Jean-François Lisée’s column entitled “Anti-Québécoise Identity” having provoked a reaction, I would like to clarify one small thing. The contempt for “Kebs”, very real in secondary schools in the greater Montreal region, does not originate in allophone communities. Not a single drop. It exists because of a duel — the cultural duel of nations, a new concept in the human sciences that I forged.
Here is a very, very brief sketch. Everywhere on Earth, dominant nations attempt to assimilate dominated nations who resist them in return. With few exceptions, a dominant nation’s desire for assimilation is never clearly expressed. It uses discourse to persuade the dominated nation that it must accept its assimilation on its own, because its culture would be inferior, among other things.
In our case, many young allophones reject Quebec culture on the pretext that it is less interesting than theirs — and even than all the others. I know this refrain well. Some of my friends, some members of my entourage and my own father, a Peruvian, sang it 40 years ago (before social networks, Netflix and the rest, therefore). The duel also takes place between nations on a global scale, but we do not have space to discuss that here.
That’s not all. Young Quebecers — and Quebecers in general — are increasingly denigrating their language, their music, their films, their culture. No Quebec song in French appears on the list of the 100 most listened to songs on music platforms in Quebec, remember. We found out about this last summer.
Many allophones and francophones sing in unison about the cultural inferiority of Quebec. Where do you think this refrain comes from? From our dominant nation, Canada. We are constantly immersed in an alienating atmosphere. We internalize the message that the Quebec nation cannot exist on its own, think for itself, be free.
But the cultural duel of nations is not inevitable. The dominated nation resists, and can even counterattack to free itself from its oppressor. It doesn’t always work. But in our case, it would be enough to put the necessary energy and resources into it.
Our youth, wherever it comes from, is open: that is the characteristic of youth. Let us put her in contact with Quebec cultural works. Let us finance culture for real, let us promote it for real. It’s urgent. That we also reform (again) history lessons in secondary schools.
Hints of Conquest
Can I tell you an anecdote? About three years ago, I substituted in a fourth-year secondary school history of Quebec and Canada class. We spent a few minutes on the October crisis, watch in hand. (School textbooks never talk very long about juicy moments; that might wake some people up.)
At one point, a young person frowns while reading and raises his hand: “Sir, why doesn’t our book talk about Canada’s responsibility in the October crisis?” » He couldn’t have been more than 16 years old, this boy. I then thought of the gigantic armada of young people who have passed through our school system without having the opportunity to take possession of their history, without ever knowing the — I would dare say — local point of view.
We don’t tell ourselves our own story. Always go through Canada. Always the same message: Quebec cannot exist by itself. So this is it. The young allophones we are talking about do not look down on long-rooted Quebecers: they have internalized the same thing as them. A message that comes from far, far away.
The British conquerors believed that in their language and culture lay the secret to civilization. In The War of Conquesthis great classic, Guy Frégault reports at one point newspaper dispatches from 1755-1760, in which English people congratulate themselves on their individual rights, their freedom of the press (all relative to the time, but it is a another subject) and at the same time mock France by depicting it as a place worthy of the Middle Ages.
After the Conquest, this propaganda simply did not stop.