André Boisclair, who is the leader of the Parti Québécois, has been defending himself by claiming not to be a linguist. The defense is certainly true, but its effectiveness in mitigating his (alleged) offense is less clear. Here's the story.
It starts with a reference to the "yeux bridés" ("slanted eyes") of Asians, in Boisclair's campaign oratory for the current parliamentary elections in Quebec. According to Philip Authier, "‘Slanting eyes’ comment lost in translation: Boisclair", CanWest News Service, 3/15/2007:
It pops up in his standard stump speech when he gets to the section on education where he says Quebec students need to improve themselves because Asian students are becoming hot competitors in the employment marketplace.
"The reality is these countries are not just working to create jobs in sweatshops,” he said Wednesday to students in Trois Rivières. "When I was in Boston, where I spent a year, I was surprised to see that on campus about one-third of the students doing their bachelor's degrees had slanting eyes.
"These are not people going to work in sweatshops. They are people who will later become engineers and managers who create richness. There is a ferocious competition happening in the world today. What I would like to do it equip you and equip Quebec to face [the challenge]."
Fo Niemi, from the "Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations" (CRARR), asked Boisclair and the PQ for an apology, and got a brush-off. According to "André Boisclair ne présentera pas d'excuses à la communauté asiatique", tqs.ca, 3/19/2007:
"Il est hors de question que je m'excuse, d'aucune façon je n'ai l'intention de m'excuser, a martelé le chef du PQ à la meute de journalistes après s'être adressé à des militants conviés un dîner de la Chambre de commerce de Québec. Ces étudiants sont une source d'émerveillement."
"It's out of the question for me to apologize, in no way do I intend to apologize", hammered the head of the PQ to the pack of journalists after talking to the activists inviting to a Quebec Chamber of Commerce dinner. "These students are a source of amazement."
Le leader péquiste ne voit aucune raison de s'amender, lui qui avoue utiliser fréquemment l'expression "yeux bridés" pour parler des citoyens d'extrême-orient. Si l'image a une connotation péjorative en anglais - 'slanting eyes' - ce n'est pas le cas dans la langue de Molière, a tenu à préciser M. Boisclair.
The PQ leader sees no reason to correct himself, since he admits to using the expression "yeux bridés" frequently when speaking about far-eastern citizens. If the image has a pejorative connotation in English -- "slanting eyes" -- this is not the case in the language of Molière, he went on to state.
De toute façon, les nuances langagières ne sont pas la tasse de thé du chef péquiste.
In any case, linguistic nuances are not the PQ chief's cup of tea.
"Je fais de la politique et non de la linguistique", a-t-il fait remarquer, manifestement empressé de mettre fin au débat.
"I do politics and not linguistics", he observed, clearly eager to put an end to the discussion.
Other descriptions of Boisclair's adamant non-apology make his use of the "language card" even clearer -- Mathieu Boivin, "Boisclair refuse de s'excuser", Le Journal de Montréal, 3/16/2007:
«J'ai fréquemment utilisé cette expression et je n'ai aucune intention de m'excuser, a-t-il martelé. Cette expression a un sens différent en anglais, mais je l'ai employée en français et je sais que les Québécois vont me suivre là-dessus. Je fais de la politique, pas de la linguistique.»
"I've often used this expression and I have no intention of apologizing", he hammered. "This expression has a different sensein English, but I used it in French and I know that the Quebecois are going to follow me on this. I do politics, not linguistics."
M. Boisclair a estimé que M. Niemi tentait de lui faire une job de bras en raison d'un conflit personnel de longue date. Ministre des Relations avec les citoyens et de l'Immigration dans le gouvernement Bouchard, André Boisclair avait en effet réduit de 80 % la subvention du gouvernement québécois au CRARR, en 1997.
Mr. Boisclair has suggested that Mr. Niemi tried to strong-arm him because of a personal conflict of long standing. As Minister of Citizen Relations and Immigration in the Bouchard government, André Boisclair in effect reduced by 80% the Quebec government's subsidy to CRARR, in 1997.
And Mario Girard, "«Yeux bridés»: affaire classée, dit Boisclair", La Presse, 3/18/2007:
L'utilisation de l'expression «yeux bridés» par André Boisclair pour décrire les asiatiques est une affaire classée, selon le chef. Même si sa déclaration continue de scandaliser certains membres de la communauté chinoise et de la presse anglophone, le chef péquiste n'a pas l'intention de présenter ses excuses.
The use of the expression "yeux bridés" by André Boisclair for describing Asians is a closed affair, according to the chief. Even if his statement continues to offend certain members of the Chinese community and the anglophone press, the PQ chief does not intend to apologize.
