When I was around nine years old and living in Kitchener, Ontario, four black guys moved into a boarding house across the street from our home.  These fellows were in Kitchener to try out for the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen football team and were from the United States.  Their names were Flash Yates, Butch Ford, Cookie Gilchrest and Maury, whose last name I can no longer remember.  Flash Yates drove a black Cadillac convertible, and my buddies and I were in awe of these lads.  They were exceptionally nice to us, taking us for rides in the Cadillac and buying us hamburgers and milkshakes.  They took us to their practices and to pre-season exhibition football games. 

Butch Ford was a lineman and a big man.  I remember after one practice, he lifted me up on his shoulders as he walked from the practice field to the team’s clubhouse.  I was in awe of these guys and they were really kind to me and my friends.  After practice, we waited for the four of them to get showered as they had promised to take us for milk shakes.  I can still remember the smell of Lifebuoy soap. 

My friends and I had a wonderful time that summer.  Unfortunately, only Cookie made the team and as football fans remember, he went on to be a star player for the Buffalo Bills of the American Football league after starring for the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football league.

When the other three fellows got cut and advised us that they were returning to the United States, some of us cried.  These kind, considerate, funny, generous, talented athletes had gone out of their way to be really nice to a bunch of rag-tag white kids.  As you may be able to tell, we loved those guys.  They were our heroes and they made us feel special.  Our friendship only lasted a few weeks, but it was a period of time I still remember fondly.

We were young, innocent children who had been befriended by some athletes who just happened to be black.  Their skin colour didn’t matter a hoot to us.  We were in the company of four really nice guys who took an interest in us and treated us very well.  The new friends we made gave us a summer none of us would forget.

I tell this story to reinforce the fact that children are not born to have racist thoughts. Unfortunately, racism eventually raises its ugly head, incited primarily by our inept leaders. For the most part, leaders cause racism to exist when, for less than altruistic reasons, they do not treat all races equally and then have the absolute gall to lecture us on the evils of the very situation they created. 

Want examples?  Here you go.

For too many years, certain segments of our society have taken advantage of the good nature and decency of the majority of taxpayers who just happen to be white-skinned.  Numerous billions of dollars per year, year after year, are paid to Indigenous communities but the various Indian bands are no longer required to account for how that money is spent and who receives the funds.  This is wrong.  It is unfair.  It causes the givers to begrudge their tax dollars being handed over to groups in our society who take the money, pay their so-called “leaders” exorbitant salaries, and then treat their benefactors with outright disdain and demand more concessions.

It is of interest to note that former Prime Minister Harper’s government required native bands to account for how the funds they received from the federal government were spent.  This policy was welcomed by many Indigenous people who had witnessed blatant abuse of funds received by their leaders and generally embraced this new transparency requirement.  This policy went a long way to satisfy Canadian tax payers that their funds were being spent wisely, that native leaders were not abusing their authority over the funds, and as noted, individual members of native communities were not being financially abused.  Our current Prime Minister, upon being elected, immediately scrapped Harper’s policy and made the reporting requirements optional.  This decision defied common sense and cannot help but cause racist thoughts to run rampant throughout the tax-paying public.

Our country has reached the ridiculous point where if one minority group, in particular, makes demands that are not immediately met, reasonable or not, these extortionists resort to committing illegal acts. They do so with impunity because they know from past experiences that there is little risk of being held to account, arrested and prosecuted.  These lawbreakers are given a pass for reasons the average person cannot understand.  White people know that, were they to perform the same illegal acts, they would be promptly arrested and thrown in jail.  Not so for the minority lawbreakers.  They cause real harm—economic and physical—to innocent people but they seem impervious to being called to account.   They maintain that preferential status with the full support of our gutless leaders who, for some reason, over and over again, give these pampered, petulant criminals a pass.  This example of unfair, unequal treatment spawns racism in the minds of those who abide by our nation’s laws but see others, literally, get away with murder because they are part of a distinct ethnic group.

When the majority observe such preferential treatment being given to one group, the predictable reaction is outrage, which the left-wing media are quick to describe as “racist.”  Once you are branded a racist (whether you are a racist or not), you quickly lose the right to express your viewpoint.  You are just too busy trying to convince everyone that you are not racist but just an average person who can recognize a tiered system of unfairness when they see one.  As soon as one ethnic group is given preferential treatment to alleviate the guilt of our ancestors’ actions, it seems logical to me that racism will soon follow.

Most people will, if asked, deny that they are racist but most of them are bare-faced liars.  They begrudge groups in our society who receive special treatment based on  their heritage and skin colour.  In fact, in many instances, it is the recipients of the majority’s generosity who are the real racists in our midst.

In Canada, we have a Prime Minister who has never found a politically correct, “woke” cause that he does not enthusiastically embrace.  And anyone who does not fall in line with his thought process is quickly vilified by the crazies in the print and electronic media.  Just because these people have a column in one of our pathetic news organizations does not mean they are intelligent.  In fact, a former publisher of several of the Postmedia newspapers once told me that the majority of columnists are, “not very bright and they are lazy.”  Yet, these not very bright, lazy people have a forum the rest of us are denied, a forum that has great influence over average Canadians, who seem prepared to avoid at all costs, the idea of thinking for themselves.

Recently, a Chief of an Indigenous tribe in Fort McMurray was in a confrontation with RCMP officers.  The “Chief” was belligerent, uncooperative, and appeared drunk. He seemed to want to fight and he resisted arrest.  There was, fortunately for the police officers involved, a twelve-minute dashcam video that memorialized the “Chief’s” despicable behaviour.  His language was guttural and his behaviour not in keeping with his so-called station in life where he is paid, it is reported, $600,000 per year. I repeat: $600,000 per year!  An amount at least eight times that of the white police officers who were doing their job in the face of abuse spewing from the mouth of a drunken man impersonating a leader.  Notwithstanding his pathetic behaviour toward law enforcement officers, he immediately lawyered up and ran to the media where he and his story were accepted as fact and our pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister announced that he had grave concerns over the way this “Chief” was treated by the two RCMP officers.  I sure wasn’t!  He deserved to have his ass kicked. Does that make me a racist?  If I had done what he did I would expect to endure more cuts and bruises than those suffered by this “Chief.”

