Seems like everyone’s protesting “systemic” problems and yet no one’s willing to suggest that the existence of the system or its generalized mentality of violent dominance and incessant threats might be the problem (unless it affects “racialized” people, of course).

The word “racialized” has been popping up lately like early summer blooms in response to the ongoing protests by Black Lives Matter and similar groups. This is, of course, as it should be because racism and slavery and etc.

But not many people outside of those who sling language around for a living are aware of what the term “racialized” actually means.

So here’s the definition:

In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is the process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such.

This is the definition that Wikipedia has but, as everyone knows, it’s not an entirely trustworthy source. Perhaps Merriam-Webster’s definition would be more accurate since they’ve demonstrated a sensitivity to the black person’s plight when they updated their definition of “racism” because one person complained:

the act or process of imbuing a person with a consciousness of race distinctions or of giving a racial character to something or making it serve racist ends

After pandering in the same way to white people for years now (I can’t be bothered to include links because there are just so many examples), it is of course right and correct that language be altered at the drop of a hat to match the demands of a single complainant because racism and slavery and etc.

But I digress.

Essentially, using the most woke and accurate definition, “racialized” groups such as black people never had an identity, may not even have realized that they were black, until the evil white man pointed the finger at them and told them they were different.

This could be interpreted as stating that the nasty Caucasian was directly responsible for creating what could be called “Black culture” today but, of course, such an interpretation would be wrong because racism and slavery and etc.

Mind you, people misuse language all the time and this is understandable since most of them are hardly professionals in the field. Even someone who regularly writes, albeit non-professionally, I too misuse words like “privilege”, believing it to mean something other than “white”. It’s been my privilege to help you? I don’t think so, racist!

So let’s see how the term “racialized” is used in its proper context by someone like Shree Paradkar, the Toronto Star’s Race & Gender Columnist:

They [politicians] also dismiss and contemporary manifestations of it [historical racism] — prioritizing colonial profit over Indigenous rights in their territories, immigration laws that sort and sift non-white humans for worthiness to enter Canada, placing impoverished and racialized people in the path of a pandemic. We don’t need a conspiracy; the system does it for us.

This is actually a wonderful example of how racialized people didn’t know that they were any different from white people, who also can’t be poor and face no barriers, until those same racist (i.e. white) assholes made them realize their own differences by systemically discriminating against them.

Moreover:

Colour blindness is privilege and erasure. It means you’re not discriminated against based on the colour of your skin.

There may at this point be some confusion in the reader’s mind about who is doing the “racializing” here — if whitey is “colour blind” you might be tempted to think that it’s parts of the community that’s doing it to themselves but you’d be wrong because racism and slavery and etc.

And really, having never experienced discrimination, how could white people be expected to understand the struggles of black people? That doesn’t mean that white people don’t complain about being the targets of racism but often can’t point to specific personal examples so, let’s be honest and call it for what it is: a bunch of bullshit.

In a recent article, the Toronto Star’s Royson James spells it out in no uncertain terms:

My chiropractor used up 20 per cent of our visit talking about racism. And I think, by the end, he understood that my reality as a Black person — Jamaica-born, Toronto-lived, American-schooled, Africa-disconnected — is so blessed and cursed by Western “privilege” as to render me asymptomatic.

I must work hard all the time to fully grasp the reality of the average Black person. Imagine, then, if you don’t even share the designated melanin content required to have built up a reservoir of common personal experiences.

Here Royson bravely admits that he lives the life of Western “privilege” (which is in quotations because, for obvious reasons, it can’t fully apply to him), and must “work hard” to understand what it’s like to be a black / racialized person living in our racist society.

He goes on to clarify this position by stating:

There are many kinds of Black people, including some who are not “Black” at all. They didn’t get the memo. Born into unusual privilege or endowed with special powers to see past obstacles has rendered them seemingly immune to the racism virus. They swim along, upstream, yes, but unfettered.

In other words, while many black people are never faced with, or are able to ignore the seemingly insurmountable obstacles placed in front of them, they do so without anything holding them back (unfettered / immune to racism), while simultaneously being held back (swimming upstream / obstacles). They didn’t get the memo that they too should be complaining about the oppression of people like them, except of course not like them because they’re not “‘Black’ at all”.

