The not so Great Racism in Canada Thread

[theman23]

Nvm

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by vid

I, too, have experienced this.

I think everybody on earth has experienced this from both left wing and right wing people. In fact, all one has to do is submit a point of view opposing that of either school of thought and of course they're going to have a problem with it. And you won't experience it from those with whom you already agree.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by vid

Is that really what you got from this, or are you doing what I often do and making yourself look like a low-IQ idiot to make some kind of weird point that no one else shares?

From the half-second I spent on it, yes, that's what I got from this. But if they're protesting something else (say, they're gathering in dense crowds to protest against the coronavirus) then my comment doesn't apply and I don't mind withdrawing it. It's actually the reason I ended it with a question mark, as you will have no doubt noticed.

And why would you think that "no one else" shares my points? I bet I can find several SSPers who do. Challenge accepted...?

[casper]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

What grade were you in when you had your first black teacher?

Vancouver has Elementary school (k-7) and secondary school (8-12). It was a science teacher in the early years of secondary school.

I had a very diverse set of teachers with many who were while, a number from Arab, Asian and Hispanic background. Very few were black. In the 90s in Vancouver the number of people who were black was very low.

On the west coast systemic police racism is far more a problem with how people of indigenous backgrounds are treated.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by casper

Vancouver has Elementary school (k-7) and secondary school (8-12). It was a science teacher in the early years of secondary school.

I had a very diverse set of teachers with many who were while, a number from Arab, Asian and Hispanic background. Very few were black. In the 90s in Vancouver the number of people who were black was very low.

On the west coast systemic police racism is far more a problem with how people of indigenous backgrounds are treated.

I don't remember ever having a black teacher but I do remember the junior high school I went to had a black woman who was either a librarian or an assistant to the librarian. She was very well liked and respected. That was a million years ago which probably explains why I never had any black teachers. I do remember having a native social studies teacher who I'm positive was a diehard communist. She was a huge fan of Mao's and had posters of him in the classroom. Not one of my favorite teachers!

Indigenous people in Canada definitely have it the worst in terms of police racism and worst.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by JHikka

I think he's demonstrably changed towards a more right-winged approach the last few years.

Here's a video of his from seven years ago on the motion for a National Hockey Day:

• Video Link
I just don't see him having the same charm, wit, and general thought as he used to.

Part of Rex's appeal was that he was a very strong writer because, as Acajack correctly points out, he was a Rhodes Scholar. How many present day pundits are going to bring up the Battle of Thermopylae and Mac & Cheese in a mini-essay about hockey?

Reading this article and it's clear he's not only lost his ability to write and construct prose but also to think objectively as well as he used to.

In saying all that, I agree that the CBC has probably shifted enough away from the right that someone like Murphy would naturally be pushed away in favour of someone else who may or may not have particular backgrounds.

Mark sums him up well.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by vid

Hey, out of anyone on that show, I'd rather be him.

Despite the bigotry and ignorance, Archie Bunker demonstrated that even people who had long held views of bigotry could be at the very least tempered into something more accepting. It's something that many people can't or won't do today. The name is sometimes used as a derogatory term to them, but it gets applied to people who would actually benefit from being more like Archie Bunker than they already are, so in a sense it's being used wrong. I'm not saying this in relation to Acajack (he's clearly more progressive than Archie Bunker), but it's a general opinion I hold on the comparison of other people to Archie Bunker in general. He wasn't created to represent bigoted people as they are, but to demonstrate to them and the others around them that bigoted people had the potential to become better, kinder people, all it took was exposure to other people's realities and some patience.

Love that post.

*****

RE: demographic awareness, I think I've got as good an idea who lives on my street as StatsCan? It's only about 70 houses. Mostly every sort of local white (lovely old women, young students, skeets, single mothers in public housing, renters, and a smattering of young professionals). Among the rest of the white people, there's presumably some who aren't but look like it, also a hot waiter from Montreal. And there used to be a handsome banker but he got married and his wife refused to live here so their house is rented to students now. There's one infill duplex a few houses down from mine, both sides were bought by Asian couples. I assume they're related because they moved in at exactly the same time and clearly know each other. Only the kids speak English beyond saying hello, but they're like 5-6ish years old so it's not like I can chat with them. There's a super ripped black guy about halfway down the street on the other side. Presumably a university student as everytime I pass him on the street he's got a gym bag and walking away the opposite direction you'd go for a gym. At the very bottom of the street there are a couple of larger, old buildings. There is an Innu woman from Labrador in one of them. She always asks what you bought if you pass her with bags, in an excited way, like asking someone about a vacation lol. And there's a Muslim family, I'm pretty sure Syrian, across the street from that building. I think that's it? The main streets at either end of mine are pretty diverse. The black community, especially, seems very well-represented along Merrymeeting Road. But I don't see anyone there often enough to know which are their homes, etc. You'd have to be consciously noticing for that.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Love that post.

