I attended the event, “Building Inclusive Communities—Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” put on by the Whistler Multicultural Society on Thursday, March 21. The event was incredible, eye-opening and important.
On the drive home, I shared with my two kids (who are two and four years old) heartbreaking stories from children in our community who were told to “go home, back where they came from.” As I shared this story with my children, I said, “It’s our responsibility with our white privilege to speak up and do something. In the words of the keynote speaker, ‘Privilege is like a baton in a relay race, it’s meant to be used… to be given away.’”
As I was sharing, I took a deep breath and realized; If I am expecting my young children to say something, then I need to do the same.
So here goes… it has come to my clear and astute attention that overt acts of racism exist in our communities, as well as the systemic racism embedded within. I heard stories from schoolchildren, entrepreneurs, teachers, educators, and community-service workers, and the message was very clear: Racism exists in our community, and what are we doing about it?
I want to make a direct call out to our mayor of Whistler, Jack Crompton, mayor of Pemberton, Mike Richman, and the councils to ask: what are we doing about the racism in our communities? What are we doing to keep people of colour and First Nations peoples feeling safe, welcome and included? What systems are we changing? Because this isn’t it.
As a start, I would directly like to ask the mayor(s) and the council to recognize that racism does exist in our communities and consider it a pressing and urgent issue. Next, create a space to make active change.
This problem concerns all of us. So what are we doing?
Check out the Whistler Multicultural Society to get involved: wms.wmsociety.ca.
