| De: |
"Rebecca Cohn" |
| Sujet: |
Article: March 21
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Mar 21st, 2007 - 16:41:13 |
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VANCOUVER SUN
On this day, reach out to someone of a different race
BY PATSY GEORGE, United Nations Association in Canada - Vancouver Branch
A year or two ago, in a Vancouver suburb, a teenaged boy went to get on
a farmer's bus for his first day of work blueberry picking out in
Chilliwack.
He was still a new refugee in the Lower Mainland. The bus was filled
with people from a group different than the boy's own, and those on the
bus would not allow him to board.
He could not go to work, or earn money, to help feed his mother and
sister. Yes, racism happens here. According to an Ipsos Reid survey, 1.7
million Canadians would not welcome someone of another race as a next-
door neighbour.
Today, March 21, marks the International Day for the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination. On this day, in 1960, police opened fire and
killed 69 people and injured many more at a non- violent demonstration
against the apartheid " pass laws" in Sharpeville, South Africa.
Under these pass laws, urban areas in South Africa were designated as
"white." All black South Africans over the age of 15 in cities and towns
had to carry passes at all times. Anyone found without a pass would be
arrested immediately and sent to a rural area.
Pass laws also stated that black Africans could not hold a higher
business position within a company than the lowest white employee.
These passes became the most despised symbols of apartheid.
In 1966, proclaiming this annual day, the UN General Assembly appealed
to member states that, in combating discriminatory practices, education
and culture should be directed, and mass media and literary creation
should be encouraged, towards removing the prejudices and erroneous
beliefs, such as the belief in the superiority of one race over another,
which incites such practices.
The system of pass laws was not repealed in South Africa until 1986.
At times it seems that we are not gaining all that much on racism,
internationally. The Internet is used for the propagation of racism. The
number of victims of human trafficking is rising.
The Canadian census, released last week, confirmed that our population
here is no longer able to replace itself. The only way our community can
support itself is to have a taxpaying workforce.
We need immigrants. We must come to a way of better accepting one
another. New immigrants must receive some settlement training that tells
them that acceptance of multiculturalism is integral to being Canadian.
Canadians need to be educated on the value of immigration, and how we
can better welcome them.
The number of people from visible minority communities in Canada is
expected to double by 2017.
We do have remarkable examples of change.
In the early 1900s in Vancouver, racism toward people in the Chinese
community was overt. Today, the Chinese New Year Festival has become the
Lunar New Year Festival, including those who come from Vietnam, Taiwan,
and Cambodia. Parade floats were from groups representing aboriginals
and many nationalities already settled in Canada. People of all
cultures, by the thousand, come to take part in the event.
March 21 pushes us individually, to reflect. Do I have any prejudices?
What is my responsibility as a Canadian citizen to reach out to those
who are different than me? It pushes us to reflect, so that there is
more unity in our country, so that we are a community more accepting of
everyone.
We can ask ourselves, what can witnesses to racist acts and racial
comments, do? Oppose the behaviour, not the person - don't accuse them
of racism.
People are rarely open to listening to feedback if it is not respectful,
and if you label the person, you'll lose them. Tell them that comment
made you uncomfortable, because to you it's a put- down.
Say something. As Martin Luther King Jr. paraphrased the English
philosopher Edmund Burke, " all that evil requires to triumph is for
good people to remain silent."
I challenge you, invite you, to reach out to at least one person, today
or this week.
Reach out to a person from a community other than your own, and try to
find out what might be important to them.
Rebecca Cohn
Communications Officer/Agente des Communications
United Nations Association in Canada/Association canadienne pour les
Nations Unies
300-309 rue Cooper Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 0G5
+1(613) 232-5751x.245
www.unac.org
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