Fagstein » racism http://blog.fagstein.com Can you think of a better name? Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:54:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Far from black and white http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/06/19/martineau-racism/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/06/19/martineau-racism/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:04:52 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=1898 Richard Martineau goes on one of his usual rants, this time about what he considers racism.

The first part of his rant is against a lame This Hour Has 22 Minutes sketch that makes fun of Quebecers. Since Martin Patriquin already has a response to that one, I won't bother here.

The second part attacks my newspaper for the most curious of reasons:

On faisait un appel à tous pour savoir si une famille du West Island pouvait accueillir une petite fille de 13 ans un week-end par mois, histoire de laisser sa mère souffler un peu.

«La jeune fille est très active, elle garde sa chambre propre et respecte les règlements de la maison, pouvait-on lire. Idéalement, la famille d'accueil serait noire...»

Imaginez comment The Gazette réagirait si le Journal se mettait à la recherche d'une famille d'accueil BLANCHE pour une jeune fille. On crierait au racisme !

The Gazette has regular columns in its arts and life section which profile kids looking for foster homes and organizations in need of volunteers. It's about a step and a half below actually rescuing orphans from a burning building.

But Martineau takes issue with the fact that it's suggested a black kid would ideally (but necessarily) best be placed with a black family.

To answer his straw-man hypothetical, if the Journal was trying more to place troubled children with foster parents, I would certainly welcome it. And if an ad requested white parents, I'd probably be more confused than offended. Statistically there are always more black kids in these situations and fewer black parents in a position to adopt.

But even if I grant that this is racism at its core, is this really the biggest injustice he could find?

The Gazette can be criticized for a lot of things (ask me, I'll write you up a list), but in 1,000 years this would not have stricken me as one of them.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/06/19/martineau-racism/feed/ 6 Do it for Oscar http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/03/04/oscar-peterson-protest/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/03/04/oscar-peterson-protest/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:09:23 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/03/04/oscar-peterson-protest/ Because they have nothing better to do, Mike Citrome's band of history-rewriters are to descend on the Sud-Ouest borough council meeting tonight to demand they change the name of Lionel-Groulx metro to Oscar Peterson, a campaign that has already gained national attention because it's being organized on (gasp) Facebook.

Date: Tuesday, March 4
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Sud-Ouest borough hall
815 rue Bel-Air, about three blocks west of the station

And if you can't come up with an opinion on your own, feel free to check out what other random uninformed people think.

No word yet on whether there will be a counter-protest from the anti-name-change group.

Previously: Oscar Peterson metro won't be easy to accomplish

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/03/04/oscar-peterson-protest/feed/ 1 Oscar Peterson metro won’t be easy to accomplish http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/02/27/oscar-peterson-metro/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/02/27/oscar-peterson-metro/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:19:34 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/02/27/oscar-peterson-metro/ The local media have been all over plagiarizing The Gazette reporting on a Facebook group that advocates renaming the Lionel-Groulx metro station after Oscar Peterson. Groulx was a racist, the suggestion goes, and Peterson would be much more befitting of a metro station name.

The group has exploded in popularity, due to both the media coverage and regular word-of-mouth. It has over 1,000 members now.

The idea isn't new, actually. It's been going around for quite some time. Other proposed new names for Lionel-Groulx include Yitzhak-Rabin and Gabrielle-Roy.

Unfortunately, it's somewhat of a non-starter for two reasons:

  1. The Lionel-Groulx metro, like most metro stations, is actually named after a street nearby, namely Lionel-Groulx Ave.
  2. The STM currently has a moratorium in place against station renaming, thanks to the rather unpopular Longueuil-Université-de-Sherbrooke mess.

And that doesn't get into the whole mess about renaming something from a francophone name to an anglophone one.

Personally, I think it should be renamed The-Jackal.

UPDATE (Feb. 28): The inevitable backlash group has already been formed.

UPDATE: Elsewhere in the blogosphere:

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