Quote:
Originally Posted by Rerun
People's opinions and prejudices are colored by their experiences in life.
Let me tell you my story...
I grew up in southern Ontario... Belleville to be exact. Its a town just off Lake Ontario about 120 miles east of Toronto. At the time I lived there it had a population of about 30,000. It was situated very close to the Tyendenaga Reserve (Mohawk).
The high school I went to had numerous native students that were bused in from the reserve, just as many non native students were bused in from the surrounding countryside.
Not once in the 5 years that I attended my high school did I see an incident of racism towards a native student. They were just like everyone else... except their name was either Green, Maracle, or Brant. They came to school ever day, did their homework every day, graduated like everyone else, and some, like some non-natives, went on to post-secondary education. They played high school sports, hung out with different groups of people, and had various interests just like all the non-natives at my school.
In short, I didn't see them as being anything different. They were just fellow students.
Then I moved to Calgary in my early 20's in the late '70s. I was in for a bit of an eye opener. It was the first time I saw passed out drunks in public downtown parks... some were white but the majority were native. Chances are if I was being pestered for money, it was a native that was doing it. Now this wouldn't seem odd if natives were the majority in the Calgary population... but they weren't.... far from it.
So unsurprisingly, my opinions have changed over the years from the opinions that I had in my teens and early 20's living in Ontario to those that I have now, living in Calgary and elsewhere. As to living elsewhere, I lived in Yellowknife for a short while. I worked for NWT Airways. I remember one day I asked someone there why there were no Dene working for the company. I was told they tried that a few times but usually when they hired someone it worked out fine until payday.... and I'll stop there because I'll be labeled a racist for saying what I was told... even if its the truth.
So thats my story... the good and the bad. I'm sorry I have negative feelings towards some natives... it wasn't always like that for me. I have a couple of native Facebook friends from back home in Belleville and I have some guilty feelings when ever I talk to them, because of the way I feel about some of their "cousins" out here.
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I grew up on the island. Same experience. My highschool was surrounded by reserves (Tsartlip and Tsawout mostly, I believe) and I had a lot of native kids in my classes. Same deal - just as hard-working/lazy as any other high school student, played sports, were in band, came to parties/hosted parties, graduated, went to post-secondary, etc. I actually used to hang out a lot on some of the reserves because they had some great coastal properties.
It wasn't until I came to AB that I really understood Canadian racism towards first nation people. It is a whole other ballgame here (and from what I've been told, in the rest of the prairies and northern ontario). I don't know enough about the situation on AB reserves to have a qualified opinion about anything, but I will say this - when I go back to visit family, it's always a shocking reminder how different First Nation communities across this country can be. I always kinda felt like people who grew up in AB had a hard time believing me when I described reserves out on the island.