The Great Racial Divide

In the United States, it is a well known fact that there is more racism and discrimination than up here in Canada. At least, that’s what I used to think.

On television shows in the States, you can see the great divides between races. Reality dating shows like Blind Date always match black men with black women (unless one of the two specifically says they like another specific racial group. President George W. Bush even let slip his own racists view, when he commented about how all Hispanics are in the States illegally. He later claimed his comments were taken out of context. Yeah, right.

That’s America – we’re Canada – we openly welcome people from other cultures. Don’t we?

At my most recent client-site, I’ve been having some pretty busy days. So busy, I’ve taken to wolfing down my lunch in the company’s lunchroom. Often, I’m rushing from one meeting to another, so I have lunch at different times of the day.

I noticed something odd – at all the different times I have chosen to eat, there have been different racial groups present, minus all the other racial groups in the company.

At 12:30pm, the whole lunchroom (sans moi) was South-East Asian/Indian/Muslim. The next day, when I went to lunch around 1:00pm, the whole lunchroom was Chinese. Then the following day, I went to lunch late, around 3:00pm and the whole lunchroom was Black (sorry – African-American).

If this were a fictitious attempt at office humor, it would be marginally funny. But it isn’t fictitious or attempted – it is real – and really sad.

It says something about our current Canadian values – or rather – it says something very sad about the people we’re letting into our country.
It appears all the cultures that we Canadians warmly welcome into our proud and free land just don’t want to mix and mingle with anyone else in this once great land – unless they look like them.

This isn’t just a language barrier, or even a lack of education barrier. This is a racist barrier that those from other cultures bring with them to our once great land.

Hey, if I went to some other country – say Germany – I wouldn’t isolate myself from everyone else and just talk to all the Canadians in the room. I’d be mixing it up with the Germans, and any others I happened upon.

So, why are the Indians, Chinese, Black – insert any foreign national here – only dealing with others of their culture here?
Do we really want to be just like the Americans, where even their president holds racist values – do we want a prime minister of the same shortcomings?

What value do immigrants bring here, if they refuse to mix with us non-whatever the hell they are?

How comfortable can we be in our own country, knowing that there are places you just can’t go, because they will ignore you – or worse – treat you like dirt?

Where the hell is our federal government when you need ‘em? Why don’t they take a stand on this and force people to either participate in Canadian values, or get the hell out of my country?

Oh ya – they are pussies.

Or, they are them.

One day we’ll have a prime minister named Amed Khalid Chin. And I bet he won’t speak to you unless you happen to be of his native land – which isn’t Canada.

Sad.

America – here we come.