daftandbarmy
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Canadian Armed Forces apologizes for racial discrimination and harassment
- Thread starter daftandbarmy
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I mean they aren’t wrong about systemic racism existing. It still exists and permeates our whole society. How else can you have a two tier system where some based on birth are granted more rights and freedoms than anyone else and everyone else can never have the same amount of legal rights and freedoms?
For sure there was systemic racism in CAF. It was reflective of society, sure, but it was there and it was poisonous. CAF as an institution has always had a need to do right by its people, and for a long time a lot of people weren’t done right by because they didn’t look like me, or like a lot of us here. Historically, plenty of CAF members were mistreated due to race.
In the vein of “you did the best you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better”- it’s right to take ownership of an historical wrong, acknowledge it, and pledge to be better. The CDS’ apology on behalf of the institution is an appropriate and necessary step in this ownership. Similar to comparable historical mistreatment of women, or of LGBT members. I’m out now, but to best of my recollection all CAF members were supposed to be treated equally as basic human, and assessed for the quality of their work for CAF.
I’ve never understood people who take a deserved apology as a sign of weakness.
In the vein of “you did the best you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better”- it’s right to take ownership of an historical wrong, acknowledge it, and pledge to be better. The CDS’ apology on behalf of the institution is an appropriate and necessary step in this ownership. Similar to comparable historical mistreatment of women, or of LGBT members. I’m out now, but to best of my recollection all CAF members were supposed to be treated equally as basic human, and assessed for the quality of their work for CAF.
I’ve never understood people who take a deserved apology as a sign of weakness.
As a PoC, I watched it and felt nothing but pride. It's a sign of strength that the CAF can admit mistakes and seek to be better. And as presenters pointed out during the ceremony itself, nobody serves for decades and acts as ambassadors for institutions they don't believe in.
Immature folks who build their identity around what they think of as strength as opposed to real strength and you know, caring for your people. I never seen any of these type of people be anything but toxic while in uniform. The louder they are, the more useless, generally speaking.
