¹ MONSTERS | SPAM

o8o. 🥀

o8o. 🥀 [rant of sorts]
to: dearreaders@gmail.com
subject: why i'll never truly
be proud of my nationality
subtopic: not to be "controversial" on main

Ok, so I just want to start this off by saying that these are just my opinions. Everyone can have their own, and if you want to debate please be polite! I love hearing other people's perspectives and experiences, so I encourage a healthy polite mannered conversation here. Anything but that, will not be tolerated. In other words: you will be blocked.

Now, what I mean by nationality is well, the country I live in. That I identify with. That has always been Canada and for the most part India.

My definition of proud would mean that I am complacent in all the actions, good and bad, that have happened or have been associated with the country that I identify with. And I can't just do that, I can't be proud of being Canadian because I know all the horrible things I would be overlooking when I'm saying "I'm proud to be Canadian." I just can't.

To reiterate/before you read further: I define being proud of nationality as being proud of the political climate/current events/etc. In my eyes, I could never be proud of any country because every country has its problems. In this rant/rambling, I specify on Canada and India because I know the most about these two. I don't condone xenophobia or xenophobic idealisms, these are just my little ranting on why I don't like Canada/India please don't think this is something that it's not. I'm sure there are things that you don't like about your country, I mean where are my fellow Americans 👀. Feel free to share things you dislike about your country here. I'm trying to create a safe space for you all to feel safe enough to comment on these things. Once again: I am not saying that Canada and India are bad countries (when I say Canada/India - I mean the government body - not Canadians or Indians), I'm just saying they've done some bad things that I don't want to be associated with - because those aren't my ideals (even if we've learnt from past events).

For those of you who don't know (and it's not really your fault, I mean there are so many other countries that are in the news that no one really knows what's going on here or our history), Canada has a very similar history towards First Nations people like America. I don't know much about American history, but I do know that they had Residential Schools. And I can go on and on about what happened (not to be insensitive, just for the sake of how long this is going to turn out - if you want, just ask, and I can go in detail and provide resources of the atrocities First Nations children and families suffered and are still suffering today), but that's a whole other rant.

Can you believe that Canada's government never outright apologized, or ever said anything about those schools? Not until Stephen Harper issued an apology speech. Look it up, it's not that great if we're being honest. But it's not really enough, and I can't speak for First Nations people but I can say this: no one should forget that that was genocide. That a genocide took place in Canada, one of the nicest 'do no wrong' countries in the world. Let that really sink in.

Genocide, FYI, is defined by intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part. And something that has always rubbed me the wrong was that no one will ever acknowledge Residential Schools as genocide, because of the wishy-washy definitely that has way too many loopholes (and is perceived as different in everyone's eyes). To me, at least, it's pretty clear that Residential Schools were a malicious act funded by the Canadian government to destroy a culture (not by mass killings, but by assimilation).

     (Not gonna lie, I'm going to create another rant/rambling about all the things wrong with the UN because of how they handle genocides in countries. It's a whole separate topic, sigh. Most new articles won't use the word genocide to describe Residential Schools, because the government doesn't want to acknowledge it as that. If a country were to label it as that, then they would have to act with the UN to stop it. But it never gets that far; see: Rwandan Genocide)

Now, back to my point. I can't be proud of Canada and maybe I'm overreacting. That's my stance on things, I don't want to be proud of something like that, I don't want to be associated with such atrocities and I don't want to feel like I have to be proud of my nationality. I am never going to be proud, and yeah, it makes me sad that I don't really identify with "Canadian culture" because of that, but it's not going to change my mind? I can hear other people's opinions, but in the end, I know that it takes a lot to sway my opinion to something else when I'm so opinionated about it.

I also said I am not proud to be Indian. There's a reason for that too. I found this great book here on Wattpad that explains the current events of what is happening there called "#NotMyIndia" I rather not go into detail about this because I'm not the most educated on it, I'm still learning, doing research and trying my best to understand what is the truth. It's really hard to when everything is skewed into one mindset in the news, though. That's not an excuse, it's just why I'm choosing not to comment in detail on what's happening currently, but if you don't read the book, here's a TLDR: Muslims in India are being prosecuted. It breaks my heart to know that this is happening, not just in India but around the world in multiple places.

I cannot stand by and ignore that that's happening. So I decided that I would distance myself from my 'Indian pride/culture.' Similar to Canada, I am not proud of being India. I can't imagine how people could be (according to MY definition, at least. I know that some people refer to being proud of their culture, etc and not current events. This is not what I'm saying, I think it's great that people are proud of their culture and such. Again, this is by MY definition).

Yeah, that's my 'unique' take on things. Please feel free to share your opinions because look, I've shared way too many of mine already and would love to hear yours! This has been a plaguing thought in my mind ever since I was in Social Justice and genocide was brought up as a topic. I never really shared my opinion in class, I never felt comfortable with my classmates judging me (that class just, well, I just didn't feel like I was in a safe place to share opinions because of some of my intimidating classmates).

I feel comfortable sharing things on here because I've surrounded myself with a really great community of people. You guys are understanding, caring and loving, and I love you guys for that.

If at any point, this whole thing was confusing, please please please ask me what I meant. I'm sure I could have said some things in a much clear and concise way.