Tag: racism

Hiding Our Ugliness – Redskins

On By CantelonIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Lately I have been spectating social media commentary on the use of one word in our community – Redskin.

It has become a little like watching a horrible accident in slow-motion where the perpetrator, in this instance a city councilor and friend, is being verbally run over by offended members of the community again and again (and sometimes backed over for good measure).

Why, might you ask, is this person being vilified? Why all for having the despicable gall of suggesting city council might request the local hockey team in our 97% non-Aboriginal community consider changing their name from the Morden Redskins to something potentially less offensive.

The responses have been quick and loud and VERY negative (there has been much support too but the hurtful words are always louder).

A sampling of opinion on the matter:

  • Stop stirring the pot (aka nobody move and nobody gets hurt or don’t ask, don’t tell)
  • We haven’t had any complaints from First Nations people therefore this is not an offensive name (aka – because you are white you are not allowed to have an opinion on what might be offensive to a person of a different heritage so shut up)
  • This is embarrassing to our city and makes us look racist and therefore you are a shameful representative (aka we know its a racial slur but who cares if no one is complaining. Let’s keep our skeletons properly stored in the closet)
  • Shame on you for not focusing your efforts on more important things like our economic development or easing First Nations poverty (aka I don’t know you so I am going to assume you are a glory seeking person who cares only for themselves or maybe you are just a silly person who can’t tell serious issues from non-issues like labeling an entire and complex mix of cultures by one word based on the colour of their skin. After all how could our being unconcerned with the use of a racial slur against a minority possibly have anything to do with their treatment, subjugation and subsequent impoverishment?)
  • Bunch of politically correct crap…offended people should get thicker skins (aka why can’t a freaking conquered people just stay conquered and give up? We won. We will call you whatever the hell we want. Shut up.)
  • I have a First Nations friend/ am a First Nations person who thinks the term is fine/loves it (aka one First Nation friend trumps the fact that large numbers of First Nations and American Indians, scholars, leaders etc. that have gone on record as stating the word Redskin is racist and hurtful; that several dictionaries say the same thing; that an entire US state (California) just BANNED the word Redskin as a team/mascot name; that a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission by the First Nation’s band A Tribe Called Red succeeded in having a Redskins team in Ottawa have to drop its name; that the United States department responsible for Copyright just removed the Washington Redskin’s copyright stating that you cannot copyright a racial slur…aka Shut up.)
  • It’s not offensive because we didn’t mean it to be offensive (aka we don’t care if you think its offensive and if many others are offended by it because we don’t mean it to be therefore you really aren’t actually offended therefore shut up.)
  • It’s our team’s proud six decade history (aka your heritage stretching back thousands of years does not matter when faced with our awesome hockey jersey and winning record)
  • It honours First Nations people when a team of almost entirely white guys calls themselves Redskins (aka as an honour it would be no big deal if we all just started call every First Nations person we know “Redskin” – “Hey hows it going Redskin?” because we want to “honour” them.)
  • What about the 100 other teams named after First Nation’s tribes and/or skin colour? (aka since everybody else is racist why can’t we be too?)
  • It didn’t start out as offensive (Neither did the horribly offensive word Nigger which started out as a neutral term referencing skin colour (sound familiar) but there aren’t a lot of teams called The Niggers around…why? Because language changes.)

There’s a lot more but I’m tired and so are you (if you made it past the title).

To offer grace, compassion and empathy first, is the sign of a courageous leader. To sit back and hide and force a people to come with hands out like beggars looking for these things while you consider whether you will dispense it at all is simple, lazy cowardice.

Neill Blomkamp

On By CantelonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Is it too early for me to declare Neill Blomkamp the best director of the 21st century? Maybe. There are lots of candidates with Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson in the running and 87 years to go…maybe I am being a little presumptuous.

As a child coming of age in the eighties who was actively involved in anti-apartheid demonstrations and activities while in university the morality plays that Blomkamp has been creating with District 9 and now the forthcoming Elysium are what I believe our world needs today.

Blomkamp uses science fiction as a vehicle to deliver moral, satirical and ethical observations about our society in the way Jonathan Swift did in Gulliver’s Travels nearly 300 hundred years ago – that is to say he uses science fiction as it was originally intended to be used, for social commentary (just wait till Blomkamp gets his hands on a Philip K. Dick novel).

Blomkamp is a 34 year old South African who emigrated to Canada at 18 and who brings all of his culture’s turmoil and moral struggle to bear in his films. He holds nothing back as he warns against the stratification of society where the haves get more and the have nots get less while any middle class is eradicated in the process. I am guessing Blomkamp would not be a big fan of Ayn Rand.

