A World of Cheese, For your Pleasure

But that is a very poor attitude, especially since the truth is that people are affected in profound ways by racism, past, present and even future (expected and anticipated). I would feel pretty desperate if I believed that I could not get a decent loan for a home anywhere because I am black, and desperate people do desperate things. This happens all the time, just not nearly as often to certain members of society.

Which brings us to what I think is the crux of the issue: white privilege and hegemony. In whites, there is usually complete ignorance. I bet that most people, often enough (in my view) known as Canadians, never give it a second, or first thought. And I bet that most non-white Canadians often feel it every day, but can't verbalize exactly what it is that seems off even if no one is calling them names or refusing them entry to establishments or what-have-you. This person has listed 50 ways in which white people benefit where others either do not benefit, or suffer. One way in which this privilege manifests itself is that white people can treat racial problems as nothing other than a nuisance, or entertainment, but nothing they really need to worry about. Until it could affect them, that is. And who controls the media? Some say the Jews, some say whites, but I can say with certainty that it isn't blacks, not even in black American media. (Respect to francophones in Quebec, who control their own media AFAIK. Correct me if I am wrong.)

But what do I know? I'm not American and I have never lived there. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I wish I could really experience "racial America" in my daily life. I have never felt very close to the American racial divide, which is definitely not the same as it is here. I wonder how I would consume the hype racial realities if I moved there. I often imagine wrapping myself in a Canadian flag, dodging arrows from whites and blacks alike, and speaking French just to watch their heads explode.

As I mentioned before, there is also the issue of not taking responsibility for past atrocities (the Canadian government really comes to mind here) or simply declaring that it is time for minorities to "stop milking the victim cow". Let's look at what I hope is an extreme example of this, the example of South Africa. Here we find a man that shot 101 black people and killing 39 serving 12 years and being treated as a folk hero. And the attitude of not taking responsibility for atrocities that happened within everyone's collective memory shocks me. Imagine the same attitude in North America and Europe about actions that occurred more than 60 years ago for a few years, with many of the actors dead or dying off? Or what about the similar atrocities and racist policy that occurred for centuries where almost all of the actors are dead. (I say almost, because Alabama had an anti-miscegenation law on the books until 2003. There are not many words I hate more than that one.) It's no wonder that there are so many people that just figure that it's all over.

It isn't, of course. Post-traumatic stress disorder manifests itself in many ways. Collective memory is a concept that is gaining acceptance in academic circles, although nowhere else that I can see. It is essentially the idea that we as individuals may not have specific memories of our ancestors, but our cells do, which explains certain traits and behaviours amongst groups of people. This would include collective trauma. It has been studied extensively in Holocaust survivors and their families. There are even theories about traumas passed down through generations in 20th century Jewish families. I haven't done the research myself and I am not an anthropologist, but I suspect that the research hasn't been done on descendants of slaves, and not just because the slaves themselves are long dead. It seems hard to deny that if it could happen to the Jews and at the least the academics can point to evidence to support that, that it would not happen to black people all over the world, or any groups that suffered extensive trauma due to the actions of another group, like Native North Americans and many Asian groups.

This, of course, means that North American racism is NOT over if you aren't white. It's a daily reality for many, enough that this issue be taken seriously by the hegemonic culture, which is getting harder and harder. Many assert that the battle has been won, but until no one has to worry about their race working against them, the fight will continue.