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LETTER: Decision to vaccinate minorities first will 'trigger racist accusations,' says reader

'This is where Justin Trudeau and the Liberals could work harder at undoing racist structures and systems that prove so disadvantageous to minority groups,' says Barrie resident
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Stock photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels

BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Racialized adults on revised federal COVID-19 vaccination priority list' published on Feb. 15. 
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If the news report about the government’s promise to next vaccinate racialized citizens from the hardest-hit communities is true, then Canada will have finally shown some gumption in combating systemic racism after all.

However, the decision to vaccinate minorities first will undoubtedly trigger racist accusations of favouritism and resurrect the old white supremacist lie that racial minorities carry different diseases from non-racialized Canadians; that we are somehow ‘dirtier and more disease-prone” than people from European ethnicities. Think about the movie The Help in a couple of key scenes.

This is where Justin Trudeau and the Liberals could work harder at undoing racist structures and systems that prove so disadvantageous to minority groups and help undo decades of ill-will. He could start by completing the upgrading of water systems on Indigenous reserves; legislating laws that protect racial minorities during the hiring process of the labour market as well as during their employment in the years following hiring.

He might help undo wage disparity that exists not only between the genders but between racial groups. A universal basic income is a great idea, but ultimately a Band-Aid solution whereas the promise of equal opportunity and more secure employment for racialized individuals working white collar or executive-level jobs is more suitable.

COVID should be another impetus for a better Canadian society.

Christopher Mansour
Barrie

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