Discrimination, I imagine, looks different to everyone depending on where they’re coming from. It’s relative: the discrimination happening to me always looks worse than the discrimination happening to you.
The government of Canada recognizes me as a visible minority, which is kind of funny. I look “white”**. I am white (half). I hesitate to say I act white, because I don’t think there’s such a way to act (and please see the footnote). But I was born and grew up in Canada. My attitudes and way of looking at the world were pretty much standard in comparison with my classmates. That’s how white I act. But the government says that because my father is ethnically Indian (like, from India … even though he’s never been there) his children will be acknowledged to be “visible minorities” as well. Sure. Fine. But I can still pass as white.***
So I’ve never encountered any racism directed at me before. I’ve encountered some racism directed at Indians or “mixed” people before, but upon revealing my ethnicity, the offender in question has always backed off, looking shocked at they weren’t talking to, you know, one of them. Most recently I was on the receiving end of a lovely comment what went something like, “&%$#ing brown people – they’re always so ____” until I coughed and pointed out that I’m half Indian to get him to shut up, at which point the he corrected himself and said he was mostly talking about “&%$#ing Pakis” anyway. Incidentally, that was not less offensive. I don’t think. Like I said, I encounter almost no racism directed at me.
I’m not going to count the racism directed at white people I’ve encountered because white is the majority here, and I don’t think that racism does as much damage as the other kind, though I could be wrong. It still separates us.
The most bit of discrimination I get directed at me either directly or indirectly is sexism. And yes, to me it feels like it must be the worse kind of discrimination out there. Maybe it is. But I’m probably in no position to make that call if that’s the only one I experience.
Last summer, however, I was suddenly privy to another form of discrimination: Ableism, which Wikipedia describes as a form of discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities.
You see, I broke my foot. It was stupid – I misjudged where the stair banister was and kicked it quite hard in my attempt to step past it. The lighting was okay, I was completely sober. It was a stupid, stupid accident. I tell you this because no one bought my story about saving orphans from a fire…
