I don’t believe I have ever personally mistreated a native person on the grounds of race. I know for a fact that I never personally created any rules restricting First Nations peoples. When the Presbyterian Church in Canada set up residential schools I wasn’t yet born. I had nothing to do with it. In fact, I’m an immigrant. I didn’t come to Canada from the U.S. until 1999. I didn’t join the PCC until 2005. What exactly do I have to apologize for? I don’t like being blamed or taking the blame for things I didn’t do. Who does?
It’s true I may not be a racist, but … I’ve sure benefited from it. The fact is, the rapid prosperity experienced in the United States occurred on the backs of slaves and on land first claimed by the Europeans, though Native Americans were already living there. Even people who belonged to the Union had investments in the South, wore clothes made by slaves and had sugar for their tea that came from free slave labour. They might not have been racist themselves but they sure benefited from it. Even today, many major companies still exist that were slave-fuelled at one time (part of the Canadian National Railway Company, for example, claimed the loss of dead slaves for insurance purposes). Many of these companies still thrive today because of money they made with slaves for future investments.
Very few of us would ever consider ourselves racist and yet there is no doubt that we all in fact benefit from racism. We were born into or inherited a system that restricted some and propped up others, and helped create a cycle that can only partially be escaped from (which isn’t as easy to do as it is to say).
Today I own a house, built on land that was long ago taken from someone else. When the government first sold that land to a homesteader, that homesteader didn’t steal that land and wasn’t a bad person for buying it, but that homesteader sure benefited from racism and so have I. I benefit from it every time I shop at a store or buy gasoline made with oil pulled out of the ground that used to belong to another people. When I joined the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the residential schools were all closed, an apology in the form of a “confession” had already been issued and people by and large just wanted to forget about it and move on. And that makes sense. After all, what did most of us ever have to do with those schools anyway?
Well, in truth, I came to this country and I joined this church and I don’t just get to identify with this country and this denomination and its rich heritage when it suits me. I don’t get to celebrate with it without admitting its faults. I don’t get to be a part of the “continuing” Presbyterian Church without being a part of the history it’s continuing from. I may not be a racist but I sure have benefitted from the practice of racism at different points in our church’s history.
Sometimes when we think about the issues surrounding residential schools in Canada we are tempted to brush them off and go about our business. It’s tempting to think, “Get over it.” It’s tempting to blame others or ignore the issues all together. But the truth is, there is no getting around it. And it’s not someone else’s problem. It’s ours. We all have a role to play.
I may not support racism, but I’ve benefited from it. How about you?
Photo by Mike Gifford via Flickr, CC 2.0
