Huffington Post:
Canadians have a reputation for being some of the world’s kindest people. This video proves that to be true.
In order to test how Canadians would react, a blindfolded Muslim man stood at Dundas Square in downtown Toronto, with signs that read “I am a Muslim. I am labelled as a terrorist,” and “I trust you. Do you trust me? Give me a hug.”
To be fair, it doesn’t prove that – Canadians can be as racist as anyone else – but the video does make me very proud of my fellow country men and women.
Yeah, I’m not sure what this proves, really. It reminds me of the kids at Comic-Con with signs saying, “free hugs.” Weirded me out but it had nothing to do with race.
Racism is a product of manipulated social and economic inequality.
Usually I think these kinds of things are pretty stupid/silly, but in this case it did affect me and I think it did have meeting. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Muslims ARE looked at with suspicion and hatred in many communities- even though 99.999% of them are like everyone else in terms of love for their country and their contributions- and this video did warm my heart. He must have felt awesome at the end of the day.
Agreed. I’ll admit I had a tear in my eye after watching it.
It is sort of sweetly Canadian that you think that, but it is not even close to true.
Canadians cannot be as racist as US Americans, because the US was founded by racist slavers, most of the laws in the US were written by racists, there has been very little reform of those laws, and what little reform there has been is often ignored. The textbooks that are used in US schools are racist.
Canada started out less racist in the first place, and Canada has reformed its laws to be even less racist. There is no analog in the US to Canada’s multiculturalism, for example. It is illegal in Canada to make racist threats, while that is not true in the US. In the US, we have the racist death penalty, while Canada does not even have the death penalty.
The racism you have in Canada is Racism Lite. It’s Diet Racism. You have billboards with the photo of the real estate agent wearing a head scarf. Canadians respond to that by buying a house from that person. In the US, the real estate office would be firebombed. I was sitting in a food court at a giant mall in Toronto recently, and at every table around me there was a different language being spoken. In the US, the mall cops would kick you out for that. And I have spent months at a time in Toronto and never even seen a cop, let alone been stopped by one while I was just minding my business. In the US, there are cops everywhere and you have to actively avoid them because they are enforcing not just the basic laws against murder, rape, and assault — they are also enforcing a subtle Jim Crow. If you are not pale enough, not Christian enough, not clean cut enough — you are going to get hassled and you have a pretty good chance of ending up in court or the hospital or the funeral home.
Canada has a legacy of quiet racism. Institutionalized
racism. Polite racism, if you will. Canadians will smile politely at your face and they deny your rights when your back is turned. Or perhaps they will simply ignore you, pretending you do not exist and institute policy that lets them wash their hands of the matter. If it were possible I would say simply ask the passengers of the Komagata Maru if you would like some perspective on racism in Canada. Or perhaps we should look at the Residential School System for some evidence of systematic and widespread government backed racism:
http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government-policy/the-residential-school-system.html
U.S. Racism may be loud and in-your-face, however Canadian racism has historically been no less terrible. Canadians are just too polite to speak of it.