Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
In other words, if racism were to vanish tomorrow, there would still be a large gap between the attainment of Canada's Natives the non-Native population. So while we shouldn't ignore racism, we shouldn't let it deflect us from those other issues.
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Did you just come to this conclusion?
A. If you could magically make racism disappear overnight, you could probably make the other things disappear (I’m not well-versed in what sort of magic you’re using, but let’s say it’s powerful enough). If you could only make racism disappear, then yeah, obviously those other things would still exist, but how the “average person” views those things would change, and therefore, so too would the actions taken and the passion towards fixing them.
B. I don’t know many (any) people who think that if Canadians were just not racist towards First Nations people, everything would be fixed. If you know some of those people, then your post is a great one for them to read. For the majority that realise the complexity of the issue, they realise everything you’re saying, that you can’t just address one part of it. But they also realise that racism is maybe the most important thing to address.
The reason for this is simple: you can address broken homes, low education, the reserve system, etc, but if you do that while still holding on to the view that the population you’re addressing is less-than, or hold on to prejudices that lead you to painting the whole population with one brush, or viewing all of them as “the other” that lives outside Canadian culture, then your solutions are never going to be sufficient.
Repairing the situations that some First Nations people find themselves in without addressing racism is stupid and short sighted. Sure, you can make racism vanish and the problems will still exist, but you’ll be much better equipped to solve those problems.
If an obese person decides to start eating healthy, they aren’t going to fix themselves tomorrow. There’s still a lot of work, but they’ve fixed part of what forms the foundation of the problem. They can build off it. Sure, they could just get liposuction, but if they haven’t fixed the foundation, they’ll be right back where they were.
The problem is that people view something like racism as a side issue that kind of doesn’t matter, not a foundational issue that needs to be changed. Until THAT changes, the problem is going to persist. As humans, everything we do is based on thought, on our interpretation of the world, and we act accordingly. If you attempt to create positive outcomes and actions without changing negative thought and interpretations, you’re going to lose.