If this seems a little contradictory, Royson goes on to explain:

Even the ones [blacks] who don’t [know that white supremacy requires a denial of black humanity to thrive], understand it and compensate for it on subconscious levels. They compensate by overachieving, underachieving, denying the effects, not giving a damn, or becoming consumed with rage.

To paraphrase, even so-called “privileged” black people understand the mechanisms propping up white supremacy, even if they don’t know that they understand, and compensate for this unknowing comprehension by doing too much, or too little, or just enough, or caring too much, or not caring at all, or every shade of possibility in between. Basically anything and everything, which makes sense considering that black people are all unique individuals, unlike mushy, homogeneous white people who can all safely be lumped into the same category.

The important thing is that black people should always be perceiving themselves through the lens of white racism if they want to perceive the truth.

If this seems like an odd statement that’s probably because you’re incapable of getting it due to your lack of “designated melanin” or, if you do have the legally required amount of tanned skin, because you’re too privileged.

Royson laments the terrible situation that this puts black parents and their kids in:

Black parents must decide early which road to travel. Do you teach your kids that the world is a horrible place for most Black people? Or totally ignore it and just let the kids grow up in blissful ignorance? Be “Canadian” — don’t use an African-sounding name, integrate, no visits to the homeland?

Each decision carries with it a price. Many families bear scars from children still angry with immigrant parents for downplaying their African ancestry — even as parents scream, “I just want you to do better than me. And stay alive.”

The exclusive choice of terrifying your children by filling their heads with fear of whitey, or allowing them to live in “blissful ignorance” of their heritage, is a gut-wrenching one. On the one hand you risk creating a prejudicial stigma justified anxiety in your kids, on the other you risk their wrath because they would’ve liked to know more about where they come from. Such a stark choice … what’s a racialized parent to do?

And you have to frighten your kids if they’re black. Despite the fact that in the US about twice as many white people are consistently killed by cops as black people, children must be taught that because they’re black the exact opposite is true.

The narrative created by the preceding statistical “facts” must be discarded because only the rates of killing are relevant. In other words, if you’re black your chances of being killed, proportional to the size of your racial group, are higher than other groups. The actual number of people killed, however, is more or less irrelevant.

That is, unless you’re a white supremacist whose counter-argument requires a good bit of hateful, reality-bending, racist math. The shockingly bigoted theory goes like this:

Imagine you have two towns. In town A there are only four residents, two black people and two white people. One of those white people is, of course, a racist murderer. In town B there are a hundred people, fifty of whom are black and fifty white. Again, one of the white group is a racist murderer. Naturally.

Now the racist murderers get to work. In town A the killer murders 1 black man. In town B, the murderer there kills 10 black men. Ten people dead is clearly worse than one person dead; seems cut and dry, says the hateful racist math guy — but not so fast!

If we consider the rates of killings, says ignorant whitey, the situation is flipped on its head. In town A where only 2 people were black, the murder rate is 50% (1 out of the 2 was killed), whereas in the town where 50 people were black the murder rate is 20% (10 out of 50 were killed).

Using this mathematical approach, says the fascist cracker, it appears that the 1 death in town A is much worse than the 10 deaths in town B since 50% is noticeably larger than 20%

In reality, argues the Klansman, the actual cost in individual humans lives is far greater in town B where the murder rate is only 20% but the use of murder rates masks, and in this example actually inverts, the reality of the tragedy. And just like this example, claims the hate-monger, the reality of individual human lives lost is the exact opposite of the current mainstream narrative.

By this insane logic, if the number of killings stayed the same but the population doubled, the murder rate would effectively be cut in half.

Except this can’t possibly be true because how could black people be so angry if this was the case? Argue your way out of that one, Hitler!

Anyway, Royson goes on to close his cutting exposition by relating a personal story of systemic racism:

“I remember being in the back seat of the car on what seemed like a regular day, then sirens rang out. In an instant, complete with change in demeanour, in a firm tone my dad said to me:

“Hey … look … LOOK AT ME. OK? … Pay attention. This is how you need to act when you get pulled over by the police. Turn off the radio. BOTH hands on the steering wheel at all times. Answer his questions, clearly and directly. With confidence, but not too much confidence as to not show him up. And whatever you do, no sudden movements.”

