implication being that if you do not succeed in life that is because 

you are not working hard enough.   

Any discussion about race – no matter how difficult that may be – has to start 

with a discussion about class. And any discussion about class has to be grounded 

in capitalism, economics and poverty. Racism is a product of capitalism. 

Capitalism is the cause, racism is the effect and class is the solution. This 

analysis has been distorted by proponents of intersectionality who argue that 

identities such as race and gender are of equal or greater significant than class. 

While intersectionality and identity politics are important because they motivate 

people into taking political action, they can also become a distraction from the 

real struggle, which is the class struggle. Intersectionality and identity politics 

tend to divide rather than unite. ‘Black Lives Matter’ alienates some white 

people. Transgender alienates some feminists. These are important causes and 

should be fought for and defended but they play into the capitalist game of 

divide and rule. We only have to see how corporate America has bought into 

intersectionality and identity politics to understand that it is being used as a tool 

against the very people it pretends to support. Intersectionality and identity 

politics focus on differences rather than commonalities, and some of these 

differences are not real, they are social constructs.  

Race is a classic social construct; biologically all of the people on this planet are 

one race. Our DNA is identical. We may look different on the outside but in many 

ways, we are exactly the same. Slavery and colonialism were the great engines 

of capitalism and, although some of the superstructure of these systems has 

gone, the ideology that created and perpetuated them remains firmly in place. 

Black people are not being taken from Africa and enslaved today but the 

ideology that made this possible – that Black people are inferior and white 

people are superior – lives on in modern day America. Indeed, it can be argued 

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that this divide and rule between Black and white people is what enables the 

ruling class to stay in control, such is the power of racism in America.  

In Canada, the power of the ruling class is entrenched by the deep divide 

between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples; this divide is embedded within 

the legal superstructure via the Indian Act which created and perpetuates an 

apartheid system in Canada. This racist superstructure shapes and determines 

the ideological base in Canada and enables white people and immigrants to look 

down upon Indigenous Peoples, who are viewed and treated as an underclass by 

white settlers and new arrivals.  

Decolonization        

In order to start challenging these false feelings of superiority and inferiority and 

these socially constructed ‘racial differences’ between white and Indigenous 

Peoples, we have to shift the discussion from an ideological and cultural 

argument to an analysis of the underlying economic system. For example, ‘Truth 

and Reconciliation in Canada’ (Truth and Reconciliation Commission/ TRC) 

requires us to admit the harsh and unpalatable truth that the white man stole 

the land from the Indigenous Peoples, and that reconciliation is only possible 

between two equal parties who have equal wealth and power. This means either 

giving the land back to Indigenous Peoples or, better still, finding a way to share 

the land with them for mutual benefit. This is what many Indigenous Peoples 

thought they were committing to when they signed the Treaties. Instead, the 

land was stolen from them and they were forced onto Reserves.  

The white man saw the Treaties as contractual land deals and paid some token 

economic compensation in return for what became very valuable real estate. 

This very act of compensation created deliberate divisions and resentments 

between Indigenous and white Canadians that are still evident today; for 

example, this resentment is apparent every time a Status Card (which in itself is 

a powerful symbol of the apartheid state) is presented at a store check out. 

These perceived unfair economic transactions trigger ideological and cultural 

resentments such as ‘why do those people pay less than me.’ This economic 

resentment is in the mind of every white staff member – either consciously or 

unconsciously – each time they interact with an Indigenous person in the library. 

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Another thought that is at the back or front of the minds of library workers is 

that the library they work in was built on land that was stolen from the 

Indigenous people; with this thought comes an attendant fear of revenge if the 

land was somehow taken back. This fear is managed by ‘land acknowledgement 

statements’ which acknowledge that something happened in the past but do not 

admit that this was an injustice or commit to doing anything about it. These 

acknowledgements are carefully crafted legal statements that merely recognize 

a historical fact rather than admit culpability, e.g.: “We acknowledge that the 

City of Thunder Bay has been built on the traditional territory of Fort William 

First Nation, signatory to the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850. We also 

recognize the contributions made to our community by the Métis people.” 

(Thunder Bay Land acknowledgement statement). 

Some Indigenous people feel that land acknowledgements are a step in the right 

direction because they at least recognize that something happened in the past. 

But recognition requires no action, which makes the white man feel very 

comfortable, because he doesn’t have to do anything to right a historical wrong. 

The white man can salve his conscience by admitting a historical act, while at 

the same time distancing himself from it (‘that was in the past and had nothing 

to do with me’) and admitting no liability. He can continue to enjoy the benefits, 

economic and otherwise, of this historical injustice.  

Decolonization of public libraries will only become meaningful when the stolen 

land that they were built on is given back to Indigenous Peoples. In order for the 

public library to commit to decolonization of the institution, the organization and 

its staff must understand and accept they are in fact parties to the Treaties.  

This requires the authentic admission that we all have rights and obligations with 

respect to Treaties and that we also share the negative impact that colonialism 

continues to have on us. In order to do this, it is necessary to examine the social 

and economic constructs that frame and drive colonialism. If aporophobia is one 

of these constructs the library must start an uncomfortable conversation with its 

staff and patrons about capitalism, poverty, class and race. This conversation 

must take place before truth, reconciliation and decolonization of the public 

library can move forward. 

 

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John Pateman, Thunder Bay Public Library (jpateman@tbpl.ca) 

Margaret Demillo, Thunder Bay Public Library (mdemillo@tbpl.ca) 

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