Expanding The Issues

As long as inequality and other social problems plague us, populists will try to exploit them. Kofi Annan
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/social-problems-quotes

I either heard or read this: “if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for everything”!(author unknown)

America Has Been Here Before

In the early twentieth century three major movie studios were established. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Picture Corp., and Fox Film Corporation/20th Century Fox. What was not known by the major population was who the founders of these studios were. All of them had changed their names and they hid the basic part of their being, you see these men were of the Jewish Faith.(https://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/film/STUDIOS.htm)

On 7 June 1939, 907 Jewish refugees aboard the MS St. Louis were denied entry to Canada. The ship returned its passengers to safe harbour in four European countries. Sadly, 254 of its passengers later perished in the Holocaust.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ms-st-louis#:~:text=%E2%80%8BOn%207%20June%201939,later%20perished%20in%20the%20Holocaust.

The Jewish people were not the only ones to feel the sting of racism. Between 1830 -1930 it is estimated the just over 4 million Irish Catholic people landed in America. It was common around America to see signs in windows that would say, “Irish need not apply”, “Irish may not enter”! ( A personal note: my paternal ancestors were from Ireland)

Ireland’s 1845 Potato Blight is often credited with launching the second wave of Irish immigration to America. The fungus which decimated potato crops created a devastating famine. Starvation plagued Ireland and within five years, a million Irish were dead while half a million had arrived in America to start a new life. Living conditions in many parts of Ireland were very difficult long before the Potato Blight of 1845, however, and a large number of Irish left their homeland as early as the 1820s.
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/irish/irish-catholic-immigration-to-america/#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20as,all%20immigrants%20to%20this%20nation.

We have seen the brutal attacks on America and Canadian First Nations People. Governments taking their homelands and forcing them to live on Indian Reserves.

During WW2 after Pearl Harbour those of Japanesse Descent were placed in determent camps

Of course we know too well the story of those of African descent. Brought to America to work as slaves on foundations. They had no rights, were not considered a human being. Not until President Lydon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill granting African American People the right to vote. Yet, these are being stripped away slowly. Through gerry mandering and Jim Crowe methods many of these Americans were given hurdles to jump when it came to casting a ballot. The battle continues even in the 21st century.

Now in 2022 anti-semitism is on an upward rise and there seems to be no stopping. What is hard to fathom is the fact major leaders are not stepping up and denouncing this rise of anti-semitism.

Born Without Racism

Take a trip to any pre-school or kindergarten class in any urban school and you will most likely see a group of children, all of different ethnic and racial groups. They play and share without any signs of us versus them. They were born with a clean slate.

It as they grow older that they become indoctrinated with racism towards those who are not like them. They become parrots of what they have heard from the home life, neighborhood, and eventually from other older students. These things do not happen in a vacum.

Multicultural

I grew up in and around Southern Ontario. It afforded me the luxury of minling with those who were of different ethnic, cultural, and different faiths. I grew up thinking that this is how the whole world was. It was when I started to travel outside of my home area and into other parts of Canada and America is when I saw the divisions among people.

In the town where I was born, it is on the books in the early 20th Century that a First Nation person could not stay over night in the town. They also were not allowed in any liquor establishment.

I knew the story of the underground railway and how African desendents risked their very lives to make the journey to Canada. Many arriving in Chatham, Ontario. Many stayed and others went to Eastern Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia. Families can trace their roots back to their ancestors who were slaves in America. What I have learned while living in Western Canada that many school students raised here did not know this history.

This blogger, Dwain M. Bourne hates what is happening, the outright blatant racism, anti-semitism that has taken a grip in America, Canada, and other nations around the globe.