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Why are you accusing me of being racist just because you disagree with my opinion? I have never said anything on these forums that should cause one to draw that conclusion.
I didn't accuse you of being a racist. However, your opinion that Toronto is extremely racist must have come from somewhere. As such, it is only logical to assume that your experience has been tempered from interacting with your immediate social circle.
I didn't accuse you of being a racist. However, your opinion that Toronto is extremely racist must have come from somewhere. As such, it is only logical to assume that your experience has been tempered from interacting with your immediate social circle.
I didn't accuse you of being a racist. However, your opinion that Toronto is extremely racist must have come from somewhere. As such, it is only logical to assume that your experience has been tempered from interacting with your immediate social circle.
I don't know enough about Toronto to say whether it's racist there or not, I've never lived there. There is some racism in the community where I live, so yes, I suppose that would affect my viewpoint. When I look back at Canadian history, things look very ugly. I feel, as a country, we "talk the talk" without "walking the walk" when it comes to accepting racial and cultural diversity.
Racism will always exist as long as there are ignorant people around with supremist egos, who refuse to acknowlege that their assumptions and stereotypes about people who are different, are not only wrong but extremely foolish.
Except when those stereotypes of certain people are proven TRUE nearly everyday. For example in Toronto everyone knows blacks cause the most crime here despite being only about 7% of population here.
You want to give them the benefit of the doubt but its been barely a week into 2014 and we already have had several shootings that have resulted in at least two deaths involving blacks. And even barely a couple of hours into the new years at a party there were a couple of shootings involving blacks, because they couldn't wait even a day to start adding to 2014 crime statistics. In this same timeframe of the past 9 days how many shootings or violent altercations have involved non-blacks? ZERO ABSOLUTELY ZERO.
The point is some stereotypes are true and to deny it in the face of overwhelming evidence is truly stupid and defies logic. To say many black males are violent and criminal isn't racist, its just plain fact.
But let me say this. A black person can go through his or her whole life without ever accusing anybody of racism, but the first time he does that you can be assured that some people will say, in blithely dismissing his or her claim, "blacks are always so quick to blame race."
Except when those stereotypes of certain people are proven TRUE nearly everyday. For example in Toronto everyone knows blacks cause the most crime here despite being only about 7% of population here.
You want to give them the benefit of the doubt but its been barely a week into 2014 and we already have had several shootings that have resulted in at least two deaths involving blacks. And even barely a couple of hours into the new years at a party there were a couple of shootings involving blacks, because they couldn't wait even a day to start adding to 2014 crime statistics. In this same timeframe of the past 9 days how many shootings or violent altercations have involved non-blacks? ZERO ABSOLUTELY ZERO.
The point is some stereotypes are true and to deny it in the face of overwhelming evidence is truly stupid and defies logic. To say many black males are violent and criminal isn't racist, its just plain fact.
You're too lazy to look at people as individuals and see whether or not they look and act like a gangster or criminal, and instead jump right to the conclusion of black = criminal. The stereotype is true, right?
I am a young black man, and I think Toronto has a major race problem.
I’ll say more about that in a moment, but I want to say a couple other things first.
First, to some of you who have read my posts before, it will come as a surprise that I’m black; I’ve never posted anything about race up until now. (For anyone who doesn’t believe that, I invite you to review my previous posts.)
Second, I think I was too harsh in some of the things I previously said about Toronto: that it is extremely hard to make friends here, that the people here are extremely unfriendly and that it is extremely difficult to meet women here. My present view is that each of these things is true to some extent, but not nearly as bad as I had thought – at least if you are not a young black male.
Which brings me back to the claim I made in the opening sentence. Toronto is not as bad as I thought because I now think that it was my blackness which led me to have certain experiences here. In the past, I did not see this as fully as I now do. To be sure, I was always aware that race was a significant factor in some of my experiences; for example, I realized early on that it was largely because of race that I was not able to make any friends at my place of employment after I moved here.
