Racism: Part 1

Racism: Part 1

It would be quite presumptuous of me to pretend that I know what it is like to experience racism. I am off-white. Not alabaster but I am certainly not brown or black or yellow, by any means. I used to think that racism had all but disappeared but every so often something small will occur in everyday life to remind me that being the wrong color can be just as bad as belonging to the wrong sex. It can be an off-hand remark like, “Those native kids gave my kids lice.” As though lice prefer long, black Native hair to Caucasian hair.

The moment when I realized that racism was real came when I was a happy, care-free school girl. We were discussing our “roots” for social studies class. Everybody piped up about being Ukrainian, Scottish, German, English, French and other acceptable white origins. I piped up that I had Cree origins, that my mother was raised out in “the bush” and could speak fluent Cree.

The looks and the stares and the whispers that I got from that simple realization! Of course I took advantage of it and called my friends white trash. My real friends responded with good-natured ribbing about being a wagon-burner. Everybody else seemed to see me in a new and muddy light. It made me think really hard about what people of colour must deal with every single day.

Now it is no secret that Canada has a history coloured with both overt and underhanded forms of racism. We interned the Japanese in camps during World War II, we applied head taxes to the Chinese and killed them off during the construction of the national railroad.

The drug laws would be an example of covert racism. Not many people make the connection between banning drugs and racism. Is it a coincidence that the two drugs traditionally used by white, male Europeans, being alcohol and tobacco, are legal for recreational consumption? Opium and marijuana are two examples of drugs used by people of the wrong color that were banned as a result. The racist ranting of Nellie McClung about the degenerate races is what inspired Canada to follow in the misguided footsteps of the Untied States. Sadly, this was not the first or the last time that Canada followed a foolish American policy simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Thanks to the woman who made the case that women are indeed persons, many disenfranchised groups have been jailed or worse.

I will continue ranting about our racist drug laws tomorrow, when I am well-rested and not annoyed at my drama queen child who is frantically running around the house in preparation for her three day camping trip. This blogging crap is not for wimps.