You may have read recently about a school division in British Columbia, denouncing the "sin" of white privilege. Besides the school division, I don't know who else was behind this most recent attack and how sincere they are, but it really shocked me.
I assume my "friends" in the Gold Trail School Division didn't read my earlier column on this topic, so let's hope they read this one and get some helpful hints.
They plastered posters all over the division denouncing racism—but with white privilege being the sole target. That would be denouncing racism while racially attacking another race. It has become one of the greatest ironies of the age, namely, a loud hue and cry against racism by people protesting in a racist way. Go figure.
According to the above references, as a white person I am supposed to be embarrassed and ashamed of my skin colour, and I need to be shunned, or at least stopped. Well, okay, maybe they didn't put it that way, but that was their drift.
Needless to say, I am deeply disturbed by the on-going regurgitation of religious, ideological, black, and indigenous supremacy that is sweeping North America these days. As we are here in Canada, I need to narrow the field to issues here in Canada.
I'm all for equality and always have been. But this nonsense is getting out of control. It has the same target: us white guys.
It comes in the form of tearing down statues, re-writing history books, posters cluttering everything that stands upright (boy, I could see a very clever wordplay there), creating college courses that ban whites from attending...and I'm just getting started.
If the roles were reversed, whereby white replaced "people of colour," the hullabaloo would be deafening. Beyond deafening, in fact. That's where the term "reverse racism" comes into play.
In other words, isn't racism still racism, no matter which way it's pointing? Thought so.
I need to hem in my comments, so I'll just deal with the indigenous issues here in Canada. Let me try to take the wind out of this latest attack, but from a human perspective:
1. I have never endorsed or embraced racism in any way, shape or form, nor have I ever used any term in describing any person of colour in a derogatory way, that I can recall. My friendships (classmate and colleagues) run the spectrum of every colour, creed, and culture.
So am I still a racist? If it's a matter of skin colour, isn't that prejudice, in and of itself?
2. While I have never been an employer, per se, I would never discriminate against anyone of colour. As an employer, I would not hire or fire on the basis of skin colour. That's morally and economically wrong. We must be careful not to tar all white employers with the same brush.
Rather, the chief criteria for any employment is simple: Is he or she the best qualified man or woman for the job? Period. That question has been lost in this whole approach to employment, education, and economics.
This loopy idea of a quota, whereby politics, trades, and professions must be representative of the national racial mix at large is absolute bunk. That's racism in itself.
3. Why should I accept the blame for something that happened many generations ago, and did not involve my race? There are horror stories coming from the other side of this discussion, but no one ever brings them up.
4. I love accurate history and I trust you do, too. If so, you will be aware of the warfare of Indian nation against Indian nation. Not a pretty story, and still isn't. Funny, how our revisionist history books fail to mention that.
5. Why stop at skin colour? Where are these heroines of change for the Gold Trail School Division when it comes to the treatment of the Japanese in our internment camps? And while we're at it, what about the Ukrainians and Chinese a few decades before? Strangely silent, I see.
I think it is admirable to raise awareness of the needs of people of colour. Just don't forget that white is a colour, too, and by gratuitously stomping on the rights of white people, well, it creates a much greater, broader mess that we all need to solve.
More on this next week.
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