*****

RE: demographic awareness, I think I've got as good an idea who lives on my street as StatsCan? It's only about 70 houses. Mostly every sort of local white (lovely old women, young students, skeets, single mothers in public housing, renters, and a smattering of young professionals). Among the rest of the white people, there's presumably some who aren't but look like it, also a hot waiter from Montreal. And there used to be a handsome banker but he got married and his wife refused to live here so their house is rented to students now. There's one infill duplex a few houses down from mine, both sides were bought by Asian couples. I assume they're related because they moved in at exactly the same time and clearly know each other. Only the kids speak English beyond saying hello, but they're like 5-6ish years old so it's not like I can chat with them. There's a super ripped black guy about halfway down the street on the other side. Presumably a university student as everytime I pass him on the street he's got a gym bag and walking away the opposite direction you'd go for a gym. At the very bottom of the street there are a couple of larger, old buildings. There is an Innu woman from Labrador in one of them. She always asks what you bought if you pass her with bags, in an excited way, like asking someone about a vacation lol. And there's a Muslim family, I'm pretty sure Syrian, across the street from that building. I think that's it? The main streets at either end of mine are pretty diverse. The black community, especially, seems very well-represented along Merrymeeting Road. But I don't see anyone there often enough to know which are their homes, etc. You'd have to be consciously noticing for that.

You still sound suspicious to me! Keeping a registry for the day the chickens come home to roost?

[esquire]

I have a fairly good idea of who lives on my block... after having lived in my house for 3 years I don't know how I wouldn't get a sense for who lives nearby. And I'm not someone who tries especially hard to figure out the demographics of my neighbours... it's just something you notice as you're mowing the lawn or playing with the kids and seeing people come and go.

It's interesting, I live in the suburbs, but it's 1980s suburbia. It is much less diverse than the new subdivisions. There are a few non-white faces on the block and at least one white immigrant family from Russia, but it is a far cry from brand new subdivisions west of the Red River where there are way, way more immigrants and minorities. I suppose there is something very "American dream"ish about having a brand new house in a brand new suburban neighbourhood... my parents did the same thing when they bought their home in the 1970s.

[JHikka]

My block is 90% Chinese. Source: I'm in Chinatown.

[niwell]

My block, which is one of the two longest in Toronto, has about 250 structures on it which range from single family homes to 6 unit apartment buildings. Needless to say I do not know all of the people on my block! We do know a fair number of the neighbours of course, but also lots of mystery houses (including the one we share a wall with, interestingly enough). I can say there's a wide range of demographics ranging from older Portuguese families, new immigrants, students, young professionals who rent as well as younger families who own.

Last year when I was living in Johannesburg I felt like it was very common to know everyone in your immediate area, and whatsapp groups for your block were a normal thing. This is largely for security reasons, as nobody trusts the police and avoids calling them at all costs, but of course people become friends and will invite each other for drinks or bbqs and such. My immediate area was a pretty even mix of white families (usually on the older side), East Asian muslims (there was a big mosque down the road), and new middle class black Africans.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

What is the truth?

I'd say that in practice this mostly comes down to trying to find out facts or discern what objective reality is rather than taking a tendentious approach and picking out only information that supports your view while discarding everything else.

An example of objective reality is what happens when any person jumps off of a 100 m high cliff and pancakes into the rocks below. The reality of that situation is not a matter of opinion, and you ignore the facts at your peril. You can come up with a theory for why down is up and you'll be fine but you will still hurtle toward the ground at approximately 9.8 m/s^2 and die.

