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Opinion

Gun violence, race, and gender

Maybe it’s not gun ownership we should be talking about.

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Opinion

Trudeau’s brownface doesn’t erase our own racism

I get that it’s problematic for Justin Trudeau to dress up in brownface, but it’s also problematic when we focus on it.

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Opinion Uncategorized

Mexicans have a right to be in the United States

Mexicans have more of a right to travel to and from what is now the United States than white Americans do.

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Opinion Racism

I grew up thinking I was Indigenous

I grew up thinking I was Indigenous. Or more particularly, that I was part Indigenous. I was taught that I was Métis, and that meant part French and part Cree.

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Opinion Racism

Debunked: 4 myths about Indigenous people

A few months ago, I was discussing the concept of “a little bit racist” with a friend on Facebook. Before long, the conversation turned to Indigenous people, and his discussion points started to incorporate common myths white people believe about Indigenous people.

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Opinion Racism

Actually, “genocide” is the right term

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was released in June 2019. It’s over 1,000 pages long and comes in 2 volumes. Even though it has 231 calls for justice, people got hung up on the report’s use of the word genocide. Critics of the term argue that since Indigenous people in […]

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Opinion Racism

You don’t need to be white to support white supremacy

You don’t need to be white to support white supremacy or white privilege. If you support the justice system, for example, which apprehends and incarcerates people of colour at higher rates than white people, hands them harsher sentences, and is more likely to reincarcerate them, then you support white supremacy. And you don’t need to […]

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Opinion Racism

If you make it about race, it’s racist

To her, indigeneity is criminal. Likewise, her readers also see indigeneity as criminal. Both the speaker and the receiver understand this concept so well that it can be used as code.

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Opinion Racism

Why the justice system is racist

The justice system is broken; it’s racist. Here’s why. In 2017, the Office of the Correctional Investigator published a report (see my notes below) that included statistics on indigenous people in Canadian prisons. Here are some highlights: Indigenous people make up 26.4% of Canada’s prison population Indigenous people make up only 5% of the general […]

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Opinion Racism

How white people perpetuate racism

My second job in Lethbridge was cleaning carpets. My boss was racist. One time, we went to a nearby reserve, but the person who booked us wasn’t home. My boss then implemented a surcharge for every reserve job we had. Plus he required the client to meet us in Lethbridge and we’d follow them to […]