My mom: realist, pessimist or racist?

[Obershutze]

My mother has recently been trying to put in the heads of me and the rest of my family that Canada (where we live) will be in a couple of years a country full of immigrants living by their individual culture and religion. She is scared that our race and culture might disappear of our country because we let everyone live by the way they want, instead of adapting themselves to our way of living. A good example is the Kirpan sikh people can now carry everywhere. I think its a good thing, but the matriarch's opinion is totally different. She beleives the goverment is stupid for letting so many immigrants come here and do whatever they want. She'd rather see the goverment encourage birth in Canada instead of immigration.

She also seems to be especially afraid of muslims because of the rate they reproduce and the way they treat women (from her point of view). She thinks that eventually, women in Canada will have to wear a voile (i don't know how you say this in english... the *drape* muslim women have to wear).

Plus, my mom seems to beleive every black person can't drive, every native american doesn't work and that all arabs are fanatics.

My mom: realist, pessimist or racist?

Discuss.

P.S.: I don't have the same point of view has her, but please be respectfull, she is still a good person.

[carthage_hanibal]

she sounds like she is a tad racist, all of her fears are based on racial sterotypes. She also seems pessimistic towards the development of canada. That is what i get from what i read anyway.

[Legiondude]

both, canada needs both, birth rates amongst those of europen decent need to be higher, and the new non-europeen immigrants should after 2 generations be canadian....

[RZZZA]

My mother has recently been trying to put in the heads of me and the rest of my family that Canada (where we live) will be in a couple of years a country full of immigrants living by their individual culture and religion. She is scared that our race and culture might disappear of our country because we let everyone live by the way they want, instead of adapting themselves to our way of living. A good example is the Kirpan sikh people can now carry everywhere. I think its a good thing, but the matriarch's opinion is totally different. She beleives the goverment is stupid for letting so many immigrants come here and do whatever they want. She'd rather see the goverment encourage birth in Canada instead of immigration.

I dont agree with this. Look at the U.S., land of immigrants...would our country be better or worse off if we closed the doors to all immigrants and made it a requirements to "act American"? I think our economy would come to a grinding halt, so...but a lot of people, like the KKK, think it'd be good for us. As far as Canada goes, I can't comment because I dont live there, but I think Canada should trump freedom and variety as loudly as the U.S. does, because it helps to quicker adapt immigrants into the society. People dont ever really lose their culture, they just merge it with the country they reside in....so get used to practicing terms like "Indian-Canadian" and "African-Canadian" and "French-Canadian" (well, you already are used to that last one...) because its gonna be a very common thing in the western countries. As long as the jobs are there, as long as the money and opportunity are there, then immigrants have no reason to hate the country they reside in...they WILL eventually merge to encompass both cultures.

She also seems to be especially afraid of muslims because of the rate they reproduce and the way they treat women (from her point of view). She thinks that eventually, women in Canada will have to wear a voile (i don't know how you say this in english... the *drape* muslim women have to wear).

It's spelled "veil" actually...what exactly is wrong with other countries having an impact on fashion in your country? I dont see whats the big deal, fashion is cyclical so people will be riding the nuts of some Parisian designer again soon enough. Need I remind you of this?:



And that show was on over 50 years ago.

Plus, my mom seems to beleive every black person can't drive, every native american doesn't work and that all arabs are fanatics.

My mom: realist, pessimist or racist?

Discuss.

P.S.: I don't have the same point of view has her, but please be respectfull, she is still a good person.

Black people can drive and shoot guns out the window at the same time, can your mom do that? Native Americans own casino's, and arabs find themselves in the delightful position of being THE merchants of oil in their corner of the globe. So things could still be even worse off for them.

[91.css]

It's spelled "veil" actually...what exactly is wrong with other countries having an impact on fashion in your country? I dont see whats the big deal, fashion is cyclical so people will be riding the nuts of some Parisian designer again soon enough. Need I remind you of this?:

HAVING to wear a veil is not an impact on fashion in a country...


Black people can drive and shoot guns out the window at the same time, can your mom do that?

That's racistic, even as a joke.

I believe your mom is racist. I too believe those stereotypes are dumb.
Besides, all arabs are fanatics. But that has to do with the circumstances under which they live. In their position, being fanatic isn't a bad thing. Plus, your mother is fanatic too when she says "canada is better and shouldn't allow immigration in order to remain the way it is".

[rez]

pessimistically racist. you need to convince her that racial stereotypes are bad. unfortunately thats practically impossible if you were brought up that way. and then again i dont think your mother will take kindly to being educated by her son. hmmm, well you cant force your beliefs on her but you can disagree with her when she brings them up

[Obershutze]

Don't worry rez, I wasn't brought up to be racist, and I think those stereotypes are quite dumb.

[Legiondude]

people feel the need to be in groups, that is often a problem, but canada was made by immigrants so its a strange places for xenophobia...