But I didn’t realize just how much it was because of race that after years of living here I had made no friends, and literally went years without even going on a single date – despite the fact that I lived in an area with a large number of people who were, like me, educated, hip, left-leaning, and 20- and 30-something. I didn’t realize just how much race-based discrimination, enacted on a daily basis by a large number of actors in a wide variety of situations, would lead me to have certain experiences. For example, as a black man in downtown on the west side (where few black people live; most, I now want to think, must have known better), I didn’t realize how much I was the victim of acts which I later saw amounted to a pattern of avoidance: that people were avoiding sitting/standing next to me in coffee shops, libraries, Laundromats, even the grocery line (I have seen people, especially women, join much, much lengthier lines instead of mine). I didn’t realize that my race/gender the was reason why almost nobody ever talked to me, over the course of years. I didn’t realize that some of the behavior that I would encounter from women in public spaces – where they would not simply avoid eye contact (a phenomenon Toronto is notorious for), but do things that I would characterize as sending me totally unprovoked signals of disinterest (which I found hugely disempowering) – was a result of my race.
In short, I didn’t realize how much I, as a black man, was being shunned because of that.
Now if people – especially young, downtown-dwelling people – are honest, they will say that none of this surprises them. I say that because I believe that, however much non-blacks try to keep black people in the dark about it, it is clear to me that most people are aware that black people, especially young black men, are widely held in low esteem here. But I don’t expect people to be honest, not even with the anonymity that the Internet provides.
Anyway, in hindsight I guess I should have realized that the high level of residential segregation I observed downtown partly reflected some form of hostility to blacks.
Before closing, let me say that the issues I have discussed are obviously not the only racial issues that plague the city. But other issues – like widespread employment discrimination, both in hiring and promotion, and the racial achievement gap in schools – are already well-known.
So to non-blacks thinking of coming here, and who read my earlier posts about Toronto, please keep in mind that I was speaking from a place where I didn’t fully understand how race was affecting my experience.
To blacks who are thinking of the same thing, please give my comments here some serious thought before taking the plunge. And even if you do decide to take it, give some additional thought about living on the west side of downtown.
Finally, to anybody who is at all decent, and who lives here, I wish you would stop saying how “great” of a city you have here, and do something about your race problem.
While no place is free of racism and racial issues, I feel that Toronto doesn't seem to have racial tensions much that is built up etc.
You're too lazy to look at people as individuals and see whether or not they look and act like a gangster or criminal, and instead jump right to the conclusion of black = criminal. The stereotype is true, right?
I do look at blacks as individuals and see plenty that seem to be alright and decent people. But you'd have to be a FOOL to look at the statistics and watch the nightly news and see that black males whether they're born here or immigrants are involved in crime far more often than any other group in Toronto. This is INDISPUTABLE FACT and I'm simply pointing that out.
Sure there's going to be crime coming from asians or whites or indians etc, but over the course of a year, who do you think leads the city in amount of crime and murders committed year after year? Again black males.
So why is it racist to simply point out the truth and hope and help them will change rather than sweeping it under the rug and pretend the problem doesn't exist?
Except when those stereotypes of certain people are proven TRUE nearly everyday. For example in Toronto everyone knows blacks cause the most crime here despite being only about 7% of population here.
You want to give them the benefit of the doubt but its been barely a week into 2014 and we already have had several shootings that have resulted in at least two deaths involving blacks. And even barely a couple of hours into the new years at a party there were a couple of shootings involving blacks, because they couldn't wait even a day to start adding to 2014 crime statistics. In this same timeframe of the past 9 days how many shootings or violent altercations have involved non-blacks? ZERO ABSOLUTELY ZERO.
The point is some stereotypes are true and to deny it in the face of overwhelming evidence is truly stupid and defies logic. To say many black males are violent and criminal isn't racist, its just plain fact.
Wrong!!! I bet you there are more Whites or non blacks in Canadian prisons then there are Black. I can almost guarantee it. I don't care about percentage of population or whatever.
So if there are more Whites in Canadian prisons then Black, what's the "Stereotype" about Whites or non Blacks? Stereotyping is so stupid. Because what is does is this: It allows for Whites to do crimes and all the same stuff, but be seen as an "Individual" act instead of an act by an entire race.
If going by sheer numbers of who's in prison blah blah blah. My assumption going off that would be White's commit a lot of crime and also are the majority of Welfare or Public Assistance receipients.
This is why "Stereotyping" is false facts. You deal with each situation as it comes, "Stereotyping" is lazy and in the end it does society no good.
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