So, just over 24 hours removed from the US of A doing their greatest deed since kindly taking Celine Dion off of our hands. I'm glad it happened. I feel he was best suited to do the job, but, shit, he's black (gasp!). Not really fitting the criteria to be "leader of the free world (sigh)". Racism works both ways. Undoubtedly there were lots of good ol' boys that weren't going to vote for a black guy, no way no how. But you can bet your ass that it worked the other way, too. How it worked out with hispanics (fuck, I hate that term) is anyone's guess, since according to the political pundits who I'm going to have to defer to on this one, don't get along with black folks in general. How much of an influence this racism from both sides played a factor, who the crap really knows. To paint with a really broad brush, whites are Republicans, and non-whites are Democrats. Obama got more of the white vote than any Democrat since something like '76. So I digress.
The real point of this - what about North of 49? We Canadians sure like to give us self-congratulatory blowjobs about being "tolerant" (another term I hate), or a "mosaic", or whatever term you want to use to make the bullshit claim that we're all children of the sun and everyone lives in harmony. Christ, they even taught that in school. Undrground Railroad, for example. Not to lessen its historical or cultural significance, but come on guys, being better than a bunch of rich, tyrannical white dudes doesn't make you a beacon of righteousness, it just means you're less fucked than the other guy. Which at the time wouldn't be saying much.
Take a look at the political scene here now. Sure, we've got what I'm going to guess is more diverse representation in both Federal and Provincial Parliaments. Indian, native, black, Chinese and white representatives make up our government. Look how progressive we are, right? No, no and fuck no. We are, without a doubt, a mosaic. Meaning that a lot of the time, different ethnicities keep to themselves. Look no further than Toronto. Huge Asian communities in Richmond Hill, Markham, and Chinatown around College/Spadina. Paskistani, Indian and surrounding areas in Brampton, which tons of people (myself included) refer to as Bramledesh. Greektown. Little Italy. And so on.
My argument goes like this - the makeup of government here is such that it is simply because where minorities are elected, there's a large population of that same minority. Again, the racism is working from all angles. Hell, I'll concede that maybe it works like the American scene did. People of X nationality were getting elected because they were the representative of Y political party in the area, which there were a lot of people that were also X nationality and therefore more likely supporters of Y party to begin with. But I still have to wonder. At least the States have had black presedential candidates before. They just didn't have a snowball's chance in hell (sorry, Jesse Jackson). And Kim Campbell doesn't count for us, since she didn't win an election to become PM.
Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to be on this side of the border. It's not like we're rushing to have amendments to ban gay marriage like so many states. Lewis Black is right, on a list of priorities, that should be on page six, just after "are we eating too much garlic, as a people?". But we sure as hell shouldn't be afraid to look in the mirror and recognize those big hairy moles on our faces. And I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely - how's life on any of the native reserves here? Pretty fucking swell, I'm sure. Or maybe it's the gender gap. Or maybe those pride parades we have in the summer spackle over that shoddy drywall we put up. Or maybe things are just so damn perfect I'm the anorexic looking to lose a few pounds that don't exist?
That'd be nice, but not bloody likely.
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