Move on up!

When my dad first came to Canada in 1973 he was treated horribly. Racism was more overt and in your face. He could not get a decent apartment and bus drivers would just drive past him if he was the only one waiting at the bus stop in the freezing cold. This hurts me because my dad is one of the most amazing people in the whole entire universe (yes I'm a daddy's girl). He is so intelligent, so wise, so kind, so gentle, so giving and so compassionate and he didn't deserve that.

For victims of racism there is no honey moon phase in the acculturation process. It's more like a slap in the face that keeps on slapping. My dad has been living in Montreal for 40 years now and he still calls Trinidad home and has never called Montreal home. There is only one reason for that: it's racism.

Yesterday some classmates spoke about stereotype threat and the examples of stereotypes that were used where that: African Americans are lazy and that African Americans are not intelligent. I wondered to myself when is it no longer considered a stereotype and called by it's true name: RACISM. Those stereotypes all stem from racism, it's pretty obvious to me. Blacks are not allotted the nice stereotypes like being shy or good in math for instance. It's usually about violence, crime or being lazy and dumb. So sad because it doesn't reflect reality. To tell you the truth, many blacks that I know work 3 TIMES harder than their non black counterparts to prove that they are NOT LAZY AND STUPID. Many of them have the burden of their ancestors who fought for freedom, the right to be educated and work and take their future much more seriously than many non-blacks.

Yeah, I really hate stereotypes. They bother me a lot! We are all so incredibly unique and cannot be boxed into ONE label...when will this fade away? I hope that my children will not have to deal with this, but then again they will be part of a new culture of multi-cultural hard to box in people..lol! Much harder than I am to box in. They will be that check box that says OTHER :) which is kind of liberating.

My dad told me that one of the little things that got him through the hardships was listening to the song enclosed which I listen to almost every day, it's: Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield, this song is so incredibly good...enjoy!

LISTEN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z66wVo7uNw