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Old 10-01-2020, 12:21 PM   #40
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Originally Posted by RichieRich View Post
Ever since I moved to Canada in the early 80's I was aware that there was embedded racism within Canada. It was far more obvious than most people realized and yet these people did not see or understand that what they said (or acted) as racist nor derogatory. It was SO embedded in their psyche and culture. I'm not talking upper class, I'm talking about the working "Joe" and his family... the middle and lower middle class. Their entitlement that THEY were absolute not racist was shocking, and they validated their words and actions by pointing to South Africa (large scale anti-apartheid riots, gatherings, etc... were occuring both in SA and "supportive" countries). The only difference, IMO, was that racism in SA had an official title (apartheid) whereas Canada and USA did not. In this example I am mostly referencing the obvious skin tone differences, however I as a child here in Calgary I had "yellow" and "brown" friends (oriental, Malay, east-Indian, etc...) that also experienced various degrees of prejudice. As there are people "of color" in my immediate family I still hear and see things often.

Although racism and prejudice has declined it's still present. It has changed too, and not necessarily for the better. Is there any difference between subtle racism/prejudice? or named segregation, or blatant in-your-face prejudice better or worse?
My wife who has dealt with racism all her life describes Canada as worse than the US, in that Canadians practice passive aggressive embedded racism and claim to be virtuous while doing it versus direct racism, and it's engrained in the psyche (people don't even realize it). Worse is how Canadians pat themselves on the back, heck we even re-elected a PM who thought that doing blackface on multiple occasions for kicks is ok, because he apologized when caught (truly Canadian).

Not a team player
Not a fit with the team or culture
Not up to the tasks

These are all words that I am sure we have seen, or even said ourselves before, but what makes a person not a team player? Sometimes that answer is racist in itself.

She has been flown in to interviews across the country at times, she gets seen for the first time in person in a 'family oriented' city (she uses her married Canadian sounding last name), and the person interviewing her looks her up and down, they do a quick 15 minute interview, and tell her the next day they are not proceeding as they feel she would not be able to fit in with the culture (actual reason).

Seriously. How are you supposed to take that in and tell her that things are good here?
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