Les Armstrong's racist FB post

[danbrotherston]

There's this thing going on where being called racist is perceived as a massive insult. We need to stop that.

I'm racist, and willing to bet everyone born and raised in this part of the world at the same time I was is, and before, and almost certainly today. My kids are almost certainly racist.

I don't say that to insult us all, I say it because that's what systemic racism does. We are all living it and acclimatized to a racist society. We don't see all the ways in which we're racist, and that ignorance of our selves makes it really hard to make change.

I view it sort of like acknowledging that you're an addict. Acknowledging that you hold racist beliefs and perform racist actions is the first step towards change. It's the exact same situation with Jagmeet Singh and that Bloc MP. The act of being called racist is perceived as a far greater offence than whatever racist actions we did.

We are all racist. We are all sexist, too, and ableist. Our society programs prejudice into us.

Can’t argue there. It’s something we all need to work on.

As for Jagmeet Singh, regardless if he’s right or wrong, he shouldn’t have done what he did. Our Parliament has certain rules, and Jagmeet disrespected our system by what he did. And it always reminds me how out of touch with reality the NDP can be at times. I recall the 2015 election and the NDP said if they won the election, they’d do away with the Senate. This excited some people. No matter how you feel about it, though, no government can simply get rid of certain functions of our Parliament. Getting rid of the Senate would require the agreement of the provinces. In Jagmeet’s circumstance, you’re not allowed to do what he did. If it was outside of Parliament, that is different. You have to hold MP’s, and indeed the leaders, to higher standards, especially when they’re on the job and inside Parliament.

He did? I'm not familiar with the specific rules of parliamentary proceedings, but "racist" isn't an obscene word. So which rule did he actually break? I also do recall seeing a citation (mind you from the early 70s), showing a white MP called another MP racist, without being punished for it. Now, I cannot locate it, but it's a question at least worth asking.

I would guess, that at best, this is a matter of interpretation of the rules, and it is being interpreted in a way which benefits the status quo white dominance of our country.

There are similarities to the situation with the statue in Baden. Under a reasonable interpretation of the laws, those who cleaned the paint off the statue in contravention of the stated policy of the Wilmot Council (that the paint remain) are EQUALLY guilty of the crime of vandalism as those who threw paint on the statue in contravention of the implied policy of the same council (that there should not be paint on the statue). Yet, WRPS, the newspaper, and the vast majority of the public take these actions as completely different.

Interpretation is part of every system of rules, it cannot be separated, and it is something that is entirely context dependent, and our context is racist. Only by facing and questioning how the context is applied can we improve. When the system seeks to prevent that questioning, as did with Jagmeet's statement, that is an assertion of the status quo against progress...a self defense mechanism.