Stay Classy, London, Ontario

[MrScorpio]

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London, Ontario Was a Racist Asshole to Me

In the four years I've spent in London, Ontario I've been called names like Ebony, Dark Chocolate, Shaniqua, Ma, Blackish, and Boo.

In the four years I've spent in London, Ontario I've been called names like Ebony, Dark Chocolate, Shaniqua, Ma, Blackish, and Boo. I've encountered blackface on Halloween and been told to go back to my third-world country (twice). I've been pushed off the sidewalk by white kids. I've been humiliated by white guys shouting, "Look at that black ass!" as I walked down a busy street. I've been an ethnic conquest for curious white men. I've witnessed my boyfriend get called a nigger over 20 times, been called "you people" and been asked by white friends if it's okay to "use the N-word" around me while desperately trying to rap to Yeezus.

But, yes, after all that, I went back to Jack's a month ago, a charmingly shitty bar that reeks of bleach and tequila and where I spent most of my undergrad acquiring alcoholic gastritis (I graduated from London's Western University last June). And not even 20 minutes into an Ariana Grande song, I feel my left ass cheek fly way up. I turn around to see a white guy walking back to his table of cheering 20-year-old Justin Biebers.

I could have confronted them, but then I'd be that angry black girl. I could have slapped him, but after what happened to Aaron Ferkranus, a healthy, young 26-year-old who went into medical distress after being restrained by bouncers at Thorny Devil nightclub (a short walk from Jack's) and died this February, no black person in London is safe from a perfectly normal bar scrap. I could have also dumped my nice, cool beer on his young, receding hairline, but that would be a waste of $2.75. So instead, as I had been doing for the past few years in this city, I bit my tongue and allowed it.

Minutes later as I stood by the trough, a plaid-wearing white guy tried to introduce me to his only black friend.

"Isn't he good-looking?" he said. The black kid smiled. He looked like Urkel.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/xd7z5a/london-ontario-was-a-racist-asshole-to-me-152

[TreasonousBastard]

1. That's a horrible story. In Canada?

[lunasun]

2. Best solution** to these calls I saw on a comments section - fine them $$$$

Police dispatch needs to collect credit card numbers before sending an officer. “There will be a $300 hold placed on your card. Are you SURE there needs to be police presence?”

****This doesn't help with the actual assault or violence that comes with these calls but if they know there is a fine they may think twice
Or not.....

[WePurrsevere]

3. I respectfully disagree. Not everyone has credit cards, nor does everyone...

Have much, if any, money in the bank/on a debit card. In your scenario someone without $$ on a debit or a credit card wouldn't get the help they truly need. That's not even going into the time to dig out a card and give that info to the police dispatch.

While I do think something needs to be done to stop BS calls like the above I think actually arresting them, charging them, convicting them and then making them pay a fine, do community service in an area where the judge decides AND take a class on how not to be a racist, bigoted, etc asswipe might be a better solution.

[WePurrsevere]

4. "Police are investigating... as a possible hate crime"...

Good! I hope true justice is done.

Sadly racist bigoted asswipes are everywhere and even a country as nice and lovely as Canada is isn't excluded from this disease.