Read it before listening to my rant.
Canadian Universities are welcoming institutions. Having recently travelled three continents I can tell you that the cultural environment here is much, much better than many other places in this world.
A brown guy at Trent complained that he was the "only brown person in class" and therefore he felt excluded. As if we have a duty to accommodate by artificially modifying the racial make-up of classes to make certain groups feel more welcomed. At Queen's people complain about 'white privilege', going as far as to say permeated the "walls, books classrooms and everything that makes Queen's what it is." Oh, what bullshit. It seems whoever said this is confusing suburban upper class snobbery with white racial supremacy.
The solution to racism is this: First, we need to talk about it more openly. Second, we need to be less politically correct about everything we say. Beating around the bush makes everyone feel more uncomfortable - white people and minorities. Interracial dialogue about racism is crucial. Racism happens most frequently in intra-racial circles.
Third, educate people. People are prejudiced because they lack inter-cultural understanding, lack global perspective, lack real experiences with other cultural groups, not because there is inherent bigotry inside every living soul.
Fourth, and most importantly, we need to make a big distinction between incompatible cultural attitudes and racism. Separate them, separate them, separate them. Racism is when you hate a black person because they are black, which is wrong. Cultural incompatibility is the rationalized reasoning that certain practices and social behavior between one cultural group and another simply do not mix, and that you are uncomfortable with this cultural difference. This is perfectly understandable and there is nothing wrong with it. It simply happens because we are used to certain norms and practices by the way we have been brought up.
I, for example, am very uncomfortable that a number of cultures (and religions) continue to preach against interracial (or intercultural) dating and marriage, because this brings about racial clustering in big urban centres and a lack of integration. I will say this because I believe there is a detriment to society as a whole because of de facto racially segregating practices from certain groups, and believe that these practices contravene very basic Canadian values of inclusivity and multiculturalism. After all, to be inclusive doesn't just mean white people have to be more tolerant of minority groups. It means that everyone has to be more tolerant towards everyone. Groups that immigrate to Canada, in my view, should let go of their cultural baggage and settle here with a reasonably liberal and open mindset about other cultures. Most importantly, they should not force values that outright conflict with the majority of Canadian society, such as deliberate in-group preaching of intra-racial marriage, to their Canadian offspring. This hurts our country and hurts the children of minority groups, who grow up struggling to define their identity.
Canadian universities are some of the most inclusive institutions in the world. Universities are not racist; people are racist. And the less open we are about racism, the more racist society becomes. Let's talk about it openly first before coming up with these wildly hyperbolic statements, or banning sumo suits at Queen's.
