This is the literal definition of systemic racism, as Trudeau is using government power to create a race-based program designed to benefit one race of people while leaving others out
The great civil rights leaders of history have consistently focused on bringing people together, rather than tearing people apart. Their core message has been that people must be judged as individuals, rather than by their race.
After all, people can control what kind of person they are, they can control their actions, they can choose to develop their work ethic, their character, and their reputation.
By contrast, people can’t chose what race they are.
For a long time, much of the world (particularly Western nations), have been steadily making progress towards reducing racism and treating people as individuals.
Our legal system is clear on forbidding racism. Everything that civil rights groups fought for has been now put into law. There are government programs and legal mechanisms that can be used to intervene when racism is found.
Step by step, we have succeeded in removing race as the key factor in how people treat each other.
But now, that progress is being put at risk.
Instead of moving towards a more "colour-blind" society, we are seeing the rise of race-obsessed far-left radicals, pushing things like ‘critical race theory.’
They are fighting against the very idea of individual rights, against the idea of a "colour-blind" society.
They are–ironically–often most similar to the virulent racists of the past, who saw everything through the lens of race, feel different racial groups can’t get along, and reject the idea of individual worth.
For a time, those radical ideas were contained at university campuses, and the broader society continued to reduce the influence of racial judgements in our day to day lives.
But, like an infection, it has spread.
Now, our elites and their useful idiots are obsessed with race like never before. They bring it up constantly. All progress is rejected. Our history is under attack. The Western world (rather than accurately being described as the most open and tolerant civilization in history), is recast as nothing but violence and oppression.
This sick thinking now afflicts the addled minds of our top "leaders," including the Trudeau Liberals.
Justin Trudeau announced that a new entrepreneurship program would spend $93 million of your taxpayer dollars to create new opportunities for Canadian entrepreneurs.
“Economic empowerment is an essential part of justice,” said PM @JustinTrudeau announcing a new national program to help Black Canadians get business loans with national banks.
Read more: https://t.co/002Qi0oER8 pic.twitter.com/ExB1scVW7P
— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC)
But it’s not open to everyone. It’s explicitly only open to people of one racial group, black Canadians.
Of course, this is a huge mistake. How will the government determine who qualifies? Will they use the one-drop rule? Will they make people take a DNA test? Will they let people who "self-identify" as black get the money?
Will there be a skin shade chart?
These may seem like absurd questions, but making race-based policy is itself an absurd idea, especially in a society that is supposedly free and is supposedly devoted to treating everyone equally under the law.
Ironically, this is also the literal definition of systemic racism, as Trudeau is using government power to create a race-based program designed to benefit one race of people while leaving others out – people who are excluded because of their race.
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It is also racist in that it implies that black Canadians need extra ‘special’ help, which seems based on the bigoted low expectations the left-often hides behind their "wokeness."
Now, some may argue that there is an issue with black Canadians being treated differently by the banking system.
However, the government has the authority to investigate that.
If it is true, any bank that discriminates against black Canadians is violating the law. We don’t need new race-based programs to address that problem–if it exists.
Current law, and current government authority can address it. So, this is really about virtue-signalling, and dividing Canadians by race.
If the government wants to help entrepreneurs, and if they think black Canadians are more likely to need help, then an income-based program open to all races would benefit those who need the help, regardless of their race. Such a program would perhaps end up disproportionately helping black Canadians, but that would be due to income levels, not racial criteria.
So again, the government had many options to accomplish what they claim they want to do, but they chose the most divisive option possible.
A nation–particularly a diverse nation like Canada–can only succeed in the long-term on the basis of some sense of shared identity. Focusing on differences, particularly focusing on race, is destructive, and dangerous.
If we are all Canadians, if we all have value as citizens, if we are all equal under the law, then we must reject any program that either discriminates against people based on race, or benefits some based on their race while rejecting others.
Neither is acceptable. Neither is Canadian. And neither lives up to what our country is supposed to be.
Canada must reject race-based policy, and focus on bringing all people together as Canadian citizens.