“The Great White Myth”

On my way home from a long concert for St. Cecilia’s Day here in Haf-i-lax tonight I decided to treat myself to something I rarely ever do.  I decided to stop in at the local Micky D/drug dealer’s drive-thru and pick myself up a chocolate “milkshake” for the drive home.

Now, as I’m sitting there in my car waiting to get up to the little window thingy I notice that the two guys in the car in front of me are having some kind of problem with the cashier at the little window thingy. There is physical movement, hand waiving and some agitated sounded mumbling coming from the dudes in the car.   All I can hear is

“Man, there’s no ice in my drink, I want another one”. 

The cashier says “OK” as he goes back into his little hole and the next thing I see is the dude in the car throwing his drink – which had ice in the cup - on the ground next to his car.  He then proceeds to throw some drink straws and other small pieces of paper out of the window onto the ground between his car and the little window thingy as his passenger looks on approvingly.  The pitiful cashier guy comes back and gives the guy in the car the new and freshly iced drink and another bag of “food” of some sort.  The guys in the car say and gesture something I can’t quite make out to the window guy and roll off in style.

Feeling bad for the cashier guy, I put my car in gear, slide up to the window, and decide I’m going to share my disgust of the precedent fellow customer. 

I say, “Doesn’t stuff like that just make you want to smack people like that?”  

Now, before I quote the cashier’s response to my little display of disapproval I must remind readers of where I grew up. 

I was raised in the South.  Alexandria, Virginia.  The southland!  The Home of the Brave.  The Homeland.  Dixie.  Capital of the Confederacy.  Birthplace of more U.S. presidents and founding fathers than any other state in the Union.  The South …………O.K.? 

I’ve heard some racist shit.  Blatantly racist.  Now there’s different kinds of racism.  There is closet racism that freinds and family members casually use with one another behind closed doors, then there’s deliberate and discreet public racism.  Racist stuff you might hear someone say on the street or in the store to someone else they might not know so well.  Innuendo….. or implied racism.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge kind of stuff.  You know,  that kind of stuff……. you hear a lot of that in the South.  All kinds…. really.

In Canada?…. not so much. 

So, we Canadians and we “others” living here in Canada that kind of wish we could call ourselves Canadians, we sort of accept that that kind of racism isn’t all that common or popular here in the Great White North.  In fact, I’ve been made to believe that that sort of thing doesn’t fly up here.  It isn’t part of Canadiana, and as a matter of fact, it is what quite a few Canadians often use to define themselves.  ”We’re not racists, like a lot of Americans.”

(Side note………….  Americans are unique in the world in their moral judgements regarding racism, slavery, etc.  And their actions, past and present, are just as unique.  Americans went to war with ourselves and killed our own brothers to end racism, (along with a couple other reasons).  When was the last time a white Canadian picked up the gloves against another white Canadian for the prosperity of Native peoples of this country?)

Anyway, back to the McDonald’s window guy…….,  that’s why I was so surprised when I heard the little pitiful cashier’s response to my statement. 

His response…..

“Yeah, well, what do you expect?…. black people!……..  pause…….. Here’s your milkshake.  Have a good night.”

I drove away speechless.

Cashier was white, 17 years old.  Dudes in car, black, 18 years old.

This evening, before I had even thought about stopping into the Micky D’s for that shake, I was waiting with a colleague in an anti-room of this church I was playing a gig at.  We were checking out a not so great review in the paper of a concert we had played in the night before.  Another guy walks into the anti-room and notices an open, unrelated article in the paper laying there about the new movie Borat.  The guy interupts me and my friend/colleague reading this review and whispers to us..

 ”Have you guys seen this movie yet?”

We both say “no”, as my colleague groans a bit at the question. 

This leads the interruptor to ask of my colleague…

“What, you don’t like this guy’s humour?” 

And my friend says ” Oh, I don’t know, it’s just not really my thing.  It seems to play to the lowest common denominator, you know?.” 

Now I don’t happen to know if that is the case in this particular movie, I havn’t seen it… YET!  But I know about the movie, I’m familiar with the commercials, I know the actor and some of the other stuff he’s done.  I think he’s kind of funny, most of the time.

The response to my friend’s comment from the interruptor was

“Well yeah, it’s American.” 

Ok, Ok, Ok, Ok, Ok.  “fxck off”!  I am so sick of that kind of crap for so many different reasons.   Not only does that statement itself piss me off but so does the entire sentiment of that damned expression of Canadian’s… 

“Yeah, but they’re American”. 

 So,  I guess my expression tipped the guy off or something, as he said….

“Oh wait, are you American?” 

“Yeah”,  I said…”but don’t worry,…………. I hear it all the time.”

Canada Eh?  I nice place to live, with really nice people.  It’s sooo different.  Yeah right!

p.s. Where is that all inclusive, accepting, and tolerant ideal of Canada?  That “not like the Americans” characteristic. Is it a myth?  I’m still looking for it.  But I’m quickly learning that ideal does not and never did exist.  Well, maybe, when Canada had peace keepers.  Maybe.