I think in the end this is what pushed me over the edge.

I don’t care how you slice it, a foreigner’s mindset (depends on the country) is much different than a North American’s mindset.

If anyone wants to argue that point, I probably won’t even listen because I am an educated intelligent person & you would be hard pressed to convince me otherwise.

That’s not to say that people in foreign countries don’t have North American ideals & that is why they want to get out of their own country, but the way a child is raised by his/her parents plays a HUGE part on how they see society, humans & the world in general.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many white people who are closed minded, but having been raised or born in Canada, but their expectations of certain things are different. They may not have quality tastes, but at the very least, their expectations are different unless they don’t care about themselves, then naturally they don’t care about the quality of anything all the way from their clothes, furniture, house, car, etc.

When a person comes from the Orient, India, Pakistan, etc., their quality of living over there is generally well below our quality of living over here.

Now they come in droves to live in Canada everyone sponsoring everyone else, so they multiply in HUGE NUMBERS.

These races generally run the small stores which is ok if they are selling packaged products that have their own industry with regulations, but if they start selling things that aren’t regulated, they tend to not care about quality, safety, common sense, etc.

My views on this extend to contractors, construction type work & if you research how many restaurants got closed down by the Health Inspectors inspecting restaurants, you will see that the majority (if not all), were run by foreigners.

3 times in the last 7 years I’ve rented from landlords who hire the cheapest labour they can find to redo a basement, & every time it’s either a black person (not sure what country they were from), East Indian, or Pakistinian.

Each time they did a terrible job & I had to suffer because of it.

They aren’t totally to blame of course, if the industry that regulates construction work had their act together & really cared, they wouldn’t be allowed to get away with this, but they don’t have their act together, & they don’t care.

Do you know out of all the houses I have rented, only one was a white person?

And each time I was left with a house they wouldn’t fix & when they did fix the work, they did a sub par job.

I once had an older Italian man REFUSE to even show me his house after he said “come on over” on the phone all because I was a single mother & he couldn’t understand why I needed a house to live in. That’s the ignorant mentality of a sexist Italian man.

Same sort of thing happened with an Oriental woman. She shows me the house & my male friend happened to come along. She assumed I was married to him. When she wanted me to fill out the application which I did putting me & my mother on there, she refused to rent it to me saying that she thought I had a man in my life, she wasn’t going to rent to just a woman. Sexism, foreigner’s general way of thinking. Yes before you say it, there are lots of sexist white folks, but there just isn’t nearly as many.

So yes, lowering the quality of standards across the board when it comes to construction work, contracting, restaurants, food stores, etc., this is a problem, & is anyone doing anything about it?

Anyone who thinks white people are the only ones who are racist, doesn’t know much.

We moved into the Mississauga area a few years back & my son ended up going to a school where he was the minority.  I will admit that it took me almost a year to adjust how I felt about this because I was in shock that he was 1 of 2 white kids in his class & there were the same ratios in all of the other grade 5 classes & there were many, not just 1 or 2 grade 5s.

If the class had been made up of about 5-10 different ethnicities, then ok, that would have made me feel more comfortable, but they weren’t.

There were either blacks, Pakistinians, or East Indians & that’s it.

So my son made a few friends, only one was white of course & there constant racism on their part.

Not so much from his friends, but from his friend’s family; cousins, aunts, uncles, parents.

Once again, they would speak negatively about my son right in front of his face.

I would get very angry after I kept hearing about this over & over again.

We have since moved twice & he is now in a high school where once again, he’s the only white kid in his class. There are maybe 5% (if that) white kids in the entire school & there are almost 2,000 students in the school.

There are a lot of white teachers, & they make up the majority, but no white students.

I will say it, the Toronto area is slowly weeding out ALL the white or close to white looking people. At first I would joke about how now I know how it feels to be a black person, but black people were generally only the minority in small cities, not large ones like Toronto.

Once again, I have no problem at all with different nationalities, I do have a problem with me being the minority in a country that was once primarily white & when I say white, I mean from countries that are of mainly European origin.

And if you tell me not to live in these segregated areas, fine, you can pay for my rent or mortgage in a white area. I didn’t choose to live here because I wanted to, although I do like the area quite a bit & my son’s school is nice, big & new, I came here because it’s cheaper to live here.

