Racism, Saskatchewan Style.

Come on into the den, I've got some lovely food stolen from a lunch at The University. The big wigs are meeting and eating. So I sit here and ponder on a funny story that popped back into my head while watching this and seeing a few faces from the past.



See I worked at this call center a while back in the City That Rhymes with Fun, and we were outsourced to a cellular provider in the States, which got bought by another cellular provider, so we had to switch billing systems. So they sent up a contingent of folks from Texas and while at home they wouldn't be minorities, here in Saskabush, they stuck out. See it was six folks, made up of a black woman and a black man, a white woman, and two Latino men and one Latina woman. Hope I used those terms right. Anyhow, here on the Prairies, they were certainly ... different.

So one day a question pops up that I couldn't answer. See I was first wave and from the help desk so I had to know more at a quicker pace than the standard agent, and I still missed a few, thus our friends from Texas. So the black man walks by and me and the agent ask him the question, which is irrelevant, but he says 'Oh yeah see I'm an expert on the ID system, not the billing system, you want to ask about that one,' and we go 'Who?'

He points over at one of the Latino men and says 'The Ponytail Guy.' And there is a bit of laughter at that as one agent who wants to know the answer as well goes 'That's funny, that's what we call him too!' So our expert on the ID system says 'Oh well I just assume you guys refer to me as the Black Guy.'

Suddenly the laughter stops. Twelve white assholes pucker up so hard, I can actually hear chairs groan in protest. Everyone has a look on their face like 'You're black?! Really?! I never would have known!' I start laughing and the Black Guy goes 'What did I say?' and I'm still laughing.

Through my near tear filled laughter, I say 'Wow dude, you just made twelve white folks incredibly uncomfortable.' The Black Guy looks confused, so I explain: 'Here in Saskatchewan, we're not racist, we just ignore it like it never happened. Which leads to moments like this. Y'know, like the joke, there's no more race, we're all green. Now you dark green fuckers to the back of the bus!' He starts laughing 'Oh shit dude, I so gotta take that one home with me!' and the white folks start laughing in that nervous 'Ha ha ha ha' forced laugh of the incredibly uncomfortable.

I had a beer with the folks from Texas later and explained that because of the incredible whiteness and the guilt involved with the incredible racism that has occurred in Canada, like their own home country, that it has been swept under the carpet and ignored and most folks try to ignore the whole idea of racism. They thought it was pretty hilarious and we laughed and laughed. Strangely, the white guy from Texas didn't join us for the beer, but he was a real prissy fucker anyways so whatever.

The sad part is that this is still racism folks, it's just a form called systemic racism. Rather than openly discriminating against those of a minority, instead it is ignored, despite the fact that the system is still set up to benefit the dominant culture over the minority. It's not so much an improvement as it is just a different kind of racism.

Think about it; when you describe someone, do you start with the most visibly definable characteristic, that being the colour of the skin? No, we go over everything else before going to that most telling of descriptors. It amuses me to no end.

I have similar stories but I'd rather hear yours, go on, share a story of this type of systemic racism that you've seen. I dare ya!