[O'brien the Protector]

I think she is a mix of pessimist and racist. most arabs are not fanatics, black people can drive, and the occasional native american works. But the chances of canada losing its race and culture is very proboble. The emmigrants that moved to America, that made it as strong as it is, all assimilated into american culture. Arabs seem to have a anoyying tendancy to keep their culture no matter where they go. Having multiple cultures in one country simply dosent work ( look at india, pakistan, and bangladesh, or yugoslavia, or the long gone austria-hungary, or the more recent france). At the same time freedom shoudnt be comprimised for cultural reasons ( it would be better to block of migration than to not allow freedom of speech). But what the government can do is go on a pro-canadaian culture ( whatever that is) propaganda tour. Find a way to assimilate all other cultures into the canadian one.


edit: wanting to keep canada the way it is is admirable ( although niaive when you consider that the ol' US of A is right next to cananda to titalize them with what they could be like). You cannot deny that America and most arab countries have radicly diffrent cultures. You also cant deny that a person cant switch cultures. IF you like the taste of hotdogs, and hate the taste of hamas, you cant change that, or if you like the sweet smell of freedom and not like the smell of charred flesh and oil fumes, your helpless to resist.well If 600,000 arabs striaght from the middle east were to sudennly migrate here, you woudnt see any boxes of wine in safeway and it woudn't be too long until thievery would be considered a worse sin than murder. In other words if a torrent of immigratns come into a country and dont assimilate to the country, eventually the country will assimilate to the emmigrants. This is find, from a universal point of view. But like I said, you cant help your culture, and some cultures simply arent compatable, and so it becomes your duty to yourself to try and ensure that a counter-culture in which you cant live is not established.

[RZZZA]

A joke can't be racist...

And where did she get the idea that everyone will have to wear a veil soon? That doesnt make any sense, these P.C. laws are passed in the interest of equality...how, in such a society, does it make sense to pass laws which restrict freedom?

[rez]

"Don't worry rez, I wasn't brought up to be racist, and I think those stereotypes are quite dumb."

Sorry i was reffering to your mother, its quite clear you are far from racist

[Last Roman]

My mother has recently been trying to put in the heads of me and the rest of my family that Canada (where we live) will be in a couple of years a country full of immigrants living by their individual culture and religion. She is scared that our race and culture might disappear of our country because we let everyone live by the way they want, instead of adapting themselves to our way of living. A good example is the Kirpan sikh people can now carry everywhere. I think its a good thing, but the matriarch's opinion is totally different. She beleives the goverment is stupid for letting so many immigrants come here and do whatever they want. She'd rather see the goverment encourage birth in Canada instead of immigration.

I think that is rather hypocritical and ironic since she is (unless you guys are of native american descent) a descendent of an immigrant herself.

[HorseArcher]

My personal opinion is,

I wouldn't put my mom (or anyone I respect) on the forum to be discussed by a bunch of unknown people and make opinion about her.

[GambleFish]

My personal opinion is,

I wouldn't put my mom (or anyone I respect) on the forum to be discussed by a bunch of unknown people and make opinion about her.

Problem is, I might not respect someone like her...

Ok, how about we say "a hypothetical lady" thinks that. It's the same ideas, and you wouldn't have any problem with it. So it really doesn't matter that it happens to be his mom - view it as a coincidence.

I think she's a bit of a racist pessimist - she obviously is in to stereotypes and also doesn't remember that we have seperation of church and state - the govt. can't and wouldn't force everyone to start following religious traditions.

[Søren]

My personal opinion is,

I wouldn't put my mom (or anyone I respect) on the forum to be discussed by a bunch of unknown people and make opinion about her.

Sort of. The thing is, as we are only going by what he has given us, we are really discussing a hypo-thetical person, or more to the point, his interpretation of his mum, so it's a little bit different, IMO.

-----

Plus, my mom seems to beleive every black person can't drive, every native american doesn't work and that all arabs are fanatics.

Presumably she doesn't view them as naturally inferior though.

If this is what she thinks, then I'd just say that she was a bit ignorant of other cultures. Racist, no.

[Obershutze]

We are not discussing my mom mother, but her opinions.

That was my intention anyways. I wanted to know if her opinions were racist, pessimist or realist. The topic isn't "Do you think my mother is a *****?"

[Harlanite]

Yes I don't particularly understand why people of European origin in North America suscribe to this brand of racism and jingoism (I'd say your mother is pessimistically racist not necessarily evil or anything). Are they not also immigrants? It just seems like a very weak and slightly hypocritical position to take.

[the_mango55]

Yes I don't particularly understand why people of European origin in North America suscribe to this brand of racism and jingoism (I'd say your mother is pessimistically racist not necessarily evil or anything). Are they not also immigrants? It just seems like a very weak and slightly hypocritical position to take.

No, people eventually get used to immigrants from a certain part of the world and stop complaining about them, then they complain about immigrants from another part of the world that start to come in. In New York for example, the children of those Irish and Italian immigrants that were complained about are now doing the complaining about the Hispanic and Pakistani immigrants. Their children will probably later be accepted as natives and complain about the Chinese and African (or whoever) immigrants that are coming in during the next generation.

[Ahlerich]

you say you live in canada, i guess in quebec because of your avatar.
if your mum is not native which i am pretty sure of i would like to ask her which culture she thinks is disappearing. the french culture? the british culture? the german culture? the asian culture?
it doesnt make sense to me. canada is not the country of the first nation so which culture should disapear. immigrants that came to canada left their homeland and took part of their culture with them to canada. no matter if german. jew,british,scandinavian,ukrainian,polish etc. so what is she scared of. beeing a country of immigrants is part of canadian culture if you ask me. canada has always been a mult cultural culture. and canada is a huge country with a very low population density.
i dont want and wont offend the mother of anyone but her thought, the way you described it, does not make sense.
hey as un quebecois shouldnt you have a french name instead of a german one?

btw: oberschuetze

[Obershutze]

you say you live in canada, i guess in quebec because of your avatar.
if your mum is not native which i am pretty sure of i would like to ask her which culture she thinks is disappearing. the french culture? the british culture? the german culture? the asian culture?
hey as un quebecois shouldnt you have a french name instead of a german one?

btw: oberschuetze

We are white, her fear is that we might become a minority (I know it sounds like the nazi party ).

I know my name is german but I decided to use it when I was a fan of WW2 games and before I decided to show my patriotism.