In its section entitled “Being black in Canada”, the CBC is once again giving visibility to select students whose statements are not representative of the majority of their peers (of all colours, and especially of theirs).
The article in question is about the University of Windsor. It is entitled “Some students dissatisfied with UWindsor’s anti-Black racism initiatives”:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/university-of-windsor-anti-black-racism-1.5751061
In this article, we read a statement by the former President of this school’s student union, Mr. Jeremiah Bowers who is co-developing, with Mr. Tolson-Murtty, “a task force that is representative of the broad range of racialized communities on campus”.
Look at one of his statements, cited verbatim:
“We’re also bringing lived experiences. We’re bringing the trauma of being a Black body in a world that doesn’t want us in an institution that wasn’t built for us”.
Isn’t it sad when words as serious as “trauma” are emptied of their meaning?
How can Mr. Bower, a former President of the University of Windsor’s student union, and current student in one of our great schools be “a Black body in world that doesn’t want him”?
And what does he mean by “a Black body” by the way?
Didn’t one of his national parties just elect Ms. Annamie Paul who also has a black-skin like him (she also played the race/identity card, mind you)? She told us in her victory speech that she is the “direct descendant of slaves”, as a reminder.
Wasn’t our former Governor General of Haitian origins (with a black-skin too)?
What about our numerous Québécois former and current Ministers, in the Party Québécois and the CAQ too? Of course also across all the other provincial parties, from the Liberals to Québec Solidaire?
What about Dr. Lewis who got many votes within her federal Conservative party (even if she did not win)? She did not play the race card, if Bambi is not mistaken.
Do we have much work to keep doing for true equality of opportunities for all Canadians? SURE we do.
Is a mindset of acute victimitis a healthy and wise way to a more just world? Bambi is not too sure.
Had Mr. Bowers been Indigenous perhaps we could have understood his statement more in the Canadian context.
Had he been Jewish in a certain historic era at the University of Toronto (U of T), we would have understood more. It is not for nothing that York University was created by Jewish scholars who were not welcomed at U of T.
Had he or his parents been of Chinese origins, we would have understood too. Chinese Canadian citizens were not treated greatly either, as we know, even if we owe them much (e.g. building our railways and our economy). Did this group of Canadians fall for the acute victimitis trap (of our current times)? No, they did not. They simply worked hard and even harder than the rest of us to co-build our beautiful Canada.
When M. Bowers mentions the institutions that are not built for him, what does he mean?
Perhaps he meant to denounce elitism or classism rather than racism. Could it be? If so, Bambi agrees with him.
A good example would be our political elites (Bambi is not sure that elitism is not always that much better than so-called populism, but that’s a different story).
Anyhow, Bambi wishes him and his institution the best. May we all remain lucid and wise, even when we think that we are making our world a better place.
