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
9-8
Renting an apartment has zero to do with your race, rather your past rental history, your job status, your credit rating, the integrity of your references, and the way you present yourself to the landlord.
Quit using the race card to call out responsible landlords. Every person is ultimately responsible for their own success or failure in life.
YES Leslie we must do better! I would agree! But they must also pick their game-up. The “poor old me” narrative is wearing thin! The ” I am not accountable for my actions” card must not always be played!
Laws cannot be broken just because your of a different color and have some kind of special status.
Not to sure how so-called “White Privilege” served me in any way. I grew-up in a poverty stricken house. Mom stayed home and raised four children while dad punched a “time-clock” daily to bring home the bacon. We never had money for extras of any kind. In fact I never knew how a flush toilet worked until I moved out of the shack we lived in and in with a few buddies in a house that actually had a flush-toilet installed in it. And we never had steak in the house at all. Dad would commonly tell us that “Steak is for rich people.” I remember buying myself the first prepared steak and sitting down to enjoy it at the ripe-old-age of 17yrs after receiving one of my first paychecks.
This “White privilege” thing you talk about Leslie seems to of passed me by. But I still managed to make my way in life obeying laws and working my butt off for everything I have, including a flush-toilet!
Kumbaya isn’t enough. Playing the racist card is wearing thin. This is the first time in history that a social experiment called multiculturalism has been tried and its not working. Every race wants to maintain the status quo and when too many of another race enter in regardless what country and not add to the vibrancy or embrace the local customs and laws racism emerges. Go to any Islamic country or African country and see for yourself how welcome you would be.
Racism is a misnomer as we are all of the human race, The problem is as chinook stated. It is a cultural problem of people wanting special privileges for their status. This problem really developed in Canada because some one on in power designated us as a cultural mosaic and thrusting us into which culture would be the leading culture and so conflict happened. My ancestors cam to Canada in 1899, took free land in Saskatchewan and built their communal wealth across Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. In 1939, this was all taken away from us by the then government in power and as private individuals we bought back what we had owned communally. We integrated into Canadian society. We never cried out because we were poorly treated because of who we were. We survived by working hard for what we wanted. The old Adage “IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS”. But all of this falls aside because we are a mosaic. In fact if people remember, in the 30’s you could be jailed if you spoke any other language than French or English. Yes we have come a long way backwards.
of course white folk have never experienced being denied a job or a place to rent because you are white – that is the point of the letter. consider being of darker skin, and being denied a job you are qualified for, or denied a home that you can afford, only because of racism/prejudice.
the letter further speaks to the attempted obliteration of aboriginal society/culture. and yes, while it is time we all move on, it is made more difficult because racism/prejudice are not merely issues of the past, they remain rooted in too much of our society today.