Build me a bridge …
An actual comment, left by an actual person on the Stuff White People Like blog:
I am so sick and tired of the fucking double-standard!!!
OMG! YES, ONCE UPON A TIME, WHITE PEOPLE HAD BLACK PEOPLE AS SLAVES! GUESS WHAT!?!?! THOSE TIMES ARE GONE AND PASSED!
MORE IMPORTANTLY, you should realize that the white people around today WERE NOT AROUND BACK THEN! We didn’t do anything!
So go ahead, cry me a river, build me a bridge, and GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!
It’s amazing to me that so many people believe history is over, in the sense that it no longer affects us. It takes so little to see how the history of race and racism in Canada and the US continues to shape all of our lives. Some of the most glaring examples include:
- the (growing) income gap between white and black in the US – whites currently, on average, make twice as much as blacks
- the high rates of poverty and illhealth among First Nations in Canada
- the fact that every prime minister in Canada has been white and christian (although the election of the first biracial man for president in the US does not constitute evidence that race is no longer a factor in US elections, especially given that 95% of voters for McCain were white)
- the long history, in both Canada and the US, of preferential immigration policies for white European immigrants
I guess if you don’t believe that history matters then it would be easier to believe the stories about meritocracy that get told to explain these disparities.