Of course, the Alberta Government agency that investigates such events jumped into the fray and will, no doubt, find that the police officers exceeded their authority and violated the “rights” of the Chief.  It goes without saying that, to avoid civil disorder, the investigative body will have to come down hard on the police officers and make examples of them. To do otherwise would be to justify their behaviour (notwithstanding the fact it was justified), which would, of course, be racist.  Peace officers are not allowed to arrest belligerent, obnoxious, drunken, law-breaking Indian Chiefs.  It is just not allowed in our new, world order and because the officers tried to do their jobs, they are clearly “racist”.  Yea, right!

It is these allegations of faux racism that spawn racism.  People know unfairness when they see it, and unfortunately, our society these days is loaded with policies that are not only ill-advised and stupid but clearly foster racism.  Think Omar Khadr. 

All of the above is prevalent in the United States but on steroids.  The Black Lives Matter movement has been hijacked by anarchists and naive ultra-liberal fanatics.  Many of these people are in positions of authority in most major US cities, are black, and are members of a democrat party that won the votes of the predominately black population even though the governance provided has been more than pathetic for at least the past 25 years.

In the George Floyd killing, there is no doubt that some members of law enforcement acted in a manner that can only be described as criminal.  That instance of police brutality played right into the hands of criminals, who were just waiting for such an episode to inflict mayhem on an innocent population, many of whom were black business persons.  The anarchists didn’t care; their job was to create havoc and steal whatever they could carry through the smashed-out windows of stores owned primarily by minorities.  Were these thugs arrested?  No, they were not.  That fact results in racism directed against those who look like and live in the same area as those who were running rampant and breaking laws and doing so with impunity.

Unless and until our laws are enforced equally, unless and until criminals are held to account regardless of their ethnic background and skin colour, and unless and until politicians stop catering to minorities at the expense of the rest of us, racism will not go away.  The problem has been caused by our leaders who seem to have a difficult time seeing both sides of virtually any social issue confronting us today.  We only have ourselves to blame.  Sadly, we elected these people, and we have yet to pay the full price for their thoughtless and dangerous behaviour.  Unless all citizens are treated in a similar fashion, resentment and push-back will certainly occur.

Recently, crazies, primarily in the United States, have been advocating for defunding various police departments.  Of course, the mindless nincompoops in Canada have adopted the idea. Given our leadership, don’t be surprised if this irresponsible idea takes root in Canada.  Should that madness occur, it may be wise to purchase one or several guns to defend your home and your family against certain groups in our society who covet what you have and will not think twice about just taking it from you.  Indigenous people can block rail lines, light wood on fire and throw the burning bundle on the rail tracks in front of a moving train; our governments allow such lawbreaking. An intoxicated, foul-mouthed Indian chief can verbally abuse law enforcement officials, get arrested (as he should), and then run to a receptive press and Prime Minister to cast blame and aspersions on police officers just doing their jobs. Black Lives Matter movements originate in a United States city where a black guy by the name of Michael Brown who just robbed a convenience store and attempted to wrestle away the white police officer’s firearm and was shot and killed in the process of resisting arrest, and becomes the poster boy for this movement…most thinking people have a great deal of difficulty feeling sorry for this punk, this hoodlum, this bully, this criminal, regardless of his skin colour.  Yet, the chant went up by the Black Lives Matter loons: “Pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.”  How any thoughtful person can take these people seriously and do not see them as the anarchists they are, is a mystery to me.

The Black Lives Matter movement was built on a foundation of deceit and fraud, and as a result, should have lost all credibility in the eyes of everyone with the ability to think.  The BLM folks are first in line to protest, smash windows, light buildings on fire, beat up those who are different from them, loot stores and generally take on the roll of raving anarchists.  Few are arrested, and those who are, especially in New York, get out of jail without having to post bail so they can get back on the street to continue their vocation as untouchable criminals.  It is this group of people who perfectly fit the definition of “racist.”

The actions, or rather, inactions of our governments cause victims to hate those who are harming them and not paying a price.  In addition, minority groups play the race card only to enhance whatever agenda they happen to be promoting at any given time.  The relatively recent Royal Commission on Indigenous Women and Girls, a Commission whose findings were pretty much predictable given its composition, came to the ridiculous conclusion that there is an ongoing effort by white-skinned Canadians to practice genocide against  Indigenous peoples in Canada.  A ludicrous allegation if there ever was one, yet the nonsensical pronouncement was quickly embraced by the national embarrassment known as Prime Minister Trudeau and his bought-and-paid-for buddies in the media.  After primarily white folk have given Indians hundreds of billions of dollars and remained silent while our tax dollars were squandered on one group in our society, year after year, this commission had the audacity to find that white folk were guilty of genocide!  And one wonders why these ingrates are looked upon with a certain amount of scorn, if not, at least, racist thoughts.

If this lenient behaviour continues and our elected officials are so spineless as to allow the criminal conduct to continue without recourse, does anyone believe for a moment that this pampering inaction will solve the racism problem and not exacerbate it?  If you do, you are a fool.

Little boys and girls are not born racists as is evidenced by my experience with the four black football players over 65 years ago.  Something happens to cause children, as they grow older, to develop prejudices against others.  I have tried to show why I believe this happens and who should bear responsibility for the sad  state of affairs today.

---