«J'ai fermé ce dossier, a dit André Boisclair lors d'un point de presse hier. Je comprends qu'il y a une différence entre l'utilisation en français et en anglais et que l'expression en anglais est plus péjorative, mais je ne suis pas en linguistique, je suis en politique.»
"I've closed this file", said André Boisclair at a press conference yesterday. "I understand that there is a difference between the usage in French and in English and that the expression in English is more pejorative, but I'm not in linguistics, I'm in politics."
According to Sean Gordon, "Liberals, PQ get rough ride", Toronto Star, 3/16/2007:
PQ officials pointed out the French-language expression "yeux bridés" is frequently used in major newspapers in the same way one would say a person has blue eyes.
It does seem to be true that the frequency of "yeux bridés" relative to "yeux", in French news sources, is about 70% greater than the frequency in English news sources of "slanted eyes" or "slanting eyes" relative to "eyes":
| Google French news archive | Google English news archive | |
| yeux | eyes | 75,600 |
2,290,000 |
| "yeux bridés" | "slanted|slanting eyes" | 72 |
1,289 |
| RATIO | 1,050 |
1,777 |
But it's not clear that this is really a difference in language.
Lysiane Gangon ("Les mots, les mots", La Presse, 3/17/2007) thinks that it's just a difference in national culture:
Les mots sont comme les médicaments. Même ceux qui ont l'air inoffensifs comportent des contre-indications et des effets indésirables. Hélas!, il n'existe pas de notice universelle pour s'en prémunir. C'est une question de contexte, de jugement personnel, de culture nationale.
Words are like medicines. Even those that seem harmless have contra-indications and side effects. Alas! there is no universal warning for your protection. It's a question of context, of personal judgment, of national culture.
André Boisclair vient d'en faire l'expérience, pour avoir parlé des étudiants aux «yeux bridés» qu'il a côtoyés lors de son année d'études à Boston. La presse anglophone lui fait tout un procès parce qu'elle est plus pointilleuse en la matière, non pas parce que la version anglaise serait plus insultante que l'expression française («slanted eyes» veut dire exactement la même chose).
André Boisclair has just experienced this, for having spoken of students with "yeux bridés" that he encountered during his year of studies in Boston. The anglophone press has made a big deal about this because it is more fastidious in this area, not because the English version is more insulting than the French expression ("slanted eyes" means exactly the same thing).
C'est l'habitude culturelle qui diffère, dans la mesure où les francophones sont moins portés à s'autocensurer quand il s'agit de parler des minorités visibles.
It's the cultural pattern that's different, to the extent that francophones are less prone to censor themselves when it's a question of talking about visible minorities.
Sur le fond, M. Boisclair n'a certainement rien à se reprocher. Il ne tarissait pas d'éloges sur les étudiants asiatiques quand l'expression lui a échappé. Mais il y a la forme. Techniquement, qualifier un Asiatique d'«yeux bridés» équivaut à désigner un Noir par le terme «grosses lèvres» ou un Occidental comme «un visage pâle».
At bottom , Mr. Boisclair certainly has nothing to be sorry about. He hastened to praise asiatic students when the expression escaped from him. But there is the form. Technically, referring to an Asian's "slanted eyes" is the same as referring to a Black by the term "big lips" or an Occidental as a "pale face".
In my opinion, the most interesting thing about the whole brouhaha is the failure of the press -- both Anglophone and Francophone -- to observe that Mr. Boisclair apparently made a quantitative (and common) factual error, compounding an even more serious error in logic. His year in Boston was spent at Harvard, and he asserted that «Quand j'étais à Boston, où j'ai passé un an, j'ai été surpris de voir que sur le campus, à peu près le tiers des étudiants qui étaient au bac avaient les yeux bridés.» ("When I was in Boston, where I spent a year, I was surprised to see that on the campus, about a third of the undergraduates had slanted eyes.")
The Wikipedia article on Boisclair, which picked up the point that the press missed, observes that "2005, only 13.1% of Harvard students were of Asian descent", citing the Harvard University Fact Book for 2005-2006.
In fact, the ethnic category involved is "Asian/Pacific Islander", which includes many students with family backgrounds from countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and Oceania, who are unlikely to have epicanthic folds. And the 13.1% figure is for the campus as a whole -- at the Kennedy School of Government, where Boisclair spent his year, the Asian/Pacific Islander proportion was just 8%, while for the college, the figure is given as 18%. If 2/3 of those are from epicanthic-fold ethnicities, that might be 12% of the college with "slanted eyes". On the other hand, "International Students" is considered a separate "ethnicity", and amounts to 9% of of the college. If a third of those are east Asian, then the epicanthic-fold percentage for the college might be as high as 15% -- though it's probably somewhat less than that.
