Colonial Proximities

Renisa Mawani is an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia.

• 1 Introduction: Heterogeneity and Interraciality in British Columbia's Colonial "Contact Zone"2 The Racial Impurities of Global Capitalism: The Politics of Labour, Interraciality, and Lawlessness in the Salmon Canneries3 (White) Slavery, Colonial Knowledges, and the Rise of State Racisms4 National Formations and Racial Selves: Chinese Traffickers and Aboriginal Victims in British Columbia's Illicit Liquor Trade5 "The Most Disreputable Characters": Mixed-Bloods, Internal Enemies, and Imperial FuturesConclusion: Colonial Pasts, Entangled Presents, and Promising FuturesNotesBibliographyIndex

"This book offers fascinating new perspectives on the roots of Canadian racism. Moving beyond traditional narratives of Aboriginal-European contact and Chinese-European relations, Renisa Mawani probes the unsettled landscape of cross-racial encounters between "indians" and "Chinese" in BC history. She deftly captures the frenzied anxieties that whites harboured over ungovernable mixed-race activities, and brilliantly dissects the renewed state racisms that were born of such encounters. - Constance Backhouse, University of Ottawa"