The Rise and Fall of "Visible Minority" in Canada

Once heralded – and criticized – as a uniquely Canadian way of defining racial categories, the visible minority concept is being retired from government terminology. This presentation details the rise and fall of “visible minority,” highlighting the unresolved tension between racial classification systems that simultaneously acknowledge racial difference while obscuring structural racial inequality.  

Debra Thompson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies at McGill University. She is the author of The Schematic State: Race, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Census (2016) and The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging (2022) and is a contributing columnist for the Globe and Mail.