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It’s unlikely that Trudeau had foremost in mind the image of a fabulously rich white man pummelling an Indian. It is remarkable though that the progressive press has generally overlooked that Trudeau’s ascent from junior celebrity to senior celebrity was achieved by beating an Indigenous man into submission for the amusement of well-heeled benefactors at a charity event.

Yet in choosing Brazeau, a native Canadian who played into unfavourable stereotypes about Indigenous men (it was reported early on that he was behind on child support payments for his four children by two different mothers), Trudeau confessed that he was indeed choosing a “foil.” The pampered son of privilege would demonstrate his toughness against a streetwise ruffian in the ring.

That he thought an Indigenous man was ideal for that “narrative” does undermine his sincerity when he wears his Haida on his sleeve or, to be exact, tattooed on his arm.

The pampered son of privilege would demonstrate his toughness against a streetwise ruffian in the ring

The boxing context must be taken into account. The reality of boxing — beating another man senseless — has always been accompanied by a lot of pretending. That why some of the greatest writers, not infrequently self-styled progressive voices, would celebrate the “sweet science” despite its brutality. And race has never been far from the ethos of the prizefight, even when both boxers are black.

Few widely-admired public figures have ever dealt in as vicious racial stereotypes as did the late Muhammad Ali against his black opponents Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. They were ugly, stupid and violent. The lighter-skinned Ali was, by his own accounts, pretty, clever and graceful. Ali got a pass because of his worthy civil rights activism, and because, well, it was boxing, and a little racism gets the crowd’s blood pumping.