Can you imagine being pulled over by the police and having your father fly into a hysterical fit because he can immediately sense a murderous and racist interaction? I know I can’t, but that’s most likely because my white privilege means that I didn’t have fear of people of a certain skin colour constantly pounded into my psyche.

Or no, wait, actually it’s because fear of people of a certain skin colour has been pounded into my psyche than I’m terrified of black men. Yeah. So the same could never be said to apply to any non-white people because, of course, racism and slavery and etc.

Royson doesn’t relate the race of the police in question or how the encounter ended but judging by the tone of the article either he or his dad were brutalized and possibly murdered by the obviously racist white cop.

This narrative is advanced by a subsequent article that Royson wrote about a black personal support worker (PSW) who was given the runaround when he came down with Covid-19 and eventually died.

It’s important to understand here that receiving conflicting medical advice, having to cope with a lack of personal protective equipment, and not receiving adequate medical attention are predominantly black problems. In the words of the anguished family members, “now we see how they treat black people.”

The horrific story of Leonard Rodriques was highlighted by every major newspaper, mentioned in a speech by Premiere Doug Ford, and broadcast by G98.7 FM in Toronto, thus demonstrating the abhorrent treatment of a black man who “died in anonymity”, “lonely” and surrounded by family, known only as “personal support worker victim number 5”. Not like the other four PSWs, whoever they were.

Although there’s (still!) a lack of direct statistical evidence, it’s clear that statistically black people are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. This, my ignorant friend, is why white people congregating in a park is irresponsible while black people congregating for a protest isn’t. The number of lives lost to Covid is nothing compared to those taken by police violence. And comparing the two is bullshit anyway because statistics that don’t support the anti-black racism narrative are irrelevant when even a single black person feels fear or unease. Fact!

Royson draws the obvious conclusion that Leonard represents the targeted assassination of a black man which, by extension, hints at the veiled murderous intentions of the system against all black people everywhere:

He had a visceral fear that white people meant him no good, that if he went to the hospital he would not get proper care. He had seen enough movies and videos and news reports of the treatment of Black people in the U.S. during COVID and before.

…

“He was paranoid, yes,” admits Dorothy. But this is also his reality, in 2020 Toronto.

In America, a Black man can be targeted for wearing a mask, murdered while jogging or for driving a car. Or shot to death, daring to resist a citizen arrest.

The layers accumulate there and here. So, maybe Len was paranoid. But the most paranoid of posters does read: “Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they are not out to get you.”

Royson generously includes an aside about the dangers faced by PSWs in general but thankfully manages to steer the ship back to the deluge of anti-black racism.

My own privileged white bias is revealed here when I think of the numerous PSWs that have attended to Sarah over the years. They looked and self-identified primarily as Filipino or East Asian but clearly that wasn’t the case because racism and slavery and etc.

Thankfully, the incessant beating of the anti-black racism drum is not limited to just Royson James. Not by a long shot.

A story by Leanne Delap recounts the harrowing experiences of a black woman, Doctor Liza Egbogah, who endured unbearable racism while shopping for everyday things, shit we white people take for granted:

I was maybe 20 or 22 the first time I got a Chanel bag. I was obsessed with Chanel. We were in Florida and my dad said, ‘You’ve been talking about this Chanel for so long, let’s go buy you a bag.’ Now, I don’t think he understood what a Chanel bag was, but he was like, ‘OK, well, we’ll get it for you.’ When I would carry that bag, people would outright just ask me, ‘Is that fake?” There was just no way in their mind that a Black girl could have a real one. I had Chanel costume earrings, too, and people would assume those were fake as well.

My fellow white devils, can you imagine the sheer audacity of someone asking you if some luxury good you’ve recently purchased is real?! And even if that did happen (yeah, as if), how good would it feel if you could psychically access your accuser’s mind to preemptively judge the derisive thoughts they were thinking about you? Huh? Yeah, let that one percolate for a bit, racist.

If only this tale of awful anti-black hate ended there:

Fast-forward 10 years to 2010 and that’s when I said to myself, ‘Oh you know what, I’ve worked very hard, I’m going to treat myself to a (fancy designer) bag. I had been in practice for a few years by then and I was all excited. I thought that trip to Bloor Street would be a reflection of all my hard work. I expected champagne to be poured!

