Raise the Hammer

I can only imagine the sort of abuse I'm opening myself up to here, but what the heck.

Bigotry, not racism

I don't see much racism in the comments quoted in this article. I see prejudice, negative stereotypes and also bigotry. I hear obnoxious tones and see some really unhelpful rhetoric. I see scapegoating of 'the other'. But not racism.

People from Six Nations are being painted with a broad brush in Spec comment threads, but the accusations are mostly based on exaggerations of real behaviour from people who come from the reserve.

Local Natives are not, for the most part, being dismissed or put down for being Native - they're being put down because of associations many Hamiltonians have with residents of the Six Nations reserve.

There are clearly problems associated with people from Six Nations: poverty, theft, diabetes, alcoholism, unemployment. And it's Natives who most suffer for the problems - not people from the larger community.

Prejudice not always unhelpful

It's generally neither fair nor helpful to judge people by their most obvious group affiliation and the behaviours we associate with that group. But it's not always wrong and it's sometimes wise: I'm a little bit more polite and careful than usual when in a biker bar in Quebec; I avoid groups of young men late at night downtown; I assume that a group of university students who are sort-of loud and drunk at 6:00 pm will only get louder and drunker (and so I call by-law when I would not if my grown-up neighbours were sort-of loud and drunk).

'Racist' is an unhelpful stereotype

'Racism' is a loaded, show-stopping term ...

'The Six Nations Indians are car thieves!'

'You're racist!'

'No, I'm not!'

... no room for progress there.

We should correct unfair generalizations. But flinging the epithet of ultimate opprobrium at people who have a small-minded handle on the problems does not the problems clearer to us or to them. It just makes us feel superior to 'racists' while distracting use from the the truths that can lie amidst the flung muck.

Comment edited by moylek on 2011-03-02 10:27:53