{"id":6459,"date":"2020-08-31T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T00:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=6459"},"modified":"2020-09-01T06:31:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T09:31:58","slug":"isnt-it-sad-when-we-interpret-a-friends-compliment-as-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/08\/31\/isnt-it-sad-when-we-interpret-a-friends-compliment-as-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Isn\u2019t it sad when we interpret a friends\u2019 compliment as racism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This CBC<\/em> article by\nMr. Philip Drost is entitled \u201cUNB soccer player speaks out against racism\nthrough personal story\u201d<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/new-brunswick\/cierra-thomas-racism-1.5705426<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article features Ms. Reds\nCierra Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is her story of racism?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, basically, the\nfollowing two points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People in NB asks her: \u201cwhere are you from?\u201d <\/em>(she happens to be from Ontario).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

&\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.      And when she was 16, \u201cOne of her\nfriends gave a toast and called her one of the most beautiful Black girls in\nschool\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When <\/strong>someone asks us from where we come from (other dorm, street, village, province\/territory, or other country), it is usually meant to engage a friendly conversation. It shows an interest in our story. <\/strong> Sometimes people assume we are originally from X when we actually come from Y. So what? Why do we always need to read every gesture and every word through the lens of racism? Plus, if we reply and take the time to ask the persons about their own stories of where they come from, we become culturally richer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, even if we encounter true racism in life, so what? Who hasn\u2019t heard a hurtful word? In such situations, we can sometimes resort to humour to educate others, as needed. We can decide to ignore and learn to develop a thick skin. We may perhaps take a wait and see approach to better assess a repetitive situation, etc. Who knows? We could also decide to share our feelings with the person in question, if the latter is a friend we care about, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi is saying all this while recalling personal stories of what could be racism or just negative comments in life. For instance, one story she can think of occurred when she was 16 herself, like Ms. Thomas’ incident with her friend. One guy, at her school in Beirut, used to tease her by calling odd names. Once, he called her \u201cthe municipality\u2019s broom<\/em>\u201d (because of her curly hair). She sarcastically replied, calling him the name of the largest wild animal she knew of at that time (it was not a moose, although much bigger than a deer ?). Well, this boy is a middle-aged man now. Interestingly, he still recalls this school story. A few years ago, he asked a friend about that small girl with lots of hair who called him animal. He wanted to know what happened to her because the last school year ended abruptly. Her friend told him that Bambi also survived war and lives in Canada. It is thoughtful of him to be concerned. Well, it is Bambi\u2019s turn today to wish\/pray that he survived the Beirut explosion, along with his family.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To come back to the CBC<\/em>\narticle, the irony is Ms. Thomas\u2019 own contradiction in two of her statements on\nracism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That I couldn’t be just beautiful or attractive,” she\nwrote.  “That I was only beautiful because I was black. Again,\nthe colour of my skin put me on a different standard.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, earlier in\nthe text, she said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One of my favourite quotes from an activist is, being Black in 2020\nis being stressed about the pandemic, worried about your health and your\nwell-being, and then going on and watching another person of colour being\nmurdered on TV,” Thomas said. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You have all of that, and you still have racism.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, Ms. Thomas is telling us that watching another person of colour\nmurdered on TV is the ultimate stressor in the life of an already stressed \u201cBlack\nin 2020<\/em>\u201d. On the other hand, when a friend tells her she is \u201cthe most beautiful\nblack girl in school<\/em>\u201d, she tells us that the latter is the utmost experience\nof racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the comment of her friend about her beauty? By slightly working on her attitude, could she perhaps start seeing that this comment may have been meant to be kind, despite its clumsiness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about if the person murdered on TV happened to be from another ethnolinguistic\nbackground, this would not be distressing too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the CBC<\/em>\u2019s journalist, are these the worst examples of racism he could find in our province ?? If so, thank you for reassuring Bambi, once again, that New Brunswickers are far from being racist. Indeed, Canadians are among the nicest people in the world (even if a handful of individuals here and there may be truly racist, toxic even, or literally criminals).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This CBC article by Mr. Philip Drost is entitled \u201cUNB soccer player speaks out against racism through personal story\u201d: https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/new-brunswick\/cierra-thomas-racism-1.5705426 The article features Ms. Reds Cierra Thomas. What is her story of racism? Well, basically, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6467,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions\/6467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}