I wrote this article early last week when this news was new. Then on Thursday in the Vancouver Sun, David Suzuki wrote an article stating similar views. So if you’ve heard this before, remember I said it first.
The latest news is out. Canada is a country of racists. 17% have negative feelings against this minority, 15 % have negative feelings against that minority, etcetera.
Complete hogwash.
Oh, I have faith in the science. The percentages are probably correct. But it’s garbage in, garbage out. The data quoted above has very little to do with the racial situation in Canada. Why not? Because the people polled are the ones who are willing to admit their prejudice. Knowing your bias and being willing to admit it is the first big step towards solving it. Believe me, the polls never counted the group that commits the overt racist acts that make the news.
How Should We Approach This Problem?
Well, here’s a little analogy. Think of Canada as a high school. Billy (I’m using that name because few children are called Billy nowadays, and I have to give him some name. Sorry, anybody called Billy…)
Anyway, Billy goes to our model Canadian high school. Billy gets up one morning and his mother is still in bed sleeping it off, her face bruised from where her boyfriend hit her the night before. There is no food in the house. He makes himself a coffee and heads for school. He is not in a teachable mood.
He shoves his way to the front of the bus lineup, pushing a coloured boy out of the way, cursing him. At the school, he meets a couple of his buddies, and after a toke outside, they crash down the hallway, shoving an Asian boy against the lockers and spilling his books, calling him another name. He comes up behind a girl he knows and squeezes her breast as he strolls by, laughing raucously. A stoner slides in beside him with a twenty, and he slips the guy a couple of pills.
And so it goes. Then the parents start calling and the incident numbers start coming in. Statistically, this school has a terrible problem with racism, bullying, drugs and sexual harassment. What the school really has is a problem with Billy.
Now, all those sensitization classes and after-school clubs and speeches on the PA are really good for the rest of the kids. Please don’t stop doing them. They create inclusivity and compassion and all the good things we want our kids to learn. But as long as Billy is roaming the halls in a bad mood, and his sycophantic buddies are following along in the wake of his anger, the school hallway will never be a nice place to be. We’re talking about bad, old-fashioned bullying here, where 5 % of the kids cause 95% of the problems.
Likewise the Streets of Canada
And if you’re of the righter-wing persuasion, you’re cheering and clapping right now and saying, “Lock him up. My racism isn’t half as bad as his.”
Sorry to disappoint you. You’re responsible for your own bigotry, and admitting it is only the first step. Everybody — on the street, in the media, and in government — needs to be telling you this constantly.
We Aren’t Telling Them
But what this country constantly says is that there are two groups of people who are expected to act out of the norm: the disadvantaged at the bottom and the bosses at the top. We have the head of Canada’s Armed Forces outed for the usual “good old boy” behaviour with subordinate females. Then his replacement is charged with the same offences. We have politicians taking sunny holidays while their constituents are on lockdown. When the time comes for the top ranks to accept their golden fleece, the rules don’t apply to them.
The Solutions Aren’t Easy
Helping the underprivileged is an ongoing process. I’d like to think we were doing better, but I’m grasping for data to prove it. Since many of the racial problems we have are overlaid (or underlaid; who can tell?) with poverty and mental health issues, I’m afraid that the only solution is firm determination from our elected officials. That includes the willingness to spend more tax dollars, but more importantly, the guts to stay and make sure the tax dollars are spent wisely.
As far as the upper echelon is concerned, it’s a worldwide problem. To generalize, the powerful are too powerful, and only a stronger form of democracy can keep them in line. Two solutions come to mind:
- Get rid of business control of government. “Donations” of any sort to political parties or individuals are bribes. Canada has made some progress in this area lately, but needs more. Registering lobbyists is just a way of legalizing a conspiracy to defraud the people.
- Get rid of “First Past the Post” government. As the Americans proved lately (and Canada is sliding slowly towards), it’s the first sashay towards dictatorship, hiding in the wings, ready to pounce.
The Real Bottom Line
We have to stop deifying winners. “The one who dies with the most toys wins” is a stupid way to run a life, a family, or a country.
I rather prefer, “Did you leave the world a better place than you found it?”
Or, to put it another way, “What did you do for Billy?”