Libra
Throughout this trial, I've had fellow First Nations people come to me and share their feelings about prejudices toward Native people, and in particular, Native prostitutes. I didn't really pick up on the fact I was different when I was working the street. I got along with anyone who got along with me; I didn't worry about the color of people's skin. I befriended transsexuals. I was fairly opened-minded.
That's not saying being First Nations never troubled me throughout life. When I was a teenager, my girlfriend Sheri from school got a job in McDonald's. She tried to get me a job with her. However, she talked to her bosses and they told her that they weren't hiring me because I was an "Indian." They don't hire "them" because they can't be trusted. Little did they know, I lived in Upper Lonsdale, in a mid-high class neighbourhood with white people; she quit her job because she wouldn't work for people like that.
During school, I had to deal with all the kids who thought that I was supposed to be tough and know how to fight. They taught me to fight because I had to stand up for myself all the time.
When I attended the waiter/waitress course at Vancouver Community College, I had problems with the instructor because I was Native and female. Even when I lived in Chilliwack, where there are many First Nations reserves, I had trouble getting a job, because I was Native. People out there stereotyped me. So maybe this is one reason I ended up on the streets collecting welfare. I don't like to point fingers, but it's a big concern in the Native community, even today.
There are times when I have trouble getting business done.
COMMENTS (2)
RATE THIS STORY
Nude photos of the MTV reality star surfaced on the...
I was born in Karachi, Pakistan, later studied at the University of Minnesota Law...
Comments
Pauline, you dont need to
By Goose Egg, March 11, 2007 at 23:09Pauline, you dont need to point your finger to anyone; the Canadians and the rest of the world knows as to who had brought the native Indians in North America to such a mess, that they are now labelled by the same people as a bunch of alcoholics and druggies, thieves and thugs, pimps and prostitutes and of no good.
They are the white colonial europeans, who were and still are actually the residents of the stolen native land in North America.
But times are changing, the natives of American continent are slowly but steadily emerging out of their slumber; their coming out of the Anglo-U.S hegemony in Latin America to the numerous First Nation's resurgent activism in North America, including the recent monthlong blockade in Caledonia, Ontario will herald a new begining in their fight against the oppression of the whites on them for centuries.
Natives and aborigines of the world unite.
As a young native female I
By shadygurl987, March 7, 2007 at 23:40As a young native female I can see where my mom is coming from it is harder for native people male or female to make it by in this world even though we live in a so call "free country" it does not seem like that at all, it seems like we as a race are bared by the racism not only by children and teenagers but by adults also. I wish my daughter can grow up in a world free of color were it wouldn't matter if your skin was white, yellow, brown .red, or purple with pink and green poke-a-dots, were people would care what was on the inside and not what was on the outside. A racism free world!