Thanks

Michelle

I know, there aren’t many posts here to begin with.

So this is bothering me & so this isn’t just one long post, I’m just going to create a new post for each point I’m trying to make so when someone comments, we will know which issue they are commenting on.

I’m a spiritually conscious person who usually respects everyone until they give me a reason not to, so my feelings are getting to me.

I’ve never been racist before even though I know even covering up your purse when you see a black person can be construed as being a racist.

BUT, I realize it when I’m doing it & I try to adjust & I certainly don’t think that all black people steal, quite the contrary.

My post here isn’t even about black people. For me black people are as mainstream as white people.

I live in the Toronto, Ontario area. Actually just outside of Toronto because Toronto is too expensive.

I used to LOVE Toronto for it’s diversity, culture, different foods, etc.

Well maybe it’s because I’m no longer living right in Toronto anymore, or maybe it’s something else, but I feel it warrants a discussion if someone is secure enough within themselves to add on to my post.

I noticed a few months ago that I started to have racist thoughts, moreso towards Orientals, East Indians & Pakistinians.

I’ve been going through a rough battle with an Oriental man who refused to return my money to me after misrepresenting what he would do in a Rent to Own deal.

I’m not saying that is what started me to feel this way, I’m saying it probably pushed me over the edge & here’s why…

For quite a few years now I’ve been getting upset by the fact that Canada does NOT require foreigners to learn the English language.

They allow them to become landed or citizens, & stay in this country not having to learn a bit of English & normally this would pose a problem for them if there were such segregation, but there is.

When I was 21 years old or so, I met a Portuguese guy who took me to his neighbourhood. I was shocked to meet an older couple that had been living in Canada for 25 years & didn’t speak a word of English.

At the time I didn’t care, I thought it was amusing, but being a lot older now, I don’t have the patience like I did when I was 20 years old.

When I call up a restaurant (usually Chinese or Japanese) & can’t even understand a word they are saying & vice versa, this PISSES ME OFF!

When I walk into Tim Horton’s & the girl behind the counter can’t even understand what I’m asking & I try to rephrase it 3 different times & she STILL can’t understand me, this irks me.

I’ll state this so I’m being very very clear here…

I have nothing against people speaking different languages, that’s great, that makes them more educated, diverse, etc., BUT, if they can’t even speak the native language of the country they are living in, I don’t feel they have a right to open a store, work in any store where they have to deal with the public & I don’t feel they should be allowed to become a citizen of the country they live in.

If I went to live in any non English speaking country, OF COURSE I would want to learn the language of the people. Not just because it’s respectful but because it’s moronic to sit around not understanding a word anyone is saying. If I want to be part of that country, I should start assimilating, not alienate myself.

BUT, if that country doesn’t care whether you learn the language, & they allow you to move to an area that ONLY has people from that country, then why would anyone care about learning the language of the country?

Another thing that bothers me & other people who have mentioned it, is when foreigners go around speaking their own language bad mouthing the people in front of them & us English speaking people can’t understand a word they are saying.

This is RUDE, and DISRESPECTFUL!

My last point is, HOW DARE Canada allow stores to open up that have NO English signage on them, or they have menus that have no English on them & it’s clear these stores/restaurants don’t want us Canadians in there, they only want their own people in there.

I don’t know, this situation has been getting worse & worse every year & Canada does nothing to stop it. Hey, they started it all by allowing all of this to happen in the first place.

I’ll reiterate for the last time because I know people will read, get upset & not understand my English.

I live in Canada, I expect to see English on signs, menus, everywhere I go, I mean Canada forces us to have French on all of our packaging (another sore spot with me) & 80% of Canada doesn’t speak a word of French. If they want to force companies in Quebec or New Brunswick to have French everywhere, I can understand why, but to force the rest of Canada to do this so we lose out on products that companies refuse to import into the country, or Canada won’t allow them in, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

If I wanted to live in China where there is ONLY Chinese written everywhere, I would MOVE THERE, but I don’t. I want to see English.

I want to hear people who understand me, & I understand them.

While I don’t expect people to know English the minute they arrive in Canada, I’m not talking about those people, I’m talking about the ones who have been here a year or longer & there are thousands of them.

I really really feel Canada needs to step up to the plate & start enacting some rules/laws about this issue.

Thank you for anyone who listens with an open mind.

Michelle