Racy racist condemns Bill 21, but not the French

Vincent J. Curtis

20 Sept 21

RE: How to fight racism without Quebec bashing.  Op-ed in the Hamilton Spectator of 20 Sept 21.

It’s hard to imagine being more incoherently racist than Carrie Scott, associate professor of feminist and gender studies at the University of Ottawa, was in her article.  Literally everything was about race: white people, whiteness, two white male leaders, white people are to “stop centering white perspectives (whatever that means!) and demand that others do the same.(Presumably other whites!)”

As atonement, whites should give money to organizations led by coloured people.  White are to develop and maintain strong “relationships of accountability” (whatever that is!) with coloured organizations and coloured communities.  Whites are also supposed to “Centre BIPOC thinkers (whatever ‘centre’ means!) who propose policies to end systemic racism and vote for them - regardless of whether whites think those policies are wrongheaded, and the thinkers are incompetent and crazy on other issues.

Oh, and that old canard “systemic racism” gets slugged around with no effort to explain what it is, or even give an example. (Here's an example: The Indian Act, which creates in law a class of people to whom Canada owes certain things.  Indian is a race, and one is determined to be an Indian based on ancestral descent.)

All of Scott's ranting concerns Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans the display of religious symbols by public employees.  Superficially, this enactment of the policy of lacieté eliminates divisions between people, the opposite of division by race.  And since the issue concerns religious symbols, what has race got to do with it?  Scott is like an broken record that can’t get out of the racism track.

I’m uncomfortable dealing with a Muslim woman in a hijab, niqab, or other headscarf.  In the Muslim tradition, those women are not to be looked at by men other than close relatives.  Why am I being force to look upon a woman telling me this with her dress?

Critics of Bill 21 have completely missed the real scandal.

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