Louder than a thousand words: Race, reactions and speaking from the heart
A picture can speak louder than a thousand words.
The irony of this isn't lost on me as I lyrically transmit my thoughts on the various shades (pun intended) of our political leaders that have emerged over the course of this federal election campaign.
In one instance, the pot was calling the kettle black. In another, an emotion that echoed from coast to coast to coast rang through loud and clear.
Honestly, it's a lot to process. A matter of hours after Justin Trudeau's handsome face splashed all over the news covered in a shade we aren't accustomed to, I was asked to provide my thoughts on various platforms.
On CBC Radio's CrossTalk, where I was a guest, I sat, my patience tested, hearing things like "Imitation is the best form of flattery" and "I dressed up as an Indian, there was no racism there." A problem so deep in this part of the world, that many weren't even awake to the systemic racism and oppression that they had been accomplice to.
As I write this piece, I struggle whether it's my job to explain why this is a problem to people who don't share the same shade of skin as me — or simply state my perspective.
Words have power. That is undeniable. And with nearly 700 words I'm going to attempt to simply write, with abandon. I'll start with the truth. I owe that to you.
Moving forward?
I wasn't surprised by what Time had published. I had heard that this is something that coloured (pun intended) childhood memories for many people — regardless of the melanin content of their skin — growing up in this part of the world.
Dressing up as "Indians" (and not my kind, by the way), painting faces brown and black to portray their favourite comic characters, not that there were many that appeared that shade, was as accepted as the adage that a woman's place was in the kitchen.
I didn't have the same gut reaction that melanin-rich Canadians born and raised here would probably have.
So, is it fair to ask a group of people to "move on" from a core part of their life simply because it didn't affect one of us in the same manner?
So I understand why fellow brown immigrants dismissed this event asking us to get on with life and focus on real issues. Perhaps, just like me, other first-generation immigrants didn't experience the anger, the violence and the pain that many did growing up here as they walked down school corridors or in the playground, at university bars and dark alleyways.
My heart goes out to the ones who walked into parties to have their white friends' coloured faces stare back at them.
Reminding them of the racism and oppression that goes behind such an act, reminding them that black and brown people weren't allowed to act (on stage, film and TV) — and were caricatured and mocked because they pronounced words differently or because they wore a bindi on their forehead, or a turban completed them — or the fact that their clothes had been turned into "costumes."
Is it fair to ask a group of people to "move on" from a core part of their life simply because it didn't affect one of us in the same manner?
Racism has evolved
The route that Canadian politics is taking isn't a pretty sight. The chatter is filled with phrases like "We're not like the States" — or — "Trump and Boris cannot happen here." A closer look will perhaps reveal that it already happened.
Decades ago.
The difference is that today we speak about it. Racism has evolved and is not as apparent as brown/blackfacing. But it is as real as the cellphone or computer screen that carries my words to you.
I'll end with this little factoid: In earlier texts, including the most popular version of the late Victorian era, Aladdin's origins aren't the fictitious Agrabah but "all the lands of China."
So, thanks to Disney, Justin Trudeau's Aladdin was dark brown-faced and wore a turban.
I can't help but wonder how all of this would unfold if history had better revealed Aladdin's true identity.
That's right, folks. Aladdin could very well have been East Asian.
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