19 April 2016
Margaret Skimba is a some-time opinion columnist for the Hamilton Spectator. With a Skimba column you don't just get opinion, you get sheer opinion, and, commonly, utterly uninformed opinion.
The kind of opinion you'd get from a closed-minded bigot who is appalled at hearing contrary opinions.
Yesterday's column was no exception. Skimba wrote about the situation in Attawapiskat, for which the European colonizing racists are completely responsible, and who must atone by spending more money and listening to (another) scolding, from her.
No talk of how the Aboriginals are abusing their liberty. No talk of the moral bankruptcy of the people living in Attawapiskat. No suggestion of the curious fact that Aboriginals seem to have been born without bootstraps by which they can pull themselves up. No, it's white people like me who are responsible. She's alright, Jack, because she's the one pointing the accusing finger.
Skimba's column starts off about her Scottish roots, and how she got a frisson from seeing the Scottish Highlands for the first time. From this she projects similar feelings into the Aboriginals of Attawapiskat. Then she's off to the races with what would be called racism from the likes of me, and motivated by the kind of self-loathing that excuses itself by blaming others of her race for their racism.
Anyhow, my comments:
No doubt about it, Margaret Skimba is a racist. And a
not-well-informed racist at that.
Her column on the situation in Attawapiskat was based upon
the soft-bigotry of low expectations in respect of Aboriginals, and upon the
theory of the white-man’s burden. Racism through and through.
She also seems quite unaware of history of the region around
Hudson’s and James Bay. She claims that this land was usurped by European
colonists, and leased or sold to third party interests. I wonder if Skimba
has ever heard of Rupert’s Land, or of the Numbered Treaties, specifically
Treaties 3 and 9? These lands were not “usurped,” nor were they ever
colonized by Europeans.
She also denounced what was a sensible solution offered by
former Indian Affairs Minister and Prime Minister Jean Chretien. It would
make sense to evacuate Attawapiskat and move the residents to a suburb of
Thunder Bay. There, they will have greater job opportunities, and closer
access to the civilization of the rest of the world. And they would not
be far from the land to which they are so profoundly “attached,” according to
Skimba’s racist projections.
Skimba’s racist solution is to throw the white man’s guilty
money at the problem until it goes away. But because of corruption – aboriginal
corruption – that money would be wasted. Is it racist to say that even
aboriginals can be corrupt?
Nevertheless, a real solution to the problem in Attawapiskat
is to evacuate the place. And racism be damned.
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