Banal Race‐thinking: Ties of blood, Canadian history textbooks and ethnic nationalism

This paper examines how the idea of “race” is represented in high school Canadian history textbooks. It looks at textbooks authorized by the Province of Ontario between 1940 and 1960 and those authorized after 2000. It is argued in this paper that even though historical racisms have increasingly made their way into Canadian history textbooks as valid and important topics of study, and despite explicit efforts by those responsible for the production of these textbooks to clarify the meaning and consequences of racism, the idea of “race” has persisted in much the same way as it did centuries ago – as a take‐for‐granted fact of Nature tied to ideas about human type, lineage and heritage. Through problematic use of the term “race” and through a redundant emphasis on seemingly neutral categories such as origin, ethnicity and descent, the textbooks preoccupy themselves with human typology and articulate a sense that blood matters in the constitution and construction of the Canadian nation.