In the early evening of January 17, 2015 a friend of mine, a woman who is of obvious Native Ancestry walked into a Melville establishment where there are Video Lottery Terminals. She went straight to the VLT machines and sat with her back to the rest of the room. She was aware that there was a table of other people sitting not far from her but she paid no attention to the group and focused on playing the VLT machines as she had done in the past to pass a quiet January evening. She was the only one at the machines.
After a few minutes she heard one of the males at the table behind her say " What ? They let Indians in here now?"
My friend felt her face turn red with shame and embarrassment. She told me that she just kept staring at the VLT as she relived those moments years ago when she sat in an all white school hearing the teacher read from the Social Studies text about savage wild Indians living in North America.
My friend wanted to leave but felt that perhaps if she just ignored the comment she would avoid any further barbs thrown her way. She said she didn't even want to move or draw any more attention to herself. She said that fear was the biggest emotion she felt while she was sitting there. She was worried that if she left maybe she would be followed. She was worried that if she confronted the racist speaker he would find out where she lived, find out what kind of vehicle she drove, or harass her even more in some other unknown way. So she just sat at the VLT and pretended that she hadn't heard the slur, although she did text her partner in the next town telling him what she was experiencing.
A few moments later another comment came in the form of " First time I've been in here that there aren't any Squaws." from the same voice behind her. My friend said she heard some whispered 'Shs shs' coming from other people at the table and someone whispering "She's right there....."
It was about this time that my friend's partner arrived as a result of the text he had received. They left the bar together immediately without further incident or comment from anyone at the other table.
One may think that the incident ended there. The victim left the building. The main bully and his counterparts continued their evening at the bar. There was no confrontation. Just a few little harmless comments for laughs. No big deal.
Wrong!
An innocent person was made to feel uncomfortable and fearful due to the mere fact that they walked into a public place alone. An innocent person felt so trapped and vulnerable in a public place that they had to call for support outside of the building not sensing that anyone in the building could be counted on for support. An innocent person has to now take the memory of this attack and process it enough to ensure that if will not affect other choices she makes when it comes to her freely choosing to go out in public alone for fear of something like this will happen again.
This incident was a racially motivated attack with a victim and perpetrators. I use the plural here as the people who were sitting at the same table are every bit as responsible for the situation as the one who was actually making the comments for "If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem."
I always used to think that Melville was just a small city with not much to make it stand out from any other small city. But in light of the above incident and the recent labeling of Winnipeg as the most racist city in Canada I guess Melville has more Big City Ideas than I first thought.
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