Perspectives on Privilege in the Business Sector: an Interview with Fawez Abiad
Sophia Ceccucci, External Affairs
March 20, 2021
Fawez Abiad is currently the CEO of Windsor Textiles Limited, a firm based out of Windsor, ON that specializes in the creation of textiles used for safety purposes within factories across North America. Abiad has worked at Windsor Textiles since 1996 and purchased the company in 2007. Since then, he has grown the company into a multilateral organization that works across North America and Asia. This business success did not come without struggles in his personal life. In 1977, he and his family escaped Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War and came to Canada. I interviewed him about his business outlook, making it on his own, and his privilege as an immigrant. Here is what he had to say:
Can you briefly describe your experience immigrating to Canada along with any bias or racism you experienced throughout this process?
Ooh starting heavy! Yeah, I was very young, only eight years old. My vivid memory is that everything was wide open and different. We were driving from Toronto to Windsor and I vividly remember being surprised at how flat the land was because I was used to being surrounded by mountains in Lebanon. It was also a lot colder than I was used to. I would also say that my experience coming in was especially overwhelming because language was a barrier. I felt like I had no centre of gravity and I was just trying to find a way to fit in without knowing English or French yet. It was a bit of a challenge in that way. In terms of racism, I think I was much too young to understand if there was any explicit racism I encountered, but I know that there were a lot of very helpful teachers and friends who taught me English and about Canadian culture. I never really felt unwelcome, but I was so young that I don’t think I would have understood if racism was an issue for me because I didn’t understand the language and I didn’t know what was going on. Those are my early memories.
Tell me a bit about your career story and the success you’ve encountered along the way.
F: My father was an incredibly hard-working person. So, one of the main things I grew up with was this concept of having to work very hard for everything you want and not give up if things didn’t go your way at first. My dad faced many challenges in his life, and he took each one on in stride. He never gave up. I learned from a very young age that quitting was never really an option. I guess when you combine good work ethic and tenacity with the need to succeed or fit in or prove yourself as an immigrant, it was impossible for me not to push myself to succeed in everything I tried. So, when I got into the business world and started working at the company I was at, I brought the same sort of competitive, “don’t take no for an answer” attitude. That momentum led to me being able to move up in the company and eventually buy it. I think all of these things were linked. I think all the pain, and all the emotional baggage you carry is fuel for your desire to rise above and succeed. Having my father as a role model for me allowed everything to fall into place.
What is your opinion on the idea that you “did it on your own”? Do you feel comfortable when people use this phrase to describe your story?
I’m not a big believer in doing it on your own. I do not believe that anybody does it on their own. I believe there are gradients of challenges that each person has to overcome to achieve a level of success or desired outcome. So, I don’t look at it as being on your own, I look at how much support you have. In this case, my father probably did most of the work and I kind of glided along. But, if my dad left me a company and I turned it into an incredible success, obviously that influence and those challenges and those successes were my own. Or, in the case of myself, just starting in a company that’s not mine and starting on the lowest rung and climbing my way up, I still believe I had a significant amount of support from critical people along the way. I feel like when people say, “I did it on my own” it almost kind of absolves them of having to pay back something or have to give credit to the people that lifted them along the way. There should be a level of appreciation for the people that built you up and the shoulders you can climb. I think I am more cognizant of it because of having to come to Canada from Lebanon with nothing.
It’s also not just the people surrounding you that lift you, it’s the institutions within the environment you are acting within. If you look at developed countries in the West, the level of support and infrastructure you are provided is miles beyond what you would get in a developing country. In Canada, everybody gets an education and healthcare. If you own a business, all your employees are educated and taken care of by the government. Canada has roads and steady electricity; these are things we often take for granted. These pieces are a network, and what I would describe as a prerequisite for civil society to grow and succeed and advance technologically and otherwise. The infrastructure in Canada is light years beyond what I experienced in Lebanon. It is infinitely less challenging to be successful here than it is in a country without established infrastructure and social services in place.
What is your opinion on the term “privilege”? Do you think people ignore their privilege? Do you think you have privilege?
I think that the critical point in your question is perception; how do you perceive yourself, how do you perceive others? Do I think I’m privileged and do I think other people are privileged? I know for a fact that other people have certain privileges, but I also know that I have had privileges. I’ve been fortunate to succeed because I’ve had certain doors opened for me. Nonetheless, I agree that there are systemic issues that need to be addressed in various areas that give privilege to dominant people based on skin colour (ie. white privilege). I’ve experienced prejudice in different ways throughout my career and my academics, though I think there’s a lot we can do to mitigate those issues. I just worry that we tend to run back to that as a blanket statement that encompasses our shortcomings: that anything can be boiled down to privilege. When we are faced with a struggle, we can’t blame a lack of privilege for our failures. I’m challenged by that idea specifically because I grew up knowing that I needed to fight to succeed. Maybe I’m just fortunate. So, I don’t want to say that I don’t believe in x or y, but from my journey, I believe that there are systemic barriers that I have had to overcome and that there’s a lot we can do to mitigate those issues. I still struggle to wrap my head around the idea of privilege. I think we have to call it out, recognize it, and move along and society will be better for it.
I believe that it is important that all of our power centres reflect our society. If I’m part of the 20% brown people in society, there should be about 20% of brown people within government institutions and within large companies. Certain boards within companies are predominately white males, and that isn’t reflective of society, but I also don’t think that we should take all the white men off of the boards. I don’t know what the formula is, but I don’t think that making everything even artificially is beneficial either. The capitalist system we live in rewards people who are overachievers and who rise to the challenge. I feel that systems that reward everybody equally regardless of effort tend to bring out the worst, not the best. I am also cognizant of the socio-economic disparity we are confronting too which is also not okay. I’m all about balance and middle ground, and I think the best way that we can achieve our own “utopia” is through these types of discussions. This conversation is important. We should just always remain alert to the fact that we need to have this difficult conversation because we need to make changes. Let’s make sure that we understand the unintended consequences of equity work, and eventually get ahead of them.