Today at lunch, I got into a conversation with my co-worker, one Elaine Barron by name, and Filipino by decent.
Our conversation was sparked by a newspaper article left open on the table. The gist of the article was that some British Scientist have developed an embryo with genetic information from one male and two females. Their goal was to “…one day help would-be mothers from handing down an often tragic and sometimes fatal condition called mitochondrial disease…”
Elaine and I started talking about and began to speculate on the moral complications of such procedures. The issue of a possible master race, and ‘Designer Babies’ was of course a concern, but more over our lunch hour, our conversation turned to Racism, and how absolutely ridiculous it is!
I related this story:
My friend (who will remain anonymous) and I were getting pizza, and when the doorbell rang, she went to go pay. After she closed the door, our conversation went like this:
My Friend (X): “Ugh, it was that guy who works at 7-11 too. God how many jobs does he need?’
Me (A): “Huh, which guy?
X: “The brown guy, god, he freaks me out so much!”
A: “What do you mean he freaks you out? Why?”
X: “He’s so tall! I totally didn’t tip him!”
A: “What? Why didn’t you tip him?”
X: “casue he freaks me out”
A: “You can’t not tip a guy just because he freaks you out! Just because he’s tall!!”
X: “But like, you can’t see his eyes! It’s creepy!”
A: “You can see his eyes! He wears a turban and has a beard, he’s not wearing ‘poker player’ sunglasses AT ALL TIMES!”
X: “But he’s really dark!”
A: “Was He dark, like actually dark, or did you just forget to turn the porch light on?!”
X: “Well, I don’t like him! I mean how many jobs does he need?”
A: “Are you fucking kidding me? He probably has one more degree than you, because you have none! He has at least two more jobs then you, because you don’t even have a job!”
My friend did go to Panago the next day and give the guy a tip. The unfortunate part is that her thought process wasn’t uncommon. It’s all too often that so-called “Canadians” complain about immigrants, and throw out such blatant mistruths as,
“They are stealing all our jobs. They are only here because of our medical system benefits. They just want to come here so they can sponsor all their relatives. Pretty soon our city will be over-run with them.”
People who are saying these things obviously have no idea how our immigration system works, nor do they even have any actual fact to back up their disgustingly generalized claims.
I often want to remind these so-called “Canadians” that all “Canadians” are immigrants. Everyone in Canada
As our lunch time conversation got more heated, we started thinking about racist slurs and speculating on how they even get started.
We figured the derogatory terms started because one person was different from another, but really everyone is different from everyone else.
You are unique, just like a snowflake, just like everyone else.
Elaine and I eventually started this conversation, which has us falling into a fit of giggles, and even though it may sounds strange, it’s no different from any other kind of racism.
“Oh my God, white people are just SO white! I mean I went outside with Anna the other day and her skin was like, glowing! I was blinded! And seriously what is up with their skin changing colour like that in the sun! I mean she turned Red! It’s SO weird! I mean make up you mind, are you white or red?!
“What is up with their hair? I mean it’s like red and blonde and brown and even black. Like did their moms sleep with like 10 guys, and it all got mixed up? And sometime it’s curly and sometimes it’s strait? God their moms must be super slutty!! White girls are such whores.
“I don’t want them near me, I might get a disease, because they are so slutty, she can’t use the same water fountain as me, I might get one of her slutty diseases! White girls are probably really easy too! But I mean I wouldn’t want like my brother or friends with one of them! They would not be faithful, no way!
“And their eyes are all different colours too, and why the hell are they’re eyes so wide? I mean are they like trying to watch EVERYTHING! I feel like Anna is always spying on me! Is she trying to watch me with her wide eyes?!”
Well I’ll leave you all with that. Next time you decide to not tip a pizza guy, or you think they are stealing all the jobs, imagine how you’d feel if the tables would turned. Imagine if you were the immigrant, unfamiliar with the language, people, food, location, social norms, and traditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment