"*nod* It's taken me a while to understand quite how badly done by the indigenous community in Australia is, and still is."
In my younger years, I used to get quite upset when Natives here blockaded roads and such. Then I studied their lot in life (funny how Social Studies classes in elementary school and junior high talk up "how they used to live" and "how they interacted with the English and French settlers" without talking about "how we stuck them all on the worst land we could find") and did some more reading, and... actually, now I quite understand why roads get blockaded in Canada. I don't agree with armed resistance, as has happened a few times here, but I understand, a little bit, about where it's coming from.
Where I did most of my growing up, racism towards the local Natives (there's a reserve within easy driving distance of said town) was rampant. Around here, we managed to drive off the Natives long ago, but we've imported tons of Chinese, Koreans, Indians, and Iranians to mock. Of course, they bring their own problems contra each other and sometimes Western society in general, but hey.
The saddest part about all that is, I don't know what's worse: that we pretend being Canadian means we're not racist, or that in comparison to the US, we almost aren't.
no subject
In my younger years, I used to get quite upset when Natives here blockaded roads and such. Then I studied their lot in life (funny how Social Studies classes in elementary school and junior high talk up "how they used to live" and "how they interacted with the English and French settlers" without talking about "how we stuck them all on the worst land we could find") and did some more reading, and... actually, now I quite understand why roads get blockaded in Canada. I don't agree with armed resistance, as has happened a few times here, but I understand, a little bit, about where it's coming from.
Where I did most of my growing up, racism towards the local Natives (there's a reserve within easy driving distance of said town) was rampant. Around here, we managed to drive off the Natives long ago, but we've imported tons of Chinese, Koreans, Indians, and Iranians to mock. Of course, they bring their own problems contra each other and sometimes Western society in general, but hey.
The saddest part about all that is, I don't know what's worse: that we pretend being Canadian means we're not racist, or that in comparison to the US, we almost aren't.