Canada is not systemically racist. But if we isolate ourselves to the literature on the subject, we would quickly conclude that Canada is rife with “white supremacy” and oppression, practically a prison for BIPOC, and a haven for racists.
That is, of course, not true. Because if it were, we should see people of colour fleeing in droves to countries that would rescue them from the oppression they supposedly face here. But that’s not what happens. On the contrary, Canada is one of the most diverse countries on Earth. Do we suppose that people immigrate here because they want to suffer oppression, or is it perhaps because they know that we offer some of the highest standards of freedom and opportunity in the world?
1.Hypocrites
UBC defines systemic racism as “refers[ing] to the ways that whiteness and white superiority become embedded in the policies and processes of an institution, resulting in a system that advantages white people and disadvantages BIPOC/IBPOC, notably in employment, education, justice, and social participation.”*
Brittany Andrew-Amofah, senior policy and research analyst at the Broadbent Institute, said, “These systems are built with an already ingrained bias, a racist lens and embedded with a discriminatory lens that doesn’t provide or allow for equal or fair opportunities for racialized peoples to succeed within.”**
Of course, that’s a peculiar quote by Andrew-Amofah because she, a distinguished senior analyst in a prominent think-tank, is a person of colour. If our country is as inherently racist as she says, how did she climb to her position? Nonetheless, the consensus is that Canada is constructed on a foundation of racism that encourages, or even guarantees, discrimination in education, sports, justice, and work.
But it is often rich men and women—sitting in high places and executive offices, privy to extraordinary luxuries like sports cars and mansions—that are the strongest proponents of this doctrine. Professors, teachers, politicians, doctors, and other distinguished professions challenge that the institutions in our country must be abolished and remade because of their proclivity to discriminate against people of colour.
I hold serious contention with this hypocrisy. If they are so serious about eliminating inequality in every aspect of society, why don’t they practice what they preach and give up their positions? They enjoy privileged places of power; why don’t they step down and appoint a person of colour to fill the vacant seat?
To the white members of the UBC council (or any other institution) that drafted their documents on systemic racism, I would say, “Step down. Be the first to leave. No one is keeping you there. Remove yourself from the throne of oppression and hand it over to the minorities you claim to represent. Give your career up so that this demon you claim plages our country will be vanquished.”
Of course, they don’t do that, preferring instead to take up the easy yoke of shouting, slandering, and screaming at us from above.
2. Enlightenment
But if it’s true that Canada is systemically racist, and the institutions in our country are systemically racist, then shouldn’t anything and everything in our country be tainted by racism? Wouldn’t that make everyone racist as well? If our education, political structure, and social organizations, are inherently racist, why are we, raised in this society, not racist ourselves?
Commentators and bureaucrats tell us this cancer is so inherent to our culture and institutions that we are practically blind to it like a pig is blind to its smell.
But what has caused the enlightened to see? If we are blind, why are they not blind, too? What has opened the eyes of the professor, the doctor, the minister, or the liberal arts student? A textbook? By whom? Written where? In a culture that’s systemically racist? But that can’t be because then the textbook, a product of the educational institution, would be inherently racist. It can’t be a doctrine from the Middle East, and certainly not from anywhere in Europe (they are, after all, white).
Did our most moral receive a revelation? From where? From whom? Within? But then their opinion that Canada is systemically racist is precisely that—mere opinion—and it holds no objective validity compared to my own thoughts and ideas.
Racism is not a product of “systemically racist institutions,” but of a corrupted nature. It is a wicked sin, not from outside, but from the heart. “For from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil things…” (Mark 7:20-21). Christ does not say, “For from Rome, and Rome’s senate, education, and military, come evil things,” but rather, “from your sinful heart come evil things.” It’s no question why demagogues reject this doctrine. Just look at their aim: they believe they must tear this country down because it is western, capitalist, and (at least at one time) free.
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