The discovery of the burial of hundreds of Indigenous children has triggered painful conversations. Painful, but necessary.
Non-Indigenous people ask, “Why should I have to feel responsible for this? I didn’t do this. I wasn’t even born!”
Here is my personal answer to that. It may not be everyone’s answer, but it’s my answer.
I was born into Canada’s non-Indigenous culture. I’ve benefited from a front-row seat at the table of white privilege. I ate until I could eat no more. I’ve had every possible advantage.
No, I didn’t set up residential schools and I didn’t throw any children’s bodies into unmarked graves. The table of white culture did — the table that stuffed me full of entitlement. The table of white privilege is culpable for the atrocities of the past, and because of the privilege fed to me at that table, I AM NOW RESPONSIBLE for making things right.
Every one of us who gorged at the table of white privilege is responsible for making things right.
Sincerely,
Todd Hirsch
The Modern Economist