I doubt this made news outside Canada, but five off-duty naval ratings chose to visit a statue of Cornwallis in Halifax where some first nations people were holding some form of ceremony. Cornwallis was the founder of Halifax, and the fact there is a statue of him has become controversial as he once offered a bounty for native scalps back in the days when said natives were doing their best to collect scalps from the invaders. These five lads waved a red ensign and sang 'God Save The Queen', which resulted in some verbal back and forth, but no violence. They were not in uniform, but all wore black sweat shirts. Apparently they belonged to a group known as the Proud Boys, founded by the same guy who founded Vice magazine, and this group is dedicated to 'western chauvinism' - which seems to mean showing pride in the achievements of western civilisation.
They are now suspended from duty, and condemned by admirals and generals alike (confusingly, Canada unified her armed forces into one service, so we have generals telling rear-admirals what to do etc. Just remember: the rear comes before the vice.) It seems likely they will be discharged with loss of pension etc, simply to make a point. Most likely they are little shits, who can claim that they simply acted in a patriotic fashion (waving the flag, singing the anthem) but all the while intended those acts to be targeted in a derogatory fashion against the native people who witnessed their performance.
So far, so boring. Black shirts, black shorts, seen it all before. But along comes some hungry Globe & Mail columnist, Elizabeth Renzetti, who manages to turn these five into representatives of the entire white male sex, and surprise, surprise! - their sin is not to offend native people, but to be white, and male, and to offend non-native women! Never saw that coming!
Proud Boys toss around the shade in the Summer of White Male Grievance
The marching song for this Summer of White Male Grievance is an opinion piece published in the Boston Globe on July 3, and hugely popular on its website ever since. Under the headline, “In defense of the white male,” author Roland Merullo admits that his particular demographic had been guilty of many misdeeds in the past, including slave-owning and war-making, but that its many triumphs and discoveries are now overlooked and denigrated. “And,” he writes, “if it were not for the millions of white men who gave their lives in World War II, we might all be starting the work day with the Nazi salute.”
Well, that could be because women were excluded from combat in the U.S. forces at the time, and served in other ways, and doesn’t acknowledge the contribution of African-American soldiers, but anyway. Mr. Merullo’s larger point is that white men feel aggrieved.
Just think of all the splendid WW2 movies that could have been made if only women had not been been excluded! Inglorious Bitches, Katie's Heroes, One of Our Tampons is Missing, Six O'Clock Thigh, The Longest Lay etc.
I could tell him that women feel aggrieved every day over pay and wealth inequity, harassment and lack of representation in politics and the boardroom. I could point to the women in the United States who are having their right to reproductive health-care challenged by a group of uniformly pink-hued suit-wearers in the Congress and Senate. And yes, women have complained about these injustices. And yes, our reaching for even the most meagre slice of the pie has led us to this place, where our reach is condemned as greed.
But there’s a difference between feeling mildly peeved, which is the bro challenge at the moment, and actually being subjected to violence, exclusion and deprivation, which happens to women and minