by Kristal Mcvicar

Created on: April 11, 2008

Bigotry? Today?

One would think that forty years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr..... bigotry, especially the outward expression of it, would be all but obliterated, especially in Canada where the rights of black people were always so much more advanced than those of our American neighbors. Tonight I discovered that is not always the case.

While visiting friends this evening I was shocked to hear someone say with disdain, while watching a movie that had all black actors, how insulting that was. When I disagreed, the person thought they would try to sway me by reading an email now in circulation concerning stats about how many all black colleges there are, how many scholarship programs there are for only black or Muslim or Asian people and basically stated much the same thing about everyone but white people.

When I replied that I did not have a problem with any of those things, they tried to argue that if we whites were to exclude other races we would be considered racists.....perhaps. If we whites had a white pride parade, we would be considered racists....perhaps. I did not argue those facts but instead asked why we couldn't just let others have pride without feeling slighted. Indeed, why can't we?

After hundreds of years of acting as if we were superior over other races and religions, I think we should show plenty of tolerance and respect for their needs and we should allow those who feel a need to express pride in their race or religion , express it.
I was then asked whether or not I was proud to be a white person.......hmmmmmm....I am proud of being a good person, color has no significance for me. When I consider history, there are times I am ashamed of being part of the white race.

For far too long, Christian white people felt superior to other races and religions and spent a great deal of time and energy into proving we were superior and keeping those non white Christians, in the subservient, degraded mindset we believed them to be. Such were the crimes we committed against our fellow human beings of different races and religions, that it may take hundreds of years for those brothers and sisters in humanity, to begin to feel as important to the world as we have felt as our birthright because of the color of our skin and beliefs of our parents.

But this person argued, didn't I have a problem with BET (black entertainment television)? As a matter of fact I do not, after all, for decades we had white only TV. Didn't I have a problem with all black colleges?

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