Racisim - And Me

Ok as many may or may not know, February is Black History Month. It's a month I feel that not only recognizes the acheivements and contributions of black people in modern society, but I also feel it encourages a dialogue on racism and race relations.

Now I live in Northern Canada. There are a grand total of 0 black people in my community. Yet, Black history month to me still holds some sway as the ethnic diversity of the community still needs the encouragement of racial relations dialogue.

The cultural division of the GLRA (Greater La Ronge Area) is as follows;
85% - Aboriginal - "Indians... tho acceptable to call them that here, I won't as I want to use that word to describe another group.
10% - Caucasians - "Whitey" ... of which I'm a part.
3% - Others - Including Aisian, Indian (from India) etc.
2% - Newfie - People from Newfoundland. Though White, they are a separate (and hilarious) culture all their own... and are really considered such in Canada.

Now we all get along pretty well. We crack jokes at the expense of each others race ... "You;re too white to dance," "Uh oh a Newfie and an Indian... that thing will never get fixed," but NEVER has a full on racial slur been used in anger or to actually degrade another person. But racism comes up, especially when someone isn't getting what they want.

A few weeks ago whilst working at A&W a man of aboriginal decent came into the store. He reeked of booze and was stumbling around and making a scene. Now I had been in the back working, but a friend of mine from the store next door, incidentally alos of aboriginal decent, came in to tell me about it and ask that I kick the man out. At the end of the conversation he added "oh and Jeremy, by the way, you're a racist."

Well that bugged me because I thought I might have made a joke that Edward took wrong, and I felt like shit, because I never ever wanted to do something that would actually make him feel bad. As I've mentioned, we crack jokes all the time, but we're making fun of RACISM, not RACE. As it turns out, when I went to kick the guy out it was instantly a race issue. The fact that the man could barely stand under his own power was inconsequential (sp?) to the fact that he had brown skin. Edward was just preparing me.


But of course those stories don't happen often, they just sit uncomfortably in your mind becasue they're so dsiturbing. Since moving into this community, I've felt very welcome into the culture that exists here. I've taken it upon myself to learn Cree (Tiniki Shivon!), check out dogsled racing, learned that family and community are of great importance to survival and making some really good friends along the way. Last night I went out to the bar with a group from town that could be considered a "cultural rainbow" (pretty faggy eh?) and I haven't had that much fun in a long time. We had a lot of fun (at my expense I might add) and we all went home satisfied.

And now I'm gonna go screw Edwards wife... he he .