This defacement is right along the Can-American Party line, so it took me a while to figure out why it bothered me so much. Having battled with self-crucifying (literally) conceptual/performance-"artist" types in college, and having become the lucky recipient of a lifetime supply of Kool Aid in graduate school, I should have been more immune to this sort of thing than a hooker to AIDS.
In a way, these pictures -- too coordinated not to be a school project -- are a visual reminder of all the jaw-dropping things I have come across in Ontario for the past few years. At York University, for instance, students receive the equivalent of a Soviet degree in Philosophy (Marxism) but with less cramming and more field work: the Anti-Racism Certificate is "ideal for individuals who encounter racial or cultural issues as part of their job and for those who are engaged in anti-racism research, education or organizational development." Seriously?
Not to be outdone, a bookstore, which carries many texts assigned by professors from the University of Toronto, offers a "white guilt" workshop for those wanting to engage in the denunciation and apology ritual, so popular today (and in the 1930s).
Another woman described her torment when a friend asked her to give a presentation about media arts to a group of black students -- an exercise that would have made a spectacle of her white privilege. "Should I say yes? Or is it my responsibility to say no?" she said. "But then [my friend] may say, 'I want you to do it -- because you have a particular approach ...'While we are on the subject of the academia, I must also note that I operate under a number of constraints, as I post this blog: I am currently writing my dissertation. Let's just say that when I called my father for advice regarding my recent bureaucratic adventures with donoschiki, he was not surprised one bit.
"But wait! Could it be that the reason I have that 'particular approach' is that I've been raised to think that I could have that particular approach, that I have the ability, that I am able to access education in a particular way? All these things are in my head, in my heart, not really knowing how to respond. On the other hand, I also recognize that the person asking me has the agency to decide that I'm the right person ... so I say yes! ... But then I'm still thinking 'I don't know if I did the right thing.' I still struggle with this all the time ...
"That is what they used to do to people in the Soviet Union."
That's a really good sign, dad.
(As the Soviet Union was in its final death throes, and I was receiving foot-long cans of expired spam as humanitarian aid through my school, my parents decided it was time to go. They moved to Canada with nothing but their education and professional experience, and are thus shining examples of "white privilege" indeed.)
Ontario apparatchiki have no need to conceal their agenda. For instance, in 2005, Corrections Canada had an explicit policy of rejecting applicants of European descent.
Please be advised that effective immediately the Ontario region of the Correctional Service of Canada is no longer maintaining an inventory for parole officer applications from the general public," the Feb. 19 letter reads.Unsurprisingly, there was little outrage in mainstream Pravda or the public.
Due to staffing resources we will continue to accept applications from aboriginal and visible-minority candidates only.
Things are not much better in the private sector. When I entered the work force, the Christmas tree had already become the "Holiday Tree." In the past few years, however, I've seen it turn progressively more abstract and finally get removed from branding altogether. I am glad that corporate North America has been able to find common ground with fundamentalist Islam.
Of course, corporations are not entirely aniconic: we are all familiar with the Friendship of the Peoples Inc. brand standard (you know, happy, smiling whites, blacks, and Asians living together -- what the mural's defacement did not resemble.) However, in the past, one of my employers had given us explicit instructions to exclude "older white males" for certain company publications. This instruction obviously contradicted the typical corporate inclusionary policy, being ageist, racist, and sexist by its very own standards. But, the men never complained, though it bothered them (I asked).
I understand. They were busy making a living, only to pay 42 percent of it to the government in sales and income taxes, which their elected representatives then spent on policies discriminating against them.
What else can I expect from the country, whose Governor General -- the Queens's representative -- has been attempting to expand the lyrics of the Canadian anthem from "true patriot love in all thy sons command" to be more politically correct? Next on the agenda is changing "our home and native land" to "we stole the Natives' land." I made that last part up. Of course, as was pointed out recently, political correctness is no laughing matter!
I suppose, when I saw the defacement, I was most irritated by the fact that contemporary North American culture is not about building something new -- like the curious architectural blend of the mid-19th century University College -- or, at least, replicating something grand -- like Michelangelo's sibyls, but about destroying both the former and the latter and being pretty damn proud of it.
