Fight Club

This morning, while taking the bus to work, an older lady sitting at the front of the bus exited using the front doors at a stop, instead of using the rear exit (which made complete sense as she was sitting up front). Apparently this pony-tailed white guy was very upset--irate--because this woman used the front doors to exit. When he got on to the bus, he looked to his girlfriend with ire, turned and pointed to the sign at the front of the bus that said "Please exit at the rear doors", cursing the woman (who was black). I am not wont to point out 'racial' labels, but this guy sat down a few seats nigh to me, and began a fervent racist rant to his girlfriend. For the entire trip to the bus terminal he was ranting about "those people"--referring to Sikhs and Blacks mostly--especially complaining about the outdated issue of Sikhs in the RCMP wearing turbans rather than the 'traditional' (translate: old-fashioned) caps, etc. Thank the Lord he wasn't on the bus for long, no more than 8 minutes, and the hum of the bus muted enough of his raving. This wasn't the way I hoped to start my work day.

While I was on break, later, I asked a (more open-minded) co-worker the essential question I ask after I witness a racist rant--or accusation:

When people wish to preserve, or conserve something worth saving they fight tooth and nail to maintain--because it is worth something to them. What do people like this--WASPs--have, culture-wise, which is worth preserving? Most WASP scions I know are cut off from their roots, abandoned, forgotten or dispossessed heritage when some ancient ancestor experienced a diaspora to N. America. They claim all its perquisites--rich cultural history, be it Celtic, Scottish, English--but know nothing about their heritage. Whether conscious or unconscious, it's a plague on its bearers. Is racism the Black Plague of our times? Is that why people are racist--out of infectious ignorance, or, as I figure, a fear of the unknown (the greatest fear according to Lovecraft)

The only thing I can think to compare racism is to a cliche--its original denotative power forgotten or lost to its users who give the word(s) a bad name by using it with a mistaken, obsolete meaning in mind. It reminds me of the essay (which my fiance perfected with her editing) I wrote on J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace. You can read it here, if you desire.

HAPPY CANADA'S DAY - Here's to Canada (for its vices and virtues): the country we love to inhabit.