Some months ago I went on facebook and was utterly annoyed at a post that a friend had shared. Knowing the friend very well I suspected that they had read the post and then hit share thinking it was humour and wanted to pass along the joke but in reality it was degrading and insulting. The post suggested that a new Canadian was walking in a city, thanking those encountered for the opportunity to live in this great country. The new Canadian encountered others who were also from visible minorities and when the question was raised where the Canadians were the response was that all the Canadians were at work.
I was appaled, I was angry. My first reaction was to report the post to facebook but previous attempts at this causes even greater frustration when I am told that it is "deemed to be within the guidelnes." When did an attempt to shame people become acceptable? When did it become "ok" to be so unwelcoming and so protectionist?
So I had a choice, I knew facebook would not do anything so I made a comment on the post. It was less than gracious and certainly not diplomatic and yes I admit I wrote in anger. I wrote "WOW, I am shocked. Many new Canadians add to and enrich the Canadian fabric, are hard working, contributing members who work and pay taxes. Just WOW!" Happily I noticed (yes I purposely went back to look) the post was removed.
So after sitting with this in my head all day (because unlike the Disney song, Let it Go, I could not) I reached a conclusion. I can sit and stew or I can challenge the thinking. When I see such negative shares or comments, when a negative light gets shed on those in a minority I have a responsibility to challenge it and to speak against it. Several friends have already discovered this and happily they still speak to me.
Social media is a means for me to stay in touch with friends, but if I have to read these kinds of posts then I seriously question why I hold on to this relationship in any capacity. I also wonder if it is facebooks purpose to help feed dissention and hatred for the "other" the minority. We have forgotten how to welcome the stranger, we are reluctant to welcome those who flee for safety to another country, we have forgotten the lost and the neglected. We are quick to blame, complain and point the finger. We have lost the very essence of who we are and how to take care of each other. We have become intolerant of any who might be "different" and somehow we think that is fine.
So for a time (many months have now passed) I was hurt and disgusted but this is another day and another time. One in which to stand against injustice, racial slurs and the slighting of others because of the differences that lay on the surface. Mother Teresa said "At the end of our lives we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, or how many great things we have done." We will be judged by the hospitality that we extended, the cup that we offered, and the injustice that we refused to perpetuate.
It is time to re-evaluate the intolerance that lies just below the surface, that gets passed off as a joke, that is systemic in our society and insitiutions and deemed acceptable or the "way we've always done it." It is time to realize we have a challenge to face to become better human beings because ALL can't matter when minorities continue to be overlooked, ill treated and deemed the lesser children of God. ALL can't matter if the minorities are not valued and treated equally.
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