But there's a logical problem here that is more important than the factual problem (and also more important than calibrating the degree of offensiveness of eyelid-descriptions in French and English). A large proportion of the Asian-background students at (schools like) Harvard are in fact American citizens, often born and raised in the U.S. -- probably all of the group listed as "Asian/Pacific Islander" are in that category. So the relevance of their eyelid morphology to the global labor market is nil -- unless you think that the competition is a racial rather than a national one.
The French-language press may use "yeux bridés" 70% more often than the English-language press uses "slanted|slanting eyes". But Boisclair exaggerated the proportion of east Asian students at Harvard by at least 100%, chose to use a racial characteristic ("yeux bridés") rather than a geographical or national term ("Asian" or "Chinese"), and invoked the ethnic background of (mainly American-born) undergraduates at an American university as if this were relevant to Quebec's economic competition with Asian countries. Putting it all together, this is evocative of a century of yellow peril rhetoric. The fact that Boisclair's party is based on French-Canadian ethnicity makes such an interpretation even more plausible.
[Hat tip to Jacqueline Peters]
[Update -- David Williams writes:
Thank you for posting on the comments of André Boisclair. I think that in any other context M. Boisclair might have been persuaded to alter his language, and maybe even issue an apology for it. But in the current context in Quebec, where for the first time the separatist voter base is being eaten into by the right (by the ADQ, a party that is soft on separatism but tough on immigration and "accommodements raisonnables", the recently mooted philosophy that cultural allowances should be made for people from other places), refusing to apologize for "un-PC" language is politically expedient, especially if, as AB claims, the wording is only offensive in English. To many he now appears both commonsensical and bravely resistant to English-media attempts to paint him as a racist, using their own criteria. I think this echoes strongly with many Quebeckers who feel unjustly portrayed as xenophobic for their attitudes towards immigration, while also confirming their belief that English Canada doesn't really understand them at all.
You may be interested in the following background:
An interview with a councilor of Hérouxville, ground zero for backlash against "Accommodements raisonnables". (And here.)
And a southparkesque send up of said municipality.
Some background on the Hérouxville business can be found here -- Dene Moore, "Hérouxville wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens", The National Post, 1/29/2007. Moore's article makes Hérouxville's list of requirements sound pretty reasonable, though perhaps it's a bit confrontational to post them at the borders of the town. ]
[Laiya at Metroblogging Montréal saw this about the same way I did ("Oui, M. Boisclair, c'est raciste", 2/16/2007):
Tant que le Parti Québecois continue à avoir cette mentalité de "nous" (les vrais Québecois blancs pur laines de souches) et les "autres", le Parti Québecois n'atteindra jamais son but de bâtir une nation Québecoise. There is no room in André Boisclair's vision of Quebec for "others". Pour ma part, peu importe mes efforts, je ne me sentirai jamais acceptée comme étant Québecoise. Je m'identifie comme Montréalaise certainement, cosmopolitaine, mais malheureusement, pas Québecoise.
André Boisclair can claim to have many asian friends and be fascinated by asian culture but that doesn't make him any less of a moron than those men who approach me with lines like "ni hao", assuming that my being asian automatically makes me Chinese and madarin-speaking. After all, we all look the same and we must all be the same right? Tous les asiatiques sont les mêmes n'est-ce pas? André Boisclair's vision of Quebec will never be able to compete with the global economy if he persists in his tunnel vision.
]
[Update -- Alexandre Enkerli writes:
Disclaimer: I'm a French-speaking linguistic anthropologist from Montreal. I don't plan to vote for Boisclair's PQ but I have grown up in a PQ-friendly environment, like many a French-speaking academic in Quebec. Just read your LL entry about Boisclair. I agree with the comments you have received about both the political expediency and the racial undertones of Boisclair's comments.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the belief in the existence of "races" among human beings (which we could call "racialism") is different from discrimination based on "racial categories" (which would correspond more specifically to common usage of "racism" in journalism-driven conversation). My hunch is that Boisclair does think in terms of "race" or race-like categories and might even be using the term "nation" (an essential term in Quebec politics) in this sense. But I doubt that Boisclair is himself using race-related labels as a basis for discrimination and, therefore, could hardly be called "racist."
What I find quite interesting is that the controversy is another example of "terminological determinism" in public discourse. Instead of taking a holistic view of a cultural context, people blame specific terms for all sorts of evils.
As an aside, "reasonable accommodations" have become almost a code word for a very tense political debate, with associated name-calling. What's funny, to an anthropologist, is that many Québécois are portraying "Quebec culture" as open minded *by opposition to* the religious background of some members of Quebec society. Easy to relate this to the official rejection of Catholic religion during the Quiet Revolution, which hides the fact that, as Québécoises and Québécois, we are still overwhelmingly Catholic by association with cultural themes.
Thanks for an interesting blog entry.
]
Posted by Mark Liberman at March 19, 2007 06:19 AM