Okay. So let's start off with a bit of honesty.
I'm white. I have blue eyes, brown hair, and a darker complexion. I'm one of those "black irish" don't-you-know.
I speak french. I speak english. And I moved to the north in the past year.
I have made many friends... casual and close... since I've moved here. And just about every one of them is white.
I work in an almost all-inuk office. I'm surrounded by Inuktitut. I have adopted some verbal mannerisms (eee, and ela, and taima). I treat my co-workers with the same respect I would "down south" (and vice versa)... but when the clock strikes five, we go our separate ways... rarely, if ever, to see one another until the next morning (save the odd trip to the grocery store).
I have been to "white" gatherings where other inuk men and women have been. I have been to "inuk" parties where I was one of the only southerners there.
But again. I can say with confidence, I don't actually have any Inuit friends.
So I have to wonder. At what point does a search for shared experiences become cultural segregation and racism? How much of this is intentional, how much is me not having met "the right people"? How much is a language barrier? How much is the education factor?
I don't think of myself as racist. But I'm sure most racists don't. But I sometimes do avoid talking to Inuks in favour of white folks like myself. Now I tell myself that's because I'm scared of offending them because I don't speak their language.
So I ask you, dear readers. Is this a subverted form of racism?
Or, in the words of an Avenue Q song .... is it that "we're all a little bit racist, sometimes"?
- J
