I, myself, am about as far from a minority as one can get. Caucasian, middle/upper-middle class, British/Canadian descent. And as I've said before, I like to stick to myself as best I'm able. So, I'm not really one to make a judgment on how minorities are treated in Edmonton.
I like to think they're treated okay - like, there's never been anything in my line of sight, so to speak, to prove otherwise. Obviously, I'm not naive enough to think that this city would be a haven for minorities, but... However, it's also worth noting that I don't really keep an eye on the news, so I really mean it when I say I have no idea.
That said, I do remember one occasion, at work. It was closing time - and I don't mean "five minutes to close" or anything, I mean 9:00 - where a fellow, waiting for his wife (who a co-worker was helping find a book for... something. I vaguely remember it being a really weird book to buy your adult child or something) and this fellow just vehemently rants at me for five, ten minutes about how immigrants are coming and stealing jobs from "hard-working Canadians" and whatnot. Keeping in mind it's closing time, and so I have less patience than usual for this kind of thing.
And I was just like "Wow. These people actually exist?"
But then there was that lady who almost bit my head off for not having a large enough selection of Native American kids books. So.
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Relating to the woman that almost bit your head off for your small selection of Native American kids books, do you think that minorities hold just as much prejudice and contempt toward "majorities" as majorities typically hold toward "minorities"? Do you think that they're more justified in doing so because of their situation? Do you think that more visible minorities may fail to recognize more subtle minorities among people (such as sexuality)?
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of people are at fault for discrimination -- not just minorities! And I believe that the failure to recognize less obvious minority groups leads to some misunderstandings within society...
@Cathryn
ReplyDeleteThe kicker is that she WASN'T a minority. She needed it for a class she was teaching, or something?
It eventually got to the point where I had to call a manager to come over and explain why we had so few.
And I'm totally with you on the "everyone discriminates" front. I'm working on writing a paper on Bollywood right now, and my own lack of knowledge of the different religions is causing me a headache... must rectify...
@GarnetVengeance I'm going to push you a little on the minority thing. Or, rather, not being a member of a demographic minority (who am I to say?) but rather about being part of a subculture. I like the perspective subcultures (and I would say we're all part of some subculture or another - aren't we?) have on the city as a whole. You really do map it differently if you're looking for Middle Eastern spices or comic book stores or gay bars.
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