"I Thought Pocahontas was a Movie"

Book excerpt: A significant contribution to the understanding of systemic racism in Canadian institutions, this collection of essays arising out of the unique Prairie context interrogates how professionals practicing in law, education, health, and other helping professions engage with issues of race and culture. This book examines the challenges and resistance found within professional groups working with Aboriginal and racial minority peoples. For teachers, social workers, healthcare providers, and professors, the greatest barriers to working across difference may be themselves and their assumptions about what the nature of the "problem" of difference is considered to be. The authors in this volume advocate, question, and critique the uses of what are often considered to be binaries of race and/or culture. They offer examples from professional fields that illustrate the complexity of teaching that finds problems in a culturalist approach as well as a critical orientation that is still found wanting. Will addressing inequality as a race, gender, class, or sexual orientation issue provide greater forward movement than focusing on cultural issues? The answers in this collection are never either/or and must look beyond theoretical orthodoxy for inspiration, if not new questions.