“Mum, am I a nigga too?” Such is the question I was forced to answer this morning when my 7 year-old son came down for breakfast. To be honest, the words to answer were hard to find. There’s a fine line between explaining our ancestors’ history to my children and trying to raise them in a world where their skin colour is neither a hurdle nor a detriment. All that, while giving them the tools to face possible, eventual racist comments.
What baffles me in the aftermath of Donald Sterling and P.K. Subban distractors – even more so than their ignoble words, is that some seem surprise by the fact racism is alive and well in our 2014 society. I find that, fascinating. I’ve been saying it for years: there is difference between tolerance and acceptance. The first is jammed with compromise while the latter, is all about love. What’s bred in the bone will come out in the flesh …
So people and the media were offended by Sterling’s comments and by the N-word festival on social media, following PK’s winning goal when the Habs met the Bruins, Thursday night? Good! But when you’re a member of a “visible minority”, you very well know the battle is far from being over and won. Prejudice you see, is here, there and still too often. If anything, perhaps this debacle will force us to address racism beyond the month of February.
If P.K. Subban was raised like I was and like most sons & daughters of immigrants I know, he will not reply to his detractors with words. He’ll reply with action. Trust that he’ll be on fire during the playoffs and will once again prove to be a valuable asset to the Canadiens. And, to my 7 year-old I say: “No one can reduce you to the colour of your skin. Be the best that you can be. If people insult you, answer with excellence”.