Everything Blomkamp does with his movies I love…he is brash and unapologetic. He is fast-paced and exciting and creates films that are designed to entertain AND deliver a strong moral message. This is a rare feat.

I should also point out it was Blomkamp who essentially discovered Sharlto Copley, an amazing South African actor who starred in District 9 and features prominently in Elysium. Copley is a brilliant actor who I hope ends up in every Blomkamp film the way Bruce Campbell is in every Sam Rami film.

What am I saying? Watch Blomkamp’s movies. Watch District 9 and pay close attention to the messages about racism, xenophobia, classism etc. Watch Elysium when it comes out and pay attention to those details as well…stay tuned to what Blomkamp is doing because ultimately he is telling the story of the universal and equal value of all people.

P.S. He is currently working on his next film Chappie, based on his short film Tetra Vaal about a robotic police force that patrols the slums of South Africa. I can already tell the film will explore the increasing temptation of countries to implement robotic weapons as a way of dehumanizing and distancing decision makers from the horrors of war. As far-fetched as this sounds the current existance of drones speak to this frightening area of development.

For more info on this issue check out The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots at www.stopkillerrobots.org

Negro

On By CantelonIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I am currently listening to a couple of older women sitting here in the café behind me speaking half in English and half in low-German about the evils of young women “falling into the arms of dark men” with the odd “Negro” thrown around for good measure.

It is awkward for me.

It is ridiculously racist and blended with bad theology.

I can’t decide if this is a chicken or egg issue…which came first the racism or the bad theology? Does it matter?

Part of me wants to turn around and tell them they are being racist and they should consider the good equality of all people and the image of God embedded within each one of us. Another part of me (a louder part) simply says “why bother…they will not change…they will simply be offended and get up and leave or tell me to mind my own business.”

The louder voice has won. They are well past racist themes and have moved on to other topics. There is no thread or direction to their conversation, merely random cluckings heading to no particular place. At this point they have probably even forgotten that part of the conversation.

Now I am wondering if I am a coward. Should I have more courage, after all its 2013, shouldn’t I turn around and challenge two old women on their racist attitudes?

It seems so strange and foreign to me that there are such broken assumptions and attitudes in this world. No matter how long I live I hope these casual conversations on why others are inferior to us white folk never fail to shock me.

Can I use that as an excuse? Maybe I was in shock. Maybe I was incapable of standing up and defending my brothers and sisters who happen to have a different skin colour because I was in shock. A poor excuse in the end.

I am saddened by the many costumes that hate wears. I want hate to be obvious. I want it to be the ugly, scarred obviously evil and angry man who is clearly an ignorant beast. I don’t want hate to be dressed up as a soft, prayerful, plump and pleasant grandmother with a gentle smile and comfortable shoes.

They’re still talking.

They have no idea I am sitting here writing about them in the next booth.

Now I feel guilty.

Maybe I am just as bad. Here I am writing to you about these people and their horrible nasty ideas like some shameless gossip – literally behind their backs. To them I am simply the back of some guy’s head…not an enemy…not a spy.

They have moved on to baptism now and the importance of their faith…my faith. How can we be so different if we share the same faith? Are we…am I so different? I caught them unawares. They felt safe to reveal a little of who they really are with one-another and I caught them like some shameless voyeur. What if that happened to me? What secret blackness would leak out of me in an unsuspecting moment into the ears or eyes of another that would shock them as much as these ladies have me?

I should pray for them…but now all of this introspection has me feeling like I need to pray for me just as much. That could be the point of this random encounter. There may be no point and I may be manufacturing reason where only day-to-day madness exists.

At this point their conversation has taken a wonderfully ironic turn. They are talking about how wasteful people are to go out for coffee instead of saving their money to stay home. Seriously this is quite wonderful. Since I have been here they have gotten up twice to re-purchase coffee and extra muffins. To be so oblivious to one’s own self.

Of course this just bounces back at me. When encountered by these things you just cannot help but wonder about your own blindness. Where am I laughably unaware of my own flawed self? That’s the problem with a lack of awareness – you need other’s to point it out…which brings us to the value of community and maybe back to why I couldn’t stand up and challenge their earlier racism.

I know that I would only take criticism seriously from people in deep and intentional loving relationship with me. Not some shmoe in another booth at the coffee shop…a mother or father; a brother or sister; a lover or a friend speaking purely out of concern and genuine compassion…not anger or judgement.

Evil can be most effectively challenged in the context of community; in the context of ekklesia. This requires relationship. This requires love.

I have to stop eavesdropping now…it is too hard. It keeps bouncing back at me.