Spending $3,000 of your own hard-earned money on a bag is a huge deal. What did I get? No smile, a look like possibly I’m lost. No one wanted to help me. I wanted to walk out — this was supposed to be a celebratory experience, a treat to myself, and I felt like a suspect.

This egregious example is really a whole new level of evil. For starters, Liza’s expectations of champagne were unfulfilled. Didn’t they know that she was expecting it? Didn’t they know she was celebrating? Couldn’t they read her mind like she could read theirs? Outrageous!

I suppose it might be suggested that Liza’s expectations were set by the experiences of friends or family, maybe online reviews, but that doesn’t negate the fact that she had a horrible customer experience. And she’s black. Therefore racism and slavery and etc.

After all, it’s not like any white person has ever experienced dismissive, ignorant, or rude sales staff. No, never happens. Ever.

Donning her brave girl pants, Liza did what any person of colour would do when confronted with such burning hate:

… I stood my ground and I told them the bag I wanted. They swiped my card and put it in the bag. I knew they were supposed to put the special sticker on the bag, and finish it up with a flourish and a ribbon. It’s a small thing, but I wanted the full, normal treatment. I had to ask for the sales associate to put on the ribbon and the sticker.

I left feeling so deflated, after I had built up this big experience in my head.

No champagne! No sticker! No ribbon! WHERE THE FUCK DOES THIS RACIST SHIT END?!?!?!?!?

Sorry, it’s so easy to get carried away. It’s just that rich black people with a whole article dedicated to their experience in a national publication have, basically, no voice or recourse in the midst of this sort of shameful bigotry. As Liza sums up:

I want to show them they don’t deserve my money if they don’t treat me with respect. Ever since then, I’ve bought everything in Toronto online, so I don’t have to deal with uncomfortable experiences. I travel a lot, so I make my big purchases in New York or Miami, where I get great service. I guess in those places they are used to seeing more Black people with money. And yes, I finally got my champagne.

Now I can’t personally vouch for the sales service in New York or Miami, but it’s nice to see rich black people finally getting a flute of champagne and a bow on their purchases, just like the ubiquitously wonderful sales service all us Caucasians receive.

As soon as I have more than $10 per week to spend on my privileged white lifestyle of wantonly blowing cash on luxury goods like food (for two people and a cat), I have no doubt that I’ll be able to confirm this state of affairs.

I mean, I often seem to receive shitty customer service but obviously that can’t be the case, just like my experiences with poverty and history of being directly refused jobs, opportunities, and support because of the colour of my skin. All lies and exaggerations, incidentally, and irrelevant anyway because I’m white.

In fact, the unchecked threats of physical violence, racist insults, and police encounters I claim to have experienced on the streets of Toronto (all lies and exaggerations, of course), pale in comparison to someone like Liza — no champagne, no bow; there are no words for this sort of hate except maybe “No justice, no peace”.

It’s no wonder that literally every major newspaper, most large corporations, TV and radio stations, the Toronto police, and local / provincial / federal governments are all in lockstep with the anti-black racism movement. This is, quite obviously, systemic racism against black people and has been thus for decades, not the other way around as some deluded white supremacists might suggest. Obviously.

So it’s refreshing when writers with a national platform like Shree Paradkar call out white “Covidiots” for their callous disregard for public safety over the May Two-Four weekend while simultaneously pointing out that “Had that been a sea of Black and brown folks, we’d be having a very different conversation today”. With the mass protests against anti-black racism, we have been blessed with the opportunity to see that indeed the conversation is very different. Note, for example, how many examples one finds in the mainstream media criticizing the BLM protests for not practicing social distancing and endangering society at large; the variety is truly dizzying. Now try to find a single positive, supportive article; good luck!

Shree should also be praised for taking up the mantle of exposing toxic masculinity, another topic that would otherwise be relegated to a dusty corner because no one is talking about it. So original. So brave.

I’ve learned that because I’m a white middle-aged man I’m literally evil incarnate, full of destructive and uncontrollable rage and racism.

I’ve also learned that any uncomfortable encounter between a white person and a black person necessarily implies white supremacy, a burning desire for the black person to “Just work on the plantations, dammit.”

