Critical Race Theory from a Canadian’s Point of View
CRT is a framework that is taught in our schools to our kids. Its most basic claim is that racism is baked into every social, economic and political systems. Proponents of CRT believe it will help the downtrodden by leveling the playing fields through state and federal level legislations. It reminds me a lot like affirmative action which looked to reverse racism; whether it helped or not is still unclear. To me; what we need is unity, not fear-mongering by segregation or victimization. And so far, that’s all it’s done.
To better understand CRT, we must first define what race is. Race is a social construct that was invented during colonialism. Its main purpose is to separate people by physical features such as skin color, eyes, nose, height, weight, etc. Racism is defined as something like: physical features equating moral qualities. For example, why are Jamaicans always at the top of the podium? Does it mean that having fast twitch muscles make you morally superior to your fellow man? Well, it does in certain domains, like being able to run the 100 meter dash in under 10 seconds. But this leads to the categorization problem. It’s creepy to categorize, to group, to sort; because we are man, we are not machine. Another way to think about the categorization problem is: What divides us is not merely physical, “Not by the colour of our skin, but by the content of our character.”
Adolf Hitler was an average level art student who rose to power through ideologies of demented men. That, “The German people are the superior race, and we will prove it!” Society went into formation, triangulating and pushing a leader to the top of the political hierarchy. And we all know how that turned out. Is the blame to be put on a single man or the entire group that supported this infrastructure? How do you punish the entire group? Do you “broadstroke” them as a whole with everyone getting the same punishment? That’s why the group cannot suffer, that’s why only the individual suffers. I recently asked ChatGPT, “How do we prevent another Hitler from rising to power?” It said, “We must remain vigilant and put into place government-led social systems and infrastructures that would prevent messages like his from spreading.” Yeah, sorta like how Hitler started gathering his followers in small bars and restaurants. Good luck trying to mandate that!
From pushing people out to bringing people in, our borders are now wide open. Every year Canada immigrates 400,000 people into the country. Mainly intact families from countries south of the equator, a large proportion of them being Christians. As our boomers move on, we are replacing our population at a rate never seen before. So Canada can stay on top of the economic race, and leave behind something better for future generations. And not just dead carcasses, stripped of all its meat — left behind with nothing but bones.
Growing up a visible minority in small town in Ontario has given me many advantages. For example; the dichotomy between being from a household with eastern values to western culture; from a small village in Vietnam to a metropolis in GTA; and from reading and writing with pen and paper to coding and programming with machine. I’ve always had an outsider’s point of view — sorta like a fan watching a sports game from the bleachers. There’s an old Christian song that goes, “red, brown, yellow, black and white,” which is meant to represent the entire human race. Imagine these 5 colours of the globe individually placed as pentagons on a soccer ball — a giant soccer ball flying through space. To me, race is like a big game of FIFA in stadiums the size of galaxies. Root for your favorite team, whoever they may be; you decide on which ones you want to align yourself with. But your team goes beyond just skin deep. These tribes go beyond the realm of race, or ethnicity, or nationality. Into the domain of male and female; good and evil; and perhaps, gods and demons.
From man to machine: we went from atoms to fish to apes to humans, and now towards something metallic. We are moving away from social and biological identities; towards a place where you can be whatever you want to be. That which leads to the greatest flourishing of human life is rapidly changing as we redefine what it means to be human. And as we move towards machine, the ones that come after us, we shall call them gods.
And I think this is a good place to stop and perhaps pick up in our next conversation. I want to leave you with a quote by Viktor Frankl; brace yourself, ’cause it’s about to get biblical up in here:
“Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz. However, he is also that being who entered those chambers, upright, and with the lord’s prayer on his lips.”
Love you guys. — Van
