Politicians struggle to make genuine connections with ethnic minorities By Pradip Rodrigues

I recently met a Caucasian male who is considering running for a council seat in the near future.

He listed all the qualifications that made him a suitable candidate,
he was a long-time resident of Mississauga, knew everyone at City Hall, understood city politics and was on first-name basis with the city elite, the movers and the
shakers.

 He was however facing one significant challenge- reaching out to minorities, specifically South Asians who made up a significant segment of voters in his ward. He had no idea where to begin and how to make those meaningful connections. Twenty years ago when the number of ethnic minoritieswere small enough to ignore, it was easy for politicians to merely show up at a song and dance event, put on a strange hat and pay lip service to diversity. In the GTA, reaching out to ethnic minorities, specifically South Asians is a pre-requisite for any candidate hoping to win elections.

I quickly realized he was clueless about diversity, his understanding about cultures was at best superficial, but more importantly he had no desire to learn anything. He didn’t ask me any serious question about South Asians, didn’t want to know anything about me other than what I did professionally, the fact that I was South Asian by the color of my skin and features was enough. I am not picking on this one individual with political aspirations, there are scores of sitting
councilors, MPs and MPPs across Canada who are just like him who manage to fool ethnic voters into believing they genuinely care when in reality they are only interested in cultivating ethnic vote banks.

In Federal, Provincial and Municipal politics, many Caucasian leaders struggle when it comes to making genuine connections with ethnic voters.

Over the years I’ve talked to media representatives from different ethnic groups as well as community leaders about which politician they believe understands and makes a connection with their communities and invariably one name crops up- Canada’s Minister for employment and multiculturalism Jason Kenney, the other name often mentioned more recently is Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

 I have interviewed quite a few politicians at all levels of government and have come to the same conclusion. Minister Jason Kenney must be among a handful of Caucasian North American leaders who can tell a Gujarati from a Punjabi and a Bengali from a Keralite. And it isn’t just South Asians he understands but other ethnic groups as well. If more politicians could make an effort to genuinely get to know South Asians or for that matter other ethnicities, we’d be better off.

But instead politicians take the easy way out- show up at ethnic events dressed up in costumes, patronize festivals and throw taxpayers money at groups and ethnic organizations in the name of promoting diversity.

Mississauga’s Mayor Bonnie Crombie is another politicians who has made and maintained contacts with ethnic minorities. Over the years, she has built up a reputation for showing up at every conceivable ethnic event, posing for pictures and working a roomfull of potential supporters with seeming effortlessness. Many community event organizers tell me that Bonnie is one of their favoritepoliticians in Mississauga.

Somehow most of the other city councillors are accessible but do not make the kind of deep connections with ethnic groups. There are scores of political leaders who are noticeably more at easeamong people who look and talk like them and are perceptibly ill at ease in the company of ethnicminorities. It is hard to feel socially at ease with people of other ethnicities unless you know or want to know and understand their cuisine, art and culture.

I asked the potential municipal candidate if the residents of his ward were Indian or Pakistani in origin, he looked a little blank, he frankly didn’t know and probably wondered if it even mattered. In his mind all brown people are South Asian and it made no difference if they were Muslim, Christian or Hindu. On one level that was fine, but knowing something about their background would be a good place to start.

 Most Canadians of ethnic orgin would be quite flattered if a Caucasian were ever to sit down and genuinely want to know more about their culture and about them in general. Caucasians who hope to continue to be representing the interests of South Asians at the municipal, provincial and federal level should first display a genuine interest the people they claim to represent. Unfortunately the understanding many politicians have of ethnic cultures is often skin deep.

Source: http://www.canindia.com/1xbnu