Move Along

Janice Acoose

My mind wanders back to a Thursday night I spent shopping with my 13-year-old son. After a couple of enjoyable hours in the Midtown Plaza, we decided to go to the food court for refreshments.

While I'm often disturbed by the obvious segregation-type seating arrangements (the Native peoples are usually seated at the south end, while the non-Natives are clustered at the north end) this particular evening was the worst.

During the 15 minutes I was there, on four separate occasions, a security guard arrogantly and very disrespectfully demanded that some Native teenagers remove themselves from the tables “if you are not going to buy anything to eat or drink.”

Noting there were non-Native people seated at least three tables with no food or drink in front of them, my son asked, “Mom, why is that guy only asking Native people to leave?”

How do you explain racism or bigotry to a hopeful and trustful 13-year-old child? How do you explain to Native people that, although we have rights supposedly accorded to us by the Constitution and are protected by human rights laws, some people can still blatantly and very publicly ignore these laws? How do you erase close to 500 years of a white supremacist mentality?

From New Breed, Saskatchewan's largest monthly Native Newspaper
Reprinted from the Star Phoenix, Mar. 28, 1991

April/1991, Vol. 22, No. 4

(CX5104)

Subject Headings

• Discrimination
• Racial Discrimination

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