Certain things need to be said - things that don’t seem to be said in school, things that most people hesitate to say for fear of reprisal or ridicule.

Culture is not just about song, dance and food - it’s goes much much deeper. Culture is a whole set of beliefs, values, ways of interacting with each other, etc, and it is passed on from parents to children, from one generation to the next. Is it generally intertwined with religion or some kind of spiritual beliefs, and it evolves as nearly everything does.

There seems to be a kind of “malaise” within our Western Society - a feeling that things aren’t right, a feeling that maybe we’ve gone astray, a feeling that our culture might have betrayed us in some way, a feeling that we shouldn’t be that proud of our past anymore…

I’m Canadian, but I feel I can speak for Europe and America as well since we share similar cultures and political systems. What has been happening over the past 50 years or so is a shift in political and social thinking. Here in Canada, it started with Pierre Elliot Trudeau (Trudeau Senior) and his decision to espouse “multiculturalism”, and make it a national policy. The aim was to encourage anyone who emigrated to Canada would be “encouraged” to keep their culture - in other words, not encouraged to “integrate” as had been the approach in the past. It was based on the belief that all cultures are equal, in the sense that not one culture is inherently better than another. This became official Canadian policy in 1971 - I was 27 years old at the time, and very open to the idea, having socialized with individuals of many different races during my university years; so at the time, I supported it - even expressing my support for the way he ran the country in a chance encounter with him (and his two body guards) around that time while skiing on one of the hills at Camp Fortune (btw he was a decent skier :-). At the time, I also supported his somewhat left-leaning economic policies as well.

But time passes, things happen, and one grows wiser…

Over the years, I’ve witnessed changes in our society - some good, some not so good…

I started a small business, and began to question the government’s economic policies - gradually, I became a staunch believer in capitalism (it was not yet a dirty word). Then I married a black woman - but after nearly 20 years, cultural differences and stupidities on my part led our breakup. But we had a son with whom I’m happy to have good relations with.

All through these years, until the end of the 1900’s, I was quite optimistic about the world’s future - I could see a steady improvement in race relations, more tolerance, less racism. Yes, there were the occasional complaint about certain groups’ behaviour, and a few minor clashes here and there, especially in cities where some ethnic groups had grown to a point where their neighborhood felt like small versions of their country of origin. And yes, there were the occasional complaint that they were not “integrating” - but let’s not forget, that’s what the government encouraged them to do. But generally, I felt things were getting better. I envisaged a future where the ease of international travel and migration would lead to more inter-racial marriages and eventually result in a fairly uniform medium brown skin human race, and racism would just be something you would read about in the history books and on the internet (although I was not so optimistic about our economic future - but that’s a subject for another rant).

But around the turn of the century, things took a turn for the worst. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a movement that had been slowly growing in the wings since the advent of multiculturalism, became mainstream. Large companies (and the Government) started hiring “Diversity Officers” and changed their hiring policies in order to achieve a “proper” racial and gender mix. In some instances, hiring of white males was put on hold altogether. Meritocracy was pushed to the back burner.

This led to more resentment among the population and a rapid deterioration in race relations - but barely anyone dared to complain openly for fear of retaliation, or simply so as not to be labeled as racist.