We must do better on issue of race

By Letter to the Editor on June 20, 2020.

I am a senior, a white person of pretty significant privilege having had a good education and wonderful career opportunities. I have never tried to rent an apartment and been turned down because of my race, as have many Indigenous and Black people. I have never been refused service or ignored in a store because of the colour of my skin.

If I need to use a washroom, I can afford to pay $5 for a cup of coffee and not face a locked door. None of my parents, grandparents, or aunts and uncles were ripped from their families and placed in residential schools to face abuse and even death.

My culture and heritage has always been celebrated – never outlawed (like the Sun Dance) and neither attacked nor denigrated.

Certainly all lives matter – but the unstated second part of the demands made at recent demonstrations is this: Black and Indigenous lives matter as much as White lives. We need this reminder because currently in Canada this is simply not the case.

As we move to June 21, National Indigenous Day and National Indigenous Day of Prayer, let us all remember – we can and must do better.

Leslie Lavers

Lethbridge