Segregation does not promote racial harmony

 Posted by on 27 March 2009  Modern Life
Mar 272009
 

I’m all in favour of promoting ethnic diversity, and in celebrating cultural traditions, and in keeping alive heritage — I love the Lieuenant-Governor’s Winter Festival for example — but things that are “Aboriginal only” really rub me the wrong way.

It’s bad enough that there are Aboriginal-only casino rules, but now there’s an Aboriginal personal care home set to open in Winnipeg? The Winnipeg Free Press reports that it will be right next door to a First Nations school. Sigh.

Setting up racially-based institutions like that are just part of a long continuum that also includes odious things like “whites only water fountains.” And who gets to decide which Aboriginals get to enter the personal care home — or the school? Is there a reverse paper bag test? Is there preference to Sioux ancestry or Anishinaabe? What about Métis? What about one’s Status status?

Presumably, there is a market for this — just like there’s a market for women’s only gyms, and men’s only golf courses. And there used to be a market for Jew-free business clubs.

But I would like to hope that we’re moving away from that kind of world.

Grant Hamilton

  • Colin Corneau

    Great news!
    You also get to pay for aforementioned segregated institutions!

    I always feel people are way ahead of institutions or (especially) governments on issues like this. Individual people don’t seem to have much problem being exposed to different ideas or peoples – it’s only these anonymous bureaucratic faceless entities that sees a threat, somehow.

    If it makes you feel any better, there was a community pow-wow – open to all – held in Brandon over the weekend specifially to tackle racial discrimination. I’m not sure I’d worry about moving towards a segregated world — as much as ‘official’ policy sometimes seems to want otherwise.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      I read about that pow-wow — good news indeed. And you’re right, I think there are lots of individuals who just want to live their lives and enjoy all that they are exposed to. At least, I hope there are.

      And I’m all in favour of people sending their kids to school, or their old ones off to die, surrounded by their own culture and heritage. I just hate the exclusivity of it all.

  • Colin Corneau

    The first time I went to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant (oh, how nice THAT would be in Brandoon…almost as nice as a damn Thai restaurant, already!) I learned why they eat without utensils.
    Basically, all the yummy food is served atop this spongy pancake type thing, you tear off a piece and scoop up your meal. It’s all in a big circle, and everyone eats off the same ‘pancake’.
    The theory goes that it’s impossible to view someone as an enemy when you’re sitting across a table from him, face to face, eating.

    Pretty nice idea, I think.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      I wonder if that’s the same idea behind a “peace pipe” and other related things?

      Now, just compare it to modern-day gated communities, xenophobic “immigration” policies (paging Jason Kenney?) and fascist-style fears of The Other.

  • Colin Corneau

    It can’t be a coincidence that gated communities sprung up alongside the SUV – that’s the vehicle for people who are terrified of the outside world and want to barricade themselves off from other human beings.

  • http://crampyessaywritingstumpy.ca Stumpy

    I doubt that an aging aboriginal has vastly different health concerns in comparison to an aging non-aboriginal person. Couldn’t hiring a counselor trained in aging issues + aboriginal issues, maybe bringing some elders in to satisfy religion needs be sufficient? Or is this a polite solution to a greater problem of aboriginal people not receiving the same quality of care in personal care homes as people of different ethnicities?

    Yeah, the spongey stuff is awesome.