A Professor At A Real University Thinks The Canoe Is A Symbol Of White Privilege And I Actually Agree

Dillon Cheverere9 years ago

From Heatstreet:

According to Misao Dean, Professor of English at the University of Victoria, the canoe can be a symbol of colonialism, imperialism and genocide due to history. She also accused the canoers of cultural appropriation because they are primarily white men and have a privileged place in society.

In a radio interview for CBC Radio, which wasn’t picked by the Internet until several months later, she claimed “we have a whole set of narratives that make the canoe into a kind of morally untouchable symbol, something that seems natural, that seems ordinary, and seems to promote values that we ascribe to.”

“But I think if you look a little further that narrative obscures or erases another narrative—and that narrative is about, to be blunt, it’s about theft and genocide”, the professor said.

Dean continued to explain why she thinks Canada picked the canoe as a symbol, claiming it has to do with benefits to particular groups—particularly white men— who pushed the canoe.

Jesus Christ on a cracker. This crazy bitch is actually spot on here. Sometimes the most offensive things are hiding in plain sight. Canoes! Offensive as fuck. I totally get that there’s going to be some outrage over this. Anytime someone throws out aggressive language like “genocide” or “white privilege” and calls out an entire race with some seemingly trivial bullshit, it’s going to raise some eyebrows.

But people are morons. Where you non-thinkers might look at a canoe as a simple hollow vessel to transport one to four people across a small body of water, Professor Dean and I know that it’s a cultural appropriating symbol of imperialism, genocide, and white priv. It makes all the sense. Get your heads out of the sand, sheeple. Maybe wake tf up and realize what’s going on.

Did you guys know that I’m of Native American descent? Well, I am. How do you think I feel every time I drive across the Congress Bridge and see all the whites down on the river canoeing their privileged little hearts out without a care in the world? My Injun relatives used to carve these fuckers out of a single birch tree trunk with nothing more than flint rocks. We invented canoes with the sole purpose of escaping the pillaging white man at 3 MPH across lakes and streams and all that. Don’t fact check me. That info is good.

Keep the people woke, professor..

[via Heatstreet]

Image via Shutterstock