Getting to the root causes
Last week, the president and CEO of oil company EnCana, Gwyn Morgan, gave this speech to a Fraser Institute gathering in Calgary. Morgan speaks of the need to face up to root causes of social problems with honesty, logic and plain language.
Worth a read.
posted by Road Hammer @ 1:17 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Before making ignorant statements such as one included below, Gwyn Morgan should spend his time exploring why Jamaican Canadian’s have such dire economic circumstances in Toronto, contrast that to Jamaican Americans in Atlanta, New York, Miami, Charlotte etc…who have higher employment statistics and earn significantly more than the national average in the United States. He could explore this discrepancy but it might lead him to discover issues of systemic discrimination and nepotism which are rampant in Toronto.
"the vast majority of violent, lawless immigrants come from countries where the culture is dominated by violence and lawlessness. Jamaica has one of the world's highest crime rates driven mainly by the violence between gangs competing for dominance in the Caribbean drug trade,"
If there were no Jamaican Canadians in Toronto it probably be would be some other group facing the brunt of the racism, as you look across the country one group is always marginalized as the source of “gangs and violence” South Asian/Indo Canadians (Vancouver, Calgary), Aboriginal Canadians (Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg), Jamaican Canadians (Toronto), Haitian Canadians (Montreal), African & Aboriginal Canadians (Halifax). Malcolm Gladwell’s 1996 New Yorker article analyzing the contradiction of “how West Indians celebrated in New York for their industry and drive could represent, just five hundred miles northwest, crime and dissipation” provides an excellent analysis “what has happened to Jamaicans in Toronto is proof that what has happened to Jamaicans here is not the end of racism, or even the beginning of the end of racism, but an accident of history and geography. In America, there is someone else to despise. In Canada, there is not. In the new racism, as in the old, somebody always has to be the nigger.”
Malcolm Gladwell. “Black Like Them” The New Yorker, 74-81 (29 April & 6 May, 1996). Reflections on why West Indian immigrants are perceived to be different from other African Americans.
Available at: http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_04_29_a_black.htm
Post a Comment
<< Home