Most situations in life are not so clear and yet people are still well-served by adopting a hard-nosed scientific perspective, and most are bad at it. Particularly people who live in a world of politics and opinions where their most common goal is to convince others of something rather than to accurately learn about the world.

[casper]

After university I left home and 25 years later came back taking over my parents old home. The block is single family residential in East Vancouver. When I grew up here there were a few illegal basement suits in some homes. Now secondary suites are legal and common and laneway houses are also common. No way I am going to be able to give quantitative numbers.

There are a good number of people that are Asian (a few from Hong Kong, mainline China, Taiwan, others who I don't know well enough to say). Some Italian, German, Yugoslavian others that white and would struggle to nail down. There are a few families of Indian background. A good number from the Philippines. Lots of others who I don't know well enough to say.

This gets hard as many couples are multi-race. One family i know is a couple Portuguese and Philippines with several kids. Another Italian-Indian with their kids. One couple I know is Pakistan-Indian, they ended up meeting in Dubai and getting married involved accepting the fact they would need to settle in a third country.

[JHikka]

An RCMP officer in Kinngait (Cape Dorset) has been removed from the community after a video was taken of the Mountie hitting an intoxicated man with his truck. There are now six active investigations of RCMP incidents in Nunavut.

https://twitter.com/APTNNews/status/1268164051466682371

[someone123]

Originally Posted by JHikka

An RCMP officer in Kinngait (Cape Dorset) has been removed from the community after a video was taken of the Mountie hitting an intoxicated man with his truck. There are now six active investigations of RCMP incidents in Nunavut.

I wonder how many Inuit RCMP officers there are, and how long officers tend to serve there. Is this a place RCMP officers parachute into for a few years, generally early on in their career, and then escape as soon as possible? Does the local community have control over its policing in the same way a city might, either through its own police force or the threat of dumping the RCMP?

[niwell]

Originally Posted by someone123

I wonder how many Inuit RCMP officers there are, and how long officers tend to serve there. Is this a place RCMP officers parachute into for a few years, generally early on in their career, and then escape as soon as possible? Does the local community have control over its policing in the same way a city might, either through its own police force or the threat of dumping the RCMP?

It could very well be different now, but when I lived in Iqaluit there were very few (any?) Inuk RCMP officers, and what you describe about a parachute was very much the case. Higher ranking officers sometimes did come as a career stepping stone too (the husband of a coworker, for instance) as Iqaluit was considered to be one of the more dangerous postings. There was a decent amount of community animosity, but I feel like this would be moreso in the smaller remote areas.

The local community has bylaw officers, which at the time were probably about half Inuk. IIRC they mostly handle things like traffic offences and noise (read: alcohol) complaints. Anything more would be handed off to the RCMP.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

What grade were you in when you had your first black teacher?

A Grade 3 student teacher. I think he was the first black person I had ever met. He would pinch us as a form of punishment. It was the early 80s. We were scared of him because of that behaviour so not the best experience. Most of my views of black people were shaped by television though, generally positive things like the Cosby Show. Hearing anti-black bias over and over again presented as “common sense” still seeps into your brain, hence why we all need to investigate ourselves through an anti-racist lens. In Thunder Bay, however, being racist towards indigenous people was the focus and black people were rarely if ever mentioned.

[Acajack]

Ottawa crowd chants to the PM: "stand up to Trump!"

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Ottawa crowd chants to the PM: "stand up to Trump!"

The press and the NDP (and now crowds I guess) are barking up the wrong tree. The silence was almost the perfect message. We can't antagonize that orange spaz.

Plenty of issues in Canada to deal with.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by niwell

It could very well be different now, but when I lived in Iqaluit there were very few (any?) Inuk RCMP officers, and what you describe about a parachute was very much the case. Higher ranking officers sometimes did come as a career stepping stone too (the husband of a coworker, for instance) as Iqaluit was considered to be one of the more dangerous postings. There was a decent amount of community animosity, but I feel like this would be moreso in the smaller remote areas.

The local community has bylaw officers, which at the time were probably about half Inuk. IIRC they mostly handle things like traffic offences and noise (read: alcohol) complaints. Anything more would be handed off to the RCMP.

That's interesting. How did that work - were there separate numbers for the bylaw officers vs RCMP? And if so, did the locals prefer to call the bylaw officers? Or would someone just call 911 and the dispatcher would send out whoever was responsible?