When a “Karen” (an umbrella — but definitely not racist — term for a vocal white woman), complains about a black person’s behaviour to the cops, it couldn’t possibly be because of the frustration of perceived disparity between how laws are enforced (unless those laws target black people, of course), it must be because she wishes she had slaves picking her cotton crop.

Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know this “Karen” but I don’t need to because she’s white. Therefore racist. Case closed.

As a lesson for all us white devils, Shree quotes a black University of Toronto professor:

First of all I’m not interested in you asking me how I’m doing, I’m interested in you telling me what you’re going to do about the impact of what I’m experiencing right now.

Got it? You might think that you had no hand in creating the problems that black people are experiencing but, in reality, you’re 100% culpable. Yeah, your skin colour makes you a vicious anti-black criminal, even if no one can point out any actual examples of this abhorrent behaviour by you personally. In fact, if you’re white and not constantly denigrating and belittling yourself for not supporting your continuing denigration and belittling, you’re a racist. You might also want to show your respect for a black man whose life was cut short when an officer kneeled on his neck by kneeling in the same way. It’s a very thoughtful gesture, especially if you’re white.

But have no doubt, if you’re a hateful, violent, oppressive man you’re also a heartless rapist (you want to rape even if you don’t have the balls to go through with it), and subsequently the source of all the world’s ills. If only someone was talking about this topic and not constantly preaching how amazing and righteous men are. Down with the patriarchy! #MeToo

Identify as heterosexual? Fuck you, you auto-celebrated, auto-protected and auto-privileged asshole.

If you happen to be a privileged, middle-aged, cisnormative white man in today’s society, it’s literally everywhere that your hateful, misogynistic, homophobic existence is being promoted to the detriment of everyone else. Oh, you have a differing opinion? Got some information and “facts” that contradict the “status quo”? Well cry me a river and SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BELLOWING, DOMINEERING ASSHOLE!! FUCK YOU FOR BEING BORN YOU!!! FUCK YOU FOR EXISTING!!!! FUCK EVERYONE WHO SHARES YOUR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS!!!!!

Ugh, got carried away again. So easy when you’re confronted with the overbearing and derisive screams of a racist patriarchy (i.e. all white men everywhere).

Now imagine how a black person feels, because racism and slavery and etc.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what future generations might think of this age and its people. How will they try explain some of this era’s unusual social phenomena, the strange trends, the bizarre departures from what would more soberly be recognized as common sense?

One thing I know for sure is that enlightened historians of the future will understand that most of the mainstream media is the source of fake news and propaganda while stout stalwarts like Toronto City Life are unwavering bedrock of veracity and accuracy. It is thus my duty to inform future generations of the truth of what we in the current time call “modernity”.

So in this spirit I would like to approach relatively recent trend, the Covid pots & pan salute that’s often represented as a celebration of human tenacity and defiance in the face of the global pandemic.

On this matter the mainstream analysis could not be further from the truth.

Consider, for example, that the nightly cacophony (7:30 to 7:35 in my neighbourhood), is supposed to be directed primarily at healthcare workers.

Clearly this cannot be the case since most such workers are shut up in hospitals or trying to get some shut-eye from what are presumably grueling schedules, which would make loud noise among the worst ways to show appreciation.

The truth of the matter, as told from the first-hand experiences of a contemporary person, is that these clamorous rituals are intended to drive the evil spirits of the Covidae away from people’s homes.

It is widely believed that these malicious spirits come shortly after sunset and so the loud sounds and jubilant cheers are raised to disperse them prior to retiring for the evening.

In this way, says the superstition, the Covidae are swept away by the evening breeze and lose their way in the darkness of the night.

Of course this is preposterous to many a right-thinking person but the curious phenomenon exists nevertheless. Hopefully future analysis will yield a deeper understanding of this unusual shared delusion.

Being perennially broke I often shred newspapers for my cat to relieve herself on. Unfortunately, almost all of the mainstream media has become so toxic that I’m afraid that it’s no longer suitable for even this purpose.

Basking in brilliance, a.k.a. bummin’ around the barroom

^{Barrio Cerveceria}

Riverdale Park might just be the prefect place to surreptitiously get rid of some of that incriminating infant paraphernalia.

Maybe it’s just writer’s street corner?

poignant protected plaster

ghosts and silent schoolyards

a bicycle built for none, daisy’s rung her last bell