Blog written by Ibtihaj Fairuz, Youth Community Animator – TERT, BCS.
Before the man could say anything, the receptionist warned him to stop talking as he stepped into the emergency room. The man’s head erupted in pain, and to put things in perspective, a bigoted stranger warned him to avoid upscale streets because his people were “unclean” and randomly threw a tiny pebble towards his head.
Nevertheless, the injured guy continued to request assistance from the assistant. His eyelids twitched and he collapsed.The receptionist witnessed the incident and demanded that “people of this type” shouldn’t be allowed inside hospitals. By the time someone else noticed, he was already dead.
There are countless other incidents similar to the one above, that have occurred in public settings and it really shows that our society needs some repairing. Neglect of care in healthcare settings, denial of providing service or simply helping out in public settings, due to some prejudice embedded in someone’s head, drives us away from being a tight-knit society – racism in this case.
Indigenous people, immigrants and people of colour, constantly face discrimination in various places and are shunned down when taking a stand for themselves. Why should they not raise their voices after years of exclusion? Don’t we all expect some basic decency from people around us? Decency is free. However, racism comes with a cost – scarring the victim’s mental health.
If you have any feedback about this blog or would like to contact the TERT campaign, please email us at YouthResilient@bangladeshi.ca. Thank you!
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