It's not likely to happen - at least in my day - but if everyone would just realize we are ALL Canadian, not black, white, brown, yellow or otherwise, the better off we all would be.
Our skin tone and our nationalities do not have to make us who we are. We have the freedom to be whoever we want to be, at least we would if people would stop with the labeling, segregation and profiling.
You would think in today's day and age we could get it together and figure that out, but apparently not so.
From the ongoing dispute about the treatment (or lack thereof) of First Nations people, to misconceptions because of one's race or nationality, to climbing the corporate ladder because of your sex, it's all needless and damaging for the country as a whole.
Last week in Halifax yet another example surfaced. An independent human rights board of enquiry has found that a now former employee of Nova Scotia's "Black Educators Association" was discriminated against by the organization and as a result they must pay the employee $11,000 for lost income and damages.
So before I get into the details... Black Educators Association? Really? Would a White Educators Association fly in Canada? I think not. If that's not discriminatory right off the bat, I don't know what is.
Anyway, back to the story. Rachel Brothers was employed by the association for a year and recently she was fired. The reason given? She was reported to the board by a fellow colleague as being "not black enough."
Wow.
An enquiry into the decision eventually concluded, "colourist thinking" "and behaviour created a toxic work environment"... and that "Ms. Brothers was terminated because she had been successfully undermined in her employment by one of her subordinates."
The very reason this scenario could happen in the first place lends reason to believe there is something wrong with how business is being conducted.
Why can't people be judged based on the performance? If Ms. Brothers was doing a good job, does it really matter that she is a lighter shade of black?
It boggles my mind that we continue to see this and to let it happen. It's the 21st century. It's high time we get with the times.
