You guys can call me what you like; racist, prejudice, bigot, whatever.

But, what I can tell you is this:

PREJUDICE IS NOT HEREDITARY... and yet multiple generations of Canadians are prejudice against natives.

You don't become prejudice against a group of people because your dad was prejudice against them or because you heard or read plenty of unflattering remarks about them. No matter how many negative remarks we hear about a person or group of people, we always hold on to the belief that we all think with the same logic and common sense, and that if you got to know that person or group of people, and they got to know you, then you could get along with them. You can't instill genuine prejudice in someone just by badmouthing other people.

Genuine prejudice comes from personal experience. Mother Nature and evolution have colluded in making personal experience the best educator in the animal kingdom. In my case, virtually all of the aboriginals I've ever encountered in my life have been spending their lives on the lowest rung of society's ladder or on the social safety net the government provides below. The little experience I had with most of them was at bus stops where they were drunk and asleep or drunk and panhandling. Most often their enquiry was whether I had any spare change in my pocket or a cigarette I wanted to give away, and some of them posed the question in a manner which made me feel that it was unsafe to say no. On the other hand, here in Manitoba we have a sect of Menonites, called Huttarites, which lead a life very similar to the Amish in the USA. They live in colonies, and every time I have seen any of them, they have been sober, part of a recognizable "family unit" with mother, father and occasionally children, and quietly going about their business without bothering anyone else in the process. Most times I see them at the plumbing and electrical wholesalers I go to, and so I have come to believe they are buying industrial equipment where they can get the best price, and that suggests to me that they are industrious people.

But, the point is that these opinions are based on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, which is something that all of us trust as the most reliable information that can be had, and therefore it's reasonable that I genuinely believe the impressions I have gotten through personal experience.

So, as a result of admittedly limited personal experiences with both groups of people, I have come to think of native people as being largely unemployable and Huttarites as being equally largely honest, hard working and trustworthy people.

To accept that the millions of people in Canada who feel exactly the same way I do can be explained as just a bunch of unreasonable racists or bigots is to accept the notion that all of us are perfectly reasonable in every aspect of their lives EXCEPT ONE; that is, we all dislike native people for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON. That just doesn't make any sense. Reasonable people are reasonable in everything they do, not reasonable in everything EXCEPT when it comes to the subject of natives, in which case their brains go on the blink and they become completely unreasonable.

I believe that the far more likely explanation is that the millions of people in Canada, and over several generations, who feel exactly the same way I do have had experiences just like mine, and that each has come to learn from their own personal experiences that their best course of action is to have as little to do with natives as possible.

What I'm saying is that it's possible to be reasonable and prejudice at the same time. You just have to have sufficient personal experience with the right group of frequently intoxicated, unruly, beligerant, unwashed, and unemployable people.

Truth is, Indians are great people to get along with... as long as they're sober. It's when they're drunk that Dr. Jeckyl turns into Mr. Hyde...they turn into heap brave warriors and get seriously crazy so that you feel uncomfortable around them. Here in Manitoba, we've had cases of brother killing brother over the last beer in a two four. And, what bugs me is that natives and government bureaucrats that work with natives will refer to alcoholism and drug abuse as "diseases". That conveniently absolves the alcoholic or addict of all personal responsibility in the matter, as though they themselves played no part in their having become alcoholics or drug addicts. It's just politically correct BS for public consumption, but it makes me mad because it's avoids the plain simple truth of the situation... these people chose to drink when they knew that being native made them predisposed to becoming alcoholics if they drank.

I'm just saying that we should take off our blinders and look at this situation for what it is... some races are predisposed to alcoholism and drug addiction. If the US is going to entertain the notion of refusing to sell guns to people with mental disorders, even though those people are LESS likely to be violent and use a gun in the commission of a violent crime, why not also make it illegal to sell alcohol or drugs to natives that are predisposed to becoming alcoholics and addicts and therefore a danger to themselves and their families and a burden on society?