Québec Blacks and Historical Revisionism

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The columnist Fabrice Vil from the newspaper Le Devoir, published this text, "The Power of Hip-Hop" in 2017, peddling some incredibly false information that needs some truth thrown its way. 

He even fully incorporates the words of some rap song, "Qc History X" by Ali Ndiaye going under the (rather anglophone – surprise surprise!) name Webster – a self-described hip-hop artist dabbling in history. Here is the passage cited:

“In 1629 Olivier Lejeune arrives / First slave listed in the newly founded Quebec City / At least 10 000 slaves in Canada / Until abolition in 1833 / Yo, it is crazy, after some of my sleuthing / I discovered that Lionel Groulx preached racial purity / Same thing goes for Garneau, FX-Garneau / Quebec History X, we’ve been erased from the collective memory / But there were black businessmen / we were in the regiments as well as fur-trading voyageurs / not to mention innkeepers / And they want us to believe that blacks have only been here since the 70s.” (free translation)

Mr. Vil publishes this text with zero nuance or warning and even goes as far to say that they are a "spot-on course on black history in Quebec.” However, the apparent facts stated in this song are false. If rappers are not obliged to check for accuracy on what they write, columnists like Vil should be held to a higher standard. 

First of all, to classify this text as a history lesson suggests that its content is factually true, especially when Mr. Vil does not provide any contextual element to think otherwise. Quoting “Webster” word for word, Mr. Vil does not just give his "appreciation of a cultural work" as he might well claim. He endorses the false message contained in the song "Qc History X" by calling it a "history course" and a "cultural treasure". He uses words like “enrichment” to speak about the text. In other words, he believes the text’s content is credible. 

However, when referring to the Journalistic Ethics Guide of the Quebec Press Council on Opinion Journalism, Article 10.2 states:

Opinion journalists set out the most relevant facts on which their opinion is based, unless they are already known to the public, and must explain the reasoning that justifies it.

The information presented is accurate, rigorous in its reasoning and complete, as defined in Article 9 of this Guide. (free translation)

The Guide additionally specifies in Article 9 that journalists and the news media produce, according to journalistic norms, information that has the following qualities:

Accuracy: fidelity to reality;

Intellectual rigor and accuracy;

Impartiality: absence of bias in favor of a particular point of view;

Balance in the treatment of a subject and a fair presentation from the point of view of the parties involved;

Totality: in the treatment of a subject, presentation of the essential elements for proper understanding, while respecting the editorial freedom of the media. (free translation)

Ultimately, Mr. Vil’s column puts forth completely false information. For example, the historical work, “Two Centuries of Slavery in Quebec”, arguably the most serious reference for the history of slavery in Québec, indicates that "there were nearly 4,200 slaves in the province of Quebec "(Trudel: 69, free translation). Of these, three quarters were Native Americans (Trudel: 73, free translation) and the other quarter were African (Trudel: 84, free translation). Saying that there were 10,000 slaves in the 19th century in Canada (the name under which Quebec was then known) as Mr. Vil claims, is both misleading and deceptive. The least a columnist can do when citing such a long quote is to verify its veracity and take responsibility for it. 

Vil continues with: "Webster and Muzion are just examples of an array of artists who have created a cultural treasure that can not only change teaching methods, but can also shed a different and relevant light on the contemporary social climate" (free translation). 

However, this statement is problematic. Indeed, the title of the song "Qc History X" is a reference to the well-known American movie "American History X" – featuring several Hollywood stars, hardly an obscure film with confidential distribution. In this case, Mr. Vil could not be unaware that the learned readers of Le Devoir would also link the content of the film and the history of Quebec. 

As a reminder, this film depicts racist American extremist caricatures wearing swastikas, favoring the lynching of blacks. To claim, devoid of any nuance, that a song referencing this film constitutes "a cultural treasure" that can "change teaching methods" is absurd. What is the take away from this? That Quebecers historically behaved in a similar way as the characters in this film? Not only entirely false from a factual point of view, this message cannot be defended as mere artistic freedom, but slander against the Québec nation. 

As a final point, the text of Mr. Vil omits bringing any nuance allegations conveyed by the song "Qc History X" regarding Lionel Groulx. It is well known among real historians that Groulx severely criticized French Canadians who refused to preserve and transmit their national traditions on the pretext of assimilating certain elements of Anglo-Saxon culture for survival purposes. To claim that "Lionel Groulx preached racial purity" is nothing short of intellectual dishonesty and sheer contempt for the national historian of the people who welcomed the likes of Vil and Webster. I would invite Mr. Vil to try reading Groulx, instead of just repeating empty and false catch-phrases about him. He could start with the popular political novel, "The Call of the Race.” He might even lose some of his prejudices. 

That book summarizes what was called at that time "the French spirit.” Some key themes are the materialistic nature of the Anglo-Protestant civilization, the myth of Anglo-Saxon superiority and the Anglo-mania of the French-Canadian petty bourgeoisie. Groulxian nationalism did not make race an absolute. For Groulx, the Catholic Church remained the supreme value. But the Church must be incarnated in a nationality, like the Word which became flesh. Planting national roots are what allows man to reach the universal. 

The French language dictionary, the Petit Robert, defines "race" as a natural group of men who have similar characters (physical, psychic, cultural) from a common past – ethnicity, people. It is also defined as an ethnic group, differentiated by hereditary physical characteristics (skin color, skull shape, blood types) – white, yellow and black. During Groulx time period, it was used mainly in the first sense, meaning race was more cultural. Today, it is used more in the second sense – biological. 

Groulx often spoke of the "genius of the race,” meaning the indefinable peculiarity of the French-Canadian people. He did not have a "sociobiological" view of the nation as in Nazi theories of the Aryan race, despite what folks like Esther Delisle say (the lie that Groulx was an anti-semite can be traced to her). Recall that in the time of Groulx, "race" was spoken in the sense of "nationality.” It was a cultural notion rather than a physical one. The superiority of the French spirit stems rather from the spiritual superiority of Catholicism over Protestantism, an idea that was self-evident in Catholic circles before the Second Vatican Council (Le Siècle de Mgr Bourget, 2016). If only Le Devoir hired columnists who knew their history. 

Lionel Groulx wanted the restoration of national integrity by rediscovering the authentic French-Canadian soul. It is an inner quest, the Greek Gnothi seauton: "Know thyself.” Does Mr. Vil know himself? From reading his other texts, it is clear that he draws almost all his ideas from Anglo-Americans and he probably sees himself as a kind of black American who speaks bilingual, instead of part of the Québec nation. 

For all these reasons, I think that Fabrice Vil's “The Power of hip-hop" is merely another one of these victim propaganda texts directly imported from the United States – the so-called "racialist" tendencies that are currently in vogue. His worldview prevents any honest historical reading that dissociates the history of French Canadian settlers in New France from those of the British Empire.