Do Americans and Canadians Have Different Ideas on Racism?

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Well it settled down in that we have a rational legal process and human rights - but the groups here who were historically oppressed here are still wanting equality.

I mean we haven't gone to war in our own country to solve differences. We bring issues to the table through political and legal, non-violent, and hopefully informed and fair, processes. At least we have that. Some countries don't.
 
Hermann, are you sure you swore allegiance to the English Queen? Unless my memory fails me, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of Canada.

Yes, you're right. Sorry! But for us Republicans, as for most Quebequois, she is still the "English Queen."

I have nothing against her, personally. She is a grand old lady; I just don't want her as our Canadian head of state. Our Governor General would suffice. But tradition is more important than logic or common sense, eh? ;)
 
An important component of racism is fear. - fear of sexual competition, fear of job competition.....and the need for an excuse for conquest and looting. racism is also encouraged by our news media. People that the government has chosen - often for economic reasons - to war against are treated in the news media as being so different from us (evil, dirty, cruel), so different that only genetic weakness can account for it. Cartoonists in Paris get shot by Muslims. Result - furious denunciations of the shooters as morally depraved and evil be birth. The US kills innocent men, women and children by the millions in Vietnam. Guatemala, Libya, Iraq....yawn. The news media have become quite dreadful in recent years as they pump out propaganda and racism. The word terrorist, for example, is used to describe only the other side. In reality, every war of the last century has relied on terror as much as or more than combat. That's why civilian casualty rates are skyrocketing. American drones are a form of terror warfare. But the news media wouldn't dream of saying that. The US president openly says he believes in American exceptionalism (the right of the US to ignore the law, and to dominate the world. If a Chinese or Russian leader said that, he'd be denounced in our press as depraved and evil and insane. But the US president says so, and our press doesn't even mention it. Our business leaders need us to hate and fear so that we'll fight their wars That's why hatred and racism are promoted in the news media.
 
The Massacre at Bloody Falls was an incident that took place during Samuel Hearne's exploration of the Coppermine River on the 17 July 1771. Chipewyan and "Copper Indian"[1] Dene men led by Hearne's guide and companion Matonabbee attacked a group of Copper Inuit[2] camped by rapids approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Coppermine River. Just after midnight on 17 July, the Dene set upon the Inuit camp and killed approximately 20 men, women, and children. Hearne was traumatized by the massacre, saying "...and I am confident that my features must have feelingly expressed how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I then witnessed; even at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding tears."[3] He named the waterfall Bloody Falls.[4] Wikipedia

(Sorry, in my post above I identified the Indians as Cree - they were Chipewyan.)

I had a friend from Bhutan who was quite hostile about 'The English' and sure that native people in his home country and in Canada must have been peaceful before the British arrived. I told him that I didn't know about his country but I thought that maybe racism was a widespread trait, and I told him about this incident. Although he had never heard about it before and hadn't read any of the journals he was certain that this unprovoked attach on a sleeping village must have been instigated by Samuel Hearne. Actually Samuel Hearne had very little influence upon the Chipewyan that agreed to guide him through the territory - rather than take him directly to his destination they zigzagged about, once they delayed in providing him with winter clothing, sometimes he feared that they might abandon him. He was at their mercy - and after the incident at Bloody Falls he must have questioned that 'mercy'.

White Europeans have not always been the oppressors, nor did we invent racism.
 
The Massacre at Bloody Falls was an incident that took place during Samuel Hearne's exploration of the Coppermine River on the 17 July 1771. Chipewyan and "Copper Indian"[1] Dene men led by Hearne's guide and companion Matonabbee attacked a group of Copper Inuit[2] camped by rapids approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Coppermine River. Just after midnight on 17 July, the Dene set upon the Inuit camp and killed approximately 20 men, women, and children. Hearne was traumatized by the massacre, saying "...and I am confident that my features must have feelingly expressed how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I then witnessed; even at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding tears."[3] He named the waterfall Bloody Falls.[4] Wikipedia

(Sorry, in my post above I identified the Indians as Cree - they were Chipewyan.)

I had a friend from Bhutan who was quite hostile about 'The English' and sure that native people in his home country and in Canada must have been peaceful before the British arrived. I told him that I didn't know about his country but I thought that maybe racism was a widespread trait, and I told him about this incident. Although he had never heard about it before and hadn't read any of the journals he was certain that this unprovoked attach on a sleeping village must have been instigated by Samuel Hearne. Actually Samuel Hearne had very little influence upon the Chipewyan that agreed to guide him through the territory - rather than take him directly to his destination they zigzagged about, once they delayed in providing him with winter clothing, sometimes he feared that they might abandon him. He was at their mercy - and after the incident at Bloody Falls he must have questioned that 'mercy'.

White Europeans have not always been the oppressors, nor did we invent racism.

No. But we've perpetrated more than our "fair" share of it (no such thing as fair racism because by definition it is racial inequality and injustice). I suppose the Ottoman Turks and the Mings and other empires were probably racist, too - to carry out their conquests somebody had to be considered less important. And every other nation and tribe. Regardless, it's time to end it.
 
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I am quite sure I was raised with cultural biases - our society holds many of the values and traditions of the Anglo Saxon colonizers and those were my ancestors - but I never knew racial biases - never felt anyone was less than me because of their skin color or hair colour or eye colour or height or build or deserved any less than me. That, to me, was always so superficial. And even though I encountered cultures I don't understand - they neither, deserve less than me. In the last decade or so I have seen racism becoming more pervasive again - and most of the time it is white people expressing racist comments about ethnic and racial minorities and their competency to do certain things, or stereotypes.
 
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Our news media don't follow that impartial line. The words extremist and terrorist are commonly used with a very clear racist meaning. Americans and Brits can kill babies by the millions, but they are never extremist or racist.
 
i've also recently made a troubling connection...here's my riff:

ok -- we're taught that it is good to be able to make rational decisions -- we maximize gain, minimize risk and loss -- even with things like ecology, we want to do the most to the most with less costs in resources (ephemeralization)

but there's a paradox...crime pays...very well...it isn't something innately wrong like some kind of taint, but just another example of making a rational decision...

so we live in a society where some rational decisions are criminalized, while we are encouraged to continue being rational

no wonder we're so screwed up :LOL:
 
Yes, One of our New Brunswick boys.

As to racism, we're not fundamentally different from the US. We enslaved Blacks and native peoples. And the racial discrimination still goes on. Just check figures on comparative incomes for native peoples or Blacks doing the same jobs as whites. We used to discriminate heavily against Ukrainians - until the newspapers told us they were good guys. We discriminated brutally against Japanese and Chinese. It just doesn't appear much in our history books. Oh, and against Jews.

Oh, and the Methodist church, into the 1920s, had a profound and public taste for racism.

US discrimination against Blacks is more noticeable because the proportion of Blacks is higher, and they obections, therefore, much more noticeable.

Virtually all the western world has a long history of discrimination. What we're seeing now turned against Muslims is nothing unusual.
 
i've also recently made a troubling connection...here's my riff:

ok -- we're taught that it is good to be able to make rational decisions -- we maximize gain, minimize risk and loss -- even with things like ecology, we want to do the most to the most with less costs in resources (ephemeralization)

but there's a paradox...crime pays...very well...it isn't something innately wrong like some kind of taint, but just another example of making a rational decision...

so we live in a society where some rational decisions are criminalized, while we are encouraged to continue being rational

no wonder we're so screwed up :LOL:
IW,
Someone once said that we hang petty criminals and place the great ones in office ... perhaps Aesop .. an unacceptable fable to the upper crusties! They should be toasted beta ... Di Anis ... what's going on in the kitchen? :D
 
And the Nordic distaste for the reindeer peoples ... thus the Christian put down of Sante Clause ... those rules that went out the chimney as burned ...
 
The biggest servants of criminals are in office. But the criminals, by far, are big ones in private corporations. They have killed millions all over the world for oil control, trade control - and they are contributing very little to society. The US, with all its billionaires, has one of the highest rates of child poverty among the 30 top (income) countries in the world. But it does beat Romania. And there's a story from Iraq news (Sama) that we are unlikely to see in our papers. Iraq forces (our side) captured a major ISIS headquarters, which had 4 advisors (working for their home governments, and on loan to ISIS). Two were American, and one was Israeli.

The US and Israel have been helping ISIS to destroy Syria. Israel wants it destroyed to enhance its own power. The US wants it destroyed because Assad's trade relations with Russia are not pleasing to it. The Catholic church, concerned about the killing and suffering among Christians, as asked for a truce so it can bring in aid and medical help. But the rebels (also organized and paid for by the US and Saudis- most of them mercenaries) have refused. So the next time you get mad at Christians being killed, think of who's behind it.

And next time you blame Islam for the killings, think of how Christians and Muslims lived together for centuries - until the interventions of the western powers.

The US (and, often, Canada) are consumed with racial hatreds within their own borders. These are exploited to focus hatred on Russians or Muslims or whoever is the flavour of the years. Harper plays that game, too. Thus the rise of CSIS and the anti-terrorism bill.
 
Go to the site Information Clearing House. google will get it for you. this is a site that I don't always trust because it can be biased. (it takes news from around the world that doesn't make our news media.) However, I trust this report, partly because it comes through an Iraq news agency, partly because I spend most of every day scanning world news - and I've found a good deal of reliable information about US and Israeli links to ISIS. It wouldn't be anything unusual for either country. Israel special ops was working with the CIA and Guatemalan troops to murder hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan civilians, and it never even made our news media - even though there's an NFB film about it, based on the murder of a lay missionary who lies buried just a short drive from me.

This story is near the top of today's edition. (It usually changes by supper time, but you can still get it by scrolling down.)
 
Yes, One of our New Brunswick boys.

As to racism, we're not fundamentally different from the US. We enslaved Blacks and native peoples. And the racial discrimination still goes on. Just check figures on comparative incomes for native peoples or Blacks doing the same jobs as whites. We used to discriminate heavily against Ukrainians - until the newspapers told us they were good guys. We discriminated brutally against Japanese and Chinese. It just doesn't appear much in our history books. Oh, and against Jews.

Oh, and the Methodist church, into the 1920s, had a profound and public taste for racism.

US discrimination against Blacks is more noticeable because the proportion of Blacks is higher, and they obections, therefore, much more noticeable.

Virtually all the western world has a long history of discrimination. What we're seeing now turned against Muslims is nothing unusual.
Sorry Graeme, my Canadian history is rusty. When was it we enslaved blacks and natives?
 
Such is the limited love of denial ... or exclusion of thoughts! Entities we'ed rather not be cognizant of ...
 
Sorry Graeme, my Canadian history is rusty. When was it we enslaved blacks and natives?

there were the Yurok, who slaved from alaska to california; the Haida & Tlingit had a long tradition of slavery
the Shawnee & Potawatomi sold slaves to Canadian settlers
some British Loyalists in Canada brought their slaves with them when they fled the successful american insurrection
New France had west african & aboriginal slaves
 
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