Editor:
Re: The dumb and racist letters about Judge Begbie have returned. Oh goody, Record blogs, July 8
I read Chris Campbell’s recent response to the backlash against the removal of the Begbie statue and had to resist the urge to stand up from my couch and applaud.
Having made the unpleasant, but I think important (for us non-Indigenous folks) decision to wade into the comments sections of some of the news coverage about the removal, I was reminded of how thin the veneer of “love and acceptance and multiculturalism” really is in this country, and our deeply colonial community is no exception.
“Just like every country, one dominant race took over and claimed it as their own. It’s the history of every advanced Civilization in the world. They don’t go around tearing around statues because the less than five per cent of the population that would normally have assimilated doesn’t like it.”
“Just colonization get over it. Crying not gonna change!”
That violent language (and believe me when I say it is far from the worst of it) is what Canada is. It’s always been what Canada is. And I’m so glad to see Chris Campbell using his platform to acknowledge that violence in no uncertain terms. I think like many of us, he’s lost his patience for negotiating and reasoning people who think it’s acceptable to spew that hatefulness into the world.
So please take a look around New West. Stop pretending we’re above it. Stop pretending we’re “better than that.” All evidence is to the contrary. Those horrible words are from our neighbours, our friends, our relatives, and ourselves.
So read them. See them for the violent, oppressive, racist, white supremacist statements they are. And then call them out and shut them the hell down every chance you get. It’s literally the least we can do to try and earn our continued presence on these lands that by all rights we shouldn’t be on in the first place.
Julian Legere, New Westminster
