It’s Worth a Conversation

Last year I read an article about a vanity plate that stirred up some controversy in Manitoba. Short version, a Star Trek fan bought a vanity plate with the text “ASIMIL8" and was ordered to remove it because of the negative connotations to indigenous communities. He lost his appeal to get it back last fall.

At the time I tweeted that I thought it was stupid because no one was considering the context. It wasn’t derogatory or targeted at indigenous people, the guy was just a Star Trek fan.

An acquaintance of mine replied, asking me to see the perspective of what that term meant for indigenous people, and that changed my mind.

I thought about what’s worse; A fan who can’t display his fandom in one of a thousand ways, or leave in place something, in this case, the license plate that is a constant reminder of what indigenous people have endured?

This week we celebrated Canada Day, and as usual, I accidentally clicked on ‘twitter trending’ and saw #CancelCanadaDay trending. We had a few people in our social bubble over and chatted about it, more specifically about the Canadian flag.

For some, changing the flag because of some perceived ‘overly sensitive people’ is moronic.

For others, the flag is a reminder that this country was taken away from its rightful owners, who are still marginalized, unfairly treated, targeted, and murdered.

Both sides of that argument incite extreme emotion, which isn’t what I want to accomplish here. I know people on both sides of this argument; some can be swayed with a conversation, others accuse me of spreading hate just because I don’t agree with them.

The more we chatted, the more I started thinking about what ‘the flag’ means to me. I don’t want to get into why I love this country which includes acknowledging our dark past, marginalized communities, and all the problems we have and will always have. But I do love this country. It’s given me a home, family, safety, security, and free passage anywhere in the world.

What I want to accomplish here to help people realize that what is stupid to some is someone else’s source of pain, and it’s worth a conversation.

Should we change our flag?

I say, why not have the conversation?

It’s a flag. It’s a symbol, and that symbol should mean inclusiveness to everyone who lives here. What it looks like is less important than what it represents.

Having a conversation about changing the flag doesn’t make you less patriotic if anything, it makes you more patriotic. It marks a point in our history when we made a conscious choice to accept our past and do one small thing to continue reconciling it. It’s not going to solve all of our problems, but it does start to shift how we think about our country and what it means to be Canadian.

I would much rather have my kids living in a world not where we are treated equally out of some politically correct obligation, but that we can co-exist by understanding and respecting our differences.

Issues like this will always polarize the country and I’m not going to tell you what you should do to change, here’s how I’ve changed.

I ask myself, what am I losing if “minority group X” gets a new scholarship program and no one creates one for middle-aged, middle-class white males like me?

Answer? Nothing.

Yeah, but what if that means one of my child can’t get a spot in a school because it was given to a minority because of some program.?

Answer? My kids are white, every day people drive up to our house and just give them money because they’re white. BTW, that was a joke, what I really mean is for ONE opportunity taken away by a social program for my kids, there are still THOUSANDS more. ONE opportunity NOT given to a marginalized group means there are no other opportunities for them.

What am I losing if we decide to let the first indigenous tribe, which I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know much about indigenous history, redesign our flag as a symbol of apology and inclusiveness? (Obvious followed up with more action…I shouldn’t have to say this, but solitary token actions aren’t the be-all-end-all, they’re one small step.

Answer? Nothing. Other than spending some loot buying new flags.

What am I losing if the homeless people, drug addicts, and mental health patients that live in my town get a care facility created and free housing?

Answer? Nothing. Well, maybe a bit more in taxes.

If those are the biggest things I have to complain about, I should probably shut the fuck up.

This is the most Canadian thing ever, but sorry if this preachy and sorry for being sweary-mc-swear-face. I support and will always support marginalized people who are not afforded the same benefit of the doubt that I get as a white, middle-aged, middle-class male.

It’s at least worth a conversation.