A few days ago a Sikh friend of mine had an indigenous woman tell him that he was “ruining our country” and a few months prior another Sikh I knew had an indigenous man punch him out for “stealing our jobs.” The latter man ended up quitting his job at the Circle K and, to finish paying for his education in mechanical engineering went on to work in the kitchen of a pizza place. The former Sikh man is still plugging away at the Circle K.
The irony is not lost on me when a group of people like the indigenous population are persecuted on by a large portion of Canadian society, go on to persecute Sikhs. Of all people who are discriminated against like the indigenous should take a long look in the mirror before doing this sort of crap. I often wonder if racist indigenous peoples have bought into the current nationalist, racist trend promoted by our current batch of socially and fiscally numb right-wing politicians too?
Politicians such as Theresa May, Donald Trump and, closer to home, Andrew Scheer and Alberta’s newly elected premier of Alberta Jason Kenney do not actively encourage racism, but by the same token do nothing to discourage racist actions and/or dialogue. What’s even more unfortunate is that when politicians such as Kenney are confronted on their past discriminatory behaviour most of the time you don’t get even an apology out of their mouths. Just the usual patronizing platitudes like, that was then, this is now and I’m a different person and someone else brought this on himself or herself.
Again, this doesn’t discourage racist dialogue and racist actions, but it certainly comes close to encouraging it by dog whistling their ignorant followers into believing their subtle and sometimes not so subtle racist words. Then when politicians, and any racist nationalist person, are confronted for their despicable behavior they end up gaslighting the person who confronts them. “You need to lighten up,” or “It’s not me, it’s you being overly sensitive,” or, here’s a good one, “You’re being too politically correct.”
This has nothing to do with “lightening up,” or “being too sensitive,” or “being too politically correct.” You discriminatory words however, have everything to do with keeping up with the changing times and being a respectful human being rather than a disrespectful turd. I mean that the world is changing fast and is an environmental mess and you get your panties in a bunch when a man now identifies as a woman instead and you refuse to use the correct pronoun? You’ve got to be kidding me?!
It would appear to me that YOU should lighten up and that YOU are the one who is overly sensitive. As for me, and others like me being too politically correct, YOU ARE WRONG. When right wing politicians and their followers throw around the politically correct label it is because they can’t accept that the times have changed and that they can’t keep up. Again, if a woman want’s to be referred to as a him or them, then what’s the big deal? Just do it for crying out loud. If you expect respect for yourself then you MUST afford it to others too. Otherwise you are one big, fat hypocrite.
I wonder if this all starts from blindly following a right wing leader too much? In a nutshell it is, liberals bad, conservatives good. Too many immigrants and too many people are coming into the country illegally. I’m going to do some myth busting now. First, Not all liberals are bad just like not all conservatives are good. Second, if there are too many immigrants in Canada then apparently you forgot that, excluding the indigenous population, you were an immigrant or your family at one point were immigrants too. And last but not least, there are not too many people coming into the country illegally. Contrary to popular belief by the right, swarms of people are not entering Canada, legally or otherwise. The ones that you say are illegal are in fact, under national and international law seeking asylum from a terrible situation that you can’t sympathize and empathize with because of your comfortable lifestyle. If after the so called illegal immigrant’s asylum claim is heard and they are turned down and are to be deported but instead stay in Canada, then yes that is illegal. Just entering a country is not illegal. It may appear so but it is not illegal.
I am well aware that this may be called “fake news” but it is not “fake news” you just don’t like and or agree with the facts of the changing world that we currently live in. I am also aware of the old saying, “If you’re 20 and not a liberal then you have no heart and if you’re 40 and not a conservative then you have no brain.” Even though I am a liberal I’d like to think that I have a heart AND a brain but it appears that many conservatives have neither. For they blindly follow whatever their right wing leader calls real news or fake news and refuse to do any research. A good portion of right wing conservatives will not even call out other conservatives, conservative leaders or their followers, for their discriminatory behavior.
I believe that the only discrimination one should perform should be directed at the heartless and brainless leaders and their followers for actively promoting racist language and/or violence. Being human means having a heart and a brain and having them communicate with each other rationally. Racism is irrational and not calling out racists is equally irrational too.
