Quote:
Originally Posted by Brannigans Law
I find myself having a really tough time hiding how racist I am towads natives. I know it's wrong, and I know that from their perspective there's a lot of reasons why things are so bad on the reservations and amongst natives. But when I think about my family crossing the atlantic ocean in 3rd class, being mocked by the locals for their eastern european accents, and how hard they worked to build a life.. I find myself with just zero sympathy for natives. The phrase "free loaders" comes to mind. I'm genuinely sorry if I offended anyone with this but it's the honest feelings I have and I don't care to dress it up.
I guess I should probably make some sort of a point here.. and that is that the average white Canadian won't be able to sympathize with these movements. They see a reserve system that has failed Canadians and Native Canadians equally. It's a waste of money and it's killing generations of natives. Time to end the treaties and the native act, and bring these people into the rest of civilization.
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I appreciate your candor, but I think that this perspective (which, in my opinion, is quite common among "average white Canadians" [as you say]) fails to consider the realities of first-nation-hood in Canada in 2013. For example, it fails to consider the very real racism and prejudice that still exists in Canada today (one may not see it often in downtown Calgary, but I lived in Saskatchewan for five years, and frequently saw and heard it; for example, people openly admitted to me that they would never hire a "native", etc.) It also fails to consider the impact of the residential school program, the horrific abuse that was carried out under the guise of that program, and the lost generations (plagued by alcoholism, sexual abuse, and violence) that the residential school legacy produced.
Through my work in criminal justice and child protection litigation, I have seen some of the worst of the first nations communities. And there is no doubt that, at the individual level at least, individuals must eventually take responsibility for their actions. However, ignoring the root causes of the deplorable conditions that so many first nations persons in Canada live in adds nothing to the conversation about how to improve things.
EDIT: ... just to add that I am not suggesting that the "Idle No More" movement is necessarily adding very much to the discourse either.