It is outrageous to hear that there are increased incidences of racial hatred in our Canada. It is, admittedly, a time of serious stresses on our society, but I can imagine no rationale for a deterioration in race relations.
From where I grew up in Toronto, the worst fault you could find of your neighbour was that he or she might vote conservative. The colour of their skin or their ethnic origin was as complex as our country and we learned from it.
Did you know that Canada has been welcoming Sikhs as immigrants since the late 1800s when some government official thought it was important to start to count the Singhs and Kaurs coming to our ocean ports.
Many black Canadians had ancestors here before Canada’s confederation. And it was the hard work of many Chinese who helped build our first trans-Canada railroad.
You might think this is all good pickings for a bigot but I think a true bigot would be tired by the end of a day in this country. Because we are the sum of our peoples.
And if you want to be a bigot, do not do it in front of me. A bigot is basically a coward. They fear what they do not understand. And there is much they do not seem to understand.
Bigotry often appears to be built on a misguided religious background. The former president of the United States, Donald Trump set the scene. He blamed the Chinese for the pandemic and Muslims for the strife in the Middle East. He tried to build a border wall against Mexico and Central America. He was your classic bigot. And his piety was as phony as a three-dollar bill.
What worries me is that much of the bigotry is rooted in the born-again Christians. These people who find religion late in life seem more receptive of the bigotry du jour. They seem to need a steering mechanism in their life and make some very bad choices.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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