My reply was that such unnecessary questions are common in many areas. A baby is born. Boy or girl? How much did it weigh? Two questions that aren't all that important in the short term, particularly when you don't know the family well, but the first one at the very least is asked every time.
And we can get beyond questions to statements. A woman's body is found in a ditch, and the media report invariably includes the adjective "Caucasian" or Aboriginal." Why? A dead woman is a dead woman.
Or there are the 1200 missing and murdered Aboriginal women, a shocking number whether they are Aboriginal women or not. In this case they are, and that points to something terrible in our society, but I can't help wondering if the RCMP and the federal government would have moved sooner to try to prevent the situation and/or catch the killers if the word "Aboriginal" hadn't been there to describe the victims. You know if they hadn't been Aboriginal women, the entire population would have been freaking out and we'd have seen some kind of action a lot sooner than this.
I'm neither a Conservative nor a Liberal voter, but am enjoying watching Trudeau make his moves. So far so good, mister, or as I am wont to say, "You go, boy!"
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| Another of Shelly's Christmas creations, on the step. |
I hadn't had that thought, now I will never forget it.
ReplyDeleteMe too, if we're talking about the same thought!
DeleteYour comments about unnecessary questions from the insignificant to the greatly significant are welcome to me. We don't need to know the weight of a baby, and maybe this question is just a harmless habit. Checking to find out the race of a murdered person is probably something we should examine within ourselves because too often we may ask this so that we can find out if we personally should be afraid. If it doesn't affect us personally because we are not of that threatened group, surely we need to change ourselves and change society. I don't say this from a one-sided point of view, as long-standing problems are complex. I see how racism and sexism go both ways, and if we have mediators that can make opposition sides hear each other out, we may all find greater understanding and peace.
DeleteNot sure if this was the thought you were having.
Nope. All yours. And true enough.
Delete