School of Racism

Exposing the history of racism in Canadas classroomsWinner of the prestigious Clio-Quebec, Lionel-Groulx, and Canadian History of Education Association awards In School of Racism, Catherine Larochelle demonstrates how Quebecs school system has, from its inception and for decades, taught and endorsed colonial domination and racism. This English translation of the award-winning book extends its crucial lesson to readers across the country, bridging English- and French-Canadian histories to deliver a better understanding of Canadas past and present identity. Using postcolonial, antiracist, and feminist theories and methodologies, Larochelle examines late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century classroom materials used in Quebecs public and private schools. Many of these textbooks, and others like them, made their way into curricula across Canada. Larochelles innovative analysis illuminates how textual and visual representations found in these archives constructed Indigenous, Black, Arab, and Asian peoples as the Other while reinforcing the collective identity of Quebec, and Canada more broadly, as white. Uncovering the origins and persistence of individual and systemic racism against people of colour, Larochelle shows how Otherness was presented toand utilized byyoung Canadians for almost a century. School of Racism names the ways in which Canadas education system has supported and sustained ideologies of white supremacyideologies so deeply embedded that they still linger in school texts and programming today. The book offers historians new insight into how Canadian and Quebecois concepts of nationalism and racism overlap, helps educators confront racism in their classrooms, and deepens urgent discussions about race and colonialism throughout Canada.