What do you do with relatives who are octagenarians who hold "the natives" in extreme disdain because "all they do is sit around all day and wait for the cheques from us, the taxpayers, to arrive. They just want money. They don't do anything to earn it."? I am at my wit's end.1/8
I mean, you don't want to shout at old people... Well, actually, you really do. But you know you shouldn't. Because they're old. And kind of frail. Nothing really is gained by arguing. But they want to argue about it. They egg you on. They dare you to contradict them. 2/8
And you know they are so, so wrong. And you have piles of evidence, treaties, history, documentation, and you know they won't look at it or believe it because it doesn't fit their world view. And you know you should be nice. They will die sooner, rather than later... 3/8
It's not like they are going to be influencing many more elections. But it is galling to let the racism just lie there uncontested. But, you also don't want your last communication with them to have been a fight. 4/8
My tongue "bleeds from biting it" during family visits. I find what should be a pleasant interaction with family turns into something horrifically stressful. I recoil in horror from what these people carry around as truth in their heads. 5/8
How can smart people be so racist and ignorant? I know, it's the time they grew up in. I know, thinking and understanding have changed. But my Dad would be 105 now and he wasn't racist. I don't think racism can be entirely blamed on age. 6/8
There are quite young racists active on Twitter now. They don't have the excuse of being born in a "different time". It must be more to do with education and socialisation. 7/8
We have to start doing a better job of both, something the conservative provincial governments are making more difficult all the time. And that is probably their goal. One of their goals, anyway. 8/8
