Nov. 21: Race

When I was a kid, my dad and I were watching a boxing match on TV. One of the boxers was white and one of the boxers was black. That is how I would have differentiated the boxers if someone asked me to do so. I was eight.

Then the announcer (probably Howard Cossell) said that Boxer A was wearing the white shorts with ted trim while Boxer B was wearing the white shorts with black trim.

I asked my dad why the announcer just didn't say that Boxer A was white while Boxer B was black. My dad said he didn't know.

Thirty years later and I still don't know.

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I had no idea that racism existed until I started watching Diff'rent Strokes. Every now and then, Mr. Drummond had to deal with some douchebag who didn't like the fact that Arnold and Willis were black. Mr. Drummond would call that person a bigot and then the studio audience would applaud.

There was one episode where Kimberly (Mr. Drummond's white daughter) was going to a dance with a white kid who, it turned out, was racist. So Kimberly dressed in blackface and Mr. Racist White Kid got mighty uncomfortable about dancing with Kimberly.

Diff'rent Strokes taught me that racism was bad. In fact, you could say that the only reason Diff'rent Strokes existed was to teach people that racism is bad.

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I didn't encounter full-on racism until I moved to Saskatchewan to take a job at the North Battleford News-Optimist. Moved into an apartment building and the superintendent told me not to hang flags in my window. "Why not?" I asked. Answer: "Because that's what Indians do." I asked if Indians were allowed to live in the building and she said that they were, but she said it in a way that made me think she wasn't all that happy about that.

White folks in that town were vocal racists. A lady who worked at the newspaper used to call them "lazy deadbeats" and the editor warned me not to cover Indian events because "Indians don't buy the newspaper."

There was a soccer league in town. Seven teams - four white, three Indian (or native, I guess that's the PC term.) The white teams resented me being there. They'd insult me for taking pictures and try to make me look stupid during post-game interviews. The Indian teams were flattered that I was taking their pictures. They said they weren't used to it.

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I first learned about Race from my Fisher Price toys. Most of the Fisher Price people were white but some were black.

Police just pulled me over. Wonder why.

I asked my dad why there were black people and he said God just likes a whole bunch of colours.

Sounded right to me then.

Still does.