Pure black and white? A new hit comedy in Quebec brings race relations into question.

WHERE I LIVE up in the north-eastern corner of North America, the term pure laine (literally translated as "pure wool") is used to describe someone who is born in Quebec, francophone (French-speaking), white and directly descended from French European stock. It is also now the name of a new French-language sitcom, Pure Laine.

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Initially, I cringed at the thought of yet another TV show glorifying Quebec's majority. Here, people first identify as being francophone, anglophone or allophone (Canada-speak for having a mother tongue other than English or French). The term "ethno-cultural community" is used to describe anyone who is non-francophone, non-white and of a non-Catholic background.

Despite my own roots, which are white and mostly francophone, I do not use pure laine to describe myself, and the expression makes me a little antsy. Even though I know most people use it to affirm their identity--to invoke a sense of pride rather than one of exclusion--not many see the expression's racist implications.

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To my delight, this very blind spot turned out to be the focus of Pure Laine--a side-splittingly funny sitcom that takes no prisoners when it comes to discussing issues of race and identity.

The show's narrator and main character is Dominique Michel, a Haitian immigrant and high school teacher who has been living in Montreal for the past 15 years. He is married to Chantal, a pure laine, unilingual Francophone and dyed-in-the-wool separatist who wants to see the province of Quebec become its own country. Unable to have children of their own, they adopted little Ming from China.

Dominique, Chantal and Ming each have different relationships to Quebec society. Dominique, according to the show's creators, is a model of either racial integration or cultural shock. Chantal, originally from rural Quebec, experienced her own version of culture shock when she moved to big-city Montreal. She is classic pure laine--but streaked with idealism. She strongly believes in a multiethnic Quebec, but a unilingually French one. She is quick to react to displays of prejudice or discrimination, while awkwardly unaware of her own well-ingrained bias. Their daughter, Ming, was brought from China as an infant and is the only member of the family to have seemingly never felt uprooted. Now 10 years old, she is a smart, curious, athletic and happy little girl.

The show, in part, centers on Dominique trying to explain the paradoxes of Quebec society to his daughter, his friends, his students and just about anybody else he encounters. His explanations entail hilarious flashbacks of situations he has been in or observed. With an acute sense of irony, Dominique's narratives take on issues of race, language and what it means to belong. In the process, he pokes fun at everything from political correctness to racial profiling, affirmative action, white guilt and what it means to be "Quebecois."

Among Dominique's favourite targets are white guilt and tokenism. He doesn't hesitate to point out how well-meaning gestures often contribute more to perpetuating stereotypes than anything else. In one episode, when he is offered a promotion to vice principal, a position that he didn't ask for and isn't interested in, he smells a strong whiff of tokenism from the school's principal and decides to probe into why she offered him the job.

She readily admits to her motive: a Black administrator would be good for the school's public image. What she isn't ready for is Dominique refusing the promotion. At first, she is simply upset with him for refusing her "help" towards a better job, but then becomes furious when she realizes that her image of the perfect school is now shattered. "If you are the only thing standing between me and making this school into a model of racial harmony," the school principal yells at Dominique, "then I will not hesitate to squash you!"

The subject of what it means to be "Quebecois" is where the show hits a nerve with audiences. A long and complicated history has made the people of Quebec rather sensitive about identity.

What is now known as Quebec was "discovered" by the French in the 1500s. For more than two hundred years, it was the pride of France and run as a "good colony": the natives were converted and contaminated with disease, some of the survivors were enslaved (along with a few Africans), natural resources were exploited and tens of thousands of people were brought in from France to build a population base and guard French economic interests.

Then in the 1760s, the territory and its now-established population were captured and recolonized by the British, driving France as a colonial power out of North America. Almost overnight, the colonizers became the colonized. The British elite were now in control, and the French-speaking majority were graciously allowed to keep their language and remain Roman Catholic as long as they remained at the bottom of the social ladder.

Fast-forward to today, and you will find a thriving Quebec that is dominated economically, culturally and linguistically by the francophone majority--the direct descendents of these once-colonized folks. It is a Quebec internationally known for Celine Dion, the Cirque du Soleil, good hockey players and constantly threatening to become its own sovereign nation by separating from the rest of Canada.

How did that happen? In 1948, oppositional voices began to emerge. Le Refus Global, penned by the foremost French Canadian artists of the time called for French Canadians to get out from under the thumb of the Catholic Church and of the (English-speaking) establishment. In the 1960s, inspired by other struggles around the world and borrowing from thinkers like Fanon and Cesaire, French Canadians affirmed that they, like many other colonized peoples, were oppressed. In 1968, writer Pierre Vallieres called for violent resistance in his controversial autobiography, Negres blancs d'amerique (White Niggers of America).

That same year in provincial politics, the Parti Quebecois was founded on the idea that the province of Quebec should claim independence from Canada, thereby putting the term "Quebecois" into common parlance. Several terms with the Parti Quebecois in power and two referendums on sovereignty later, Quebec is still a province of Canada, but many Quebecois maintain that they are a distinct nation. This is the Quebec in which our hero, Dominique, finds himself today. How, then, does a Black man navigate the waters of a white majority population that is itself a self-conscious linguistic minority in a sea of North American English-speakers?

As Dominique trains his lens on Quebec society, he can never quite focus on any one reason that will explain why things are the way they are. In almost any other Western society, a sitcom based on a minority's perspective of the majority would be filled with stereotypes. While Pure Laine carries its share of cliches, Dominique digs a little deeper into the complexity.

"Integration and racism in Quebec are interesting phenomena, but like in most Western societies, we simply don't speak about it," says Martin Forget, the show's creator. "At first, the title of the show scared a few folks who assumed that by using 'pure laine' we were talking about some kind of racial purity. But most people don't use the expression that way, and in general, Quebec society is one that is tolerant. In many ways, the Quebecois see themselves as an ethnicity too--they were subjugated by English-speaking North America--and that made them more tolerant toward other oppressed people. It was only after the first waves of French-speaking Haitian and Vietnamese immigrants did we even realize we were capable of intolerance and weren't always the victims."

As Dominique likes to point out on the show, the Quebecois aren't too sure on what side they stand. They are proud to be Quebecois. But are they proud of their ethnicity or of their nationality? If it's ethnicity, then what happens to everyone else who lives here? If it's nationality, then how do you define it?

In one episode, Dominique flashes back to taking his oath to become a Canadian citizen. Never having left the province since his arrival directly from Haiti, he starts wondering whether the country of Canada actually exists, or if it was just dreamt up by the Quebecois. After all, how can you assert your identity if it's not in opposition to someone else?

"The Quebecois are an ethnicity, but they just haven't realized it yet," says actor Didier Lucien, who plays the role of Dominique and was born in Haiti but raised in Quebec. "When it comes to being an ethnic, it's others who decide if you are or not."

"Pure Laine is a brilliant concept that could only work in Quebec," says Alix Laurent, cofounder of Quebec's annual Action Week Against Racism. "For one, interracial couples really aren't a big deal here. But beyond that, the show is highly intelligent and deals with very difficult issues in a direct and funny way. It's very Quebecois in that what makes Quebec distinct is its ability to look at itself and laugh!"

The second season started airing in early 2007, and a third season is in the works. Widely watched across Quebec and now being shown in France, the show has found an audience.

"The majority of people who watch the show are unilingual francophone white Quebeckers," says Forget. "Pure Laine has to stay entertainment first, but it does bring up a lot of tough issues even if done in a light way, and if it gets people thinking, then I am satisfied with that."

"I think it's important that we keep Pure Laine light," agrees Lucien. "The show simply wouldn't have worked if it wasn't a sitcom--it would have been too difficult for all of us involved. This way we can actually get at some really serious issues."

French-Canadian/Anglo-Quebecoise Elizabeth Hunt lives in Montreal (and admits to being madly in love with her city).