I received a Fwd: today that really pissed me off, and since my dogs are passed out on the couch (and don't really understand the Media's perpetuation of intolerance) I have decided, after a long absence, it is time for a [minor] rant.
The subject line of this e-mail read Fwd: FW: It is only the beginning...
Ominous? I thought so. I so rarely read forwards (my wonderful hotmail settings so diligently filter everything with an 'F' and a 'W' and a colon combination into my junk mail) but I thought, before hitting "delete all" I'll indulge, I'll open one - just one - for the first time in, oh say, two years?
I was greeted with the scanned image of a newspaper, an article from the Toronto Sun (I should have stopped reading right then and there) entitled Snap. Ka-Pow! Fat lip but fat chance punch leads to charges.
Now, I understand the frustration of all the upper middle class white folks with their high salaries and safe suburban neighbourhoods and job advantages being really upset at all those damn non-conformist foreigners coming in here and having the nerve to like, settle in our cultural mosaic. We were going to build another Tim Horton's there, you know.
But what really grinds my gears is that - okay, here's a scenario for you: two white girls. Altercation. Exchange [spitting of] words. Punch in the face. Girl B has a black eye and a bloody nose. Girl A is screaming bloody murder and being held off Girl B by two friends. Clear-cut case of assault, yes? Wrong! Watch in amazement as Girl A is questioned. Did you provoke her? Did you step toward her first? Did you raise your hand or arm? What did you say to her before she struck you? It is unclear if Girl B used a closed fist or an open hand. The girls are separated and told to mind their own business. It is recommended to Girl A that she not press charges. [I was there for the whole thing]. Does that make the news?
This is the kind of "flaw" in our system that comes up over dinner. All the time. This situation happens regularly. And it's never taken very seriously because - thank god - in most cases injuries are minor and everybody walks away slightly pissed off but able to move on with their life without PTSD. So why is this article such a big deal?
Because a muslim woman yelled at a white guy.
I am NOT saying I don't understand where this dude is coming from. He's in public, enjoying his new camera, and he is aggressively approached by a stranger who tells him not to take their picture because of religious reasons. But I see several problems with this whole thing.
ONE: I find it highly unlikely (given the tone of this article) that Jimmy Angry simply stated that he could take pictures wherever, of whatever, and that he expressed this view in a calm manner. If you read between the lines of his little "this is a democracy" speech, my interpretation (and in my opinion, how Ms Villain probably felt too) was that he was saying "get the fuck away from me you Arabic bitch. This is my country and I'll shoot what I want to".
TWO: Instead of launching into a speech about civil rights in the first place, would it not have been easier to simply state "I wasn't photographing you, I was taking pictures of _______."
THREE: WHY is this story being forwarded at ALL, and why is it being prefaced with VERBATIM! QUOTE! "We should be very afraid.............very afraid................we all have to say STOP.........enough........."
STOP.... enough.... what? That the rules surrounding what designates assault are too fuzzy? Too easy? Maybe. But what this article says to me, and what the preface of this forward said to me, and the fact that it was being forwarded AT ALL says to me "Get mad about this. We need to take back what's ours!"
Maybe she was totally psycho and if he hadn't escaped from the "mob" of angry Arabs he would have been seriously injured. It is not okay that she punched him. It is not okay for anyone, ANYONE, to punch anyone else.
But how much do you hate what she is in the first place, before an assault, for you to sit down and write an article about how little Toronto respects the rights of the white man?
I feel like my race is always just waiting for an excuse. From a woman punching (and not injuring) someone on the streets of Toronto (because that's seriously the biggest issue of violence we have in the city) all the way to acts of terrorism, every time you receive a Fwd: FW: about it, some white guy just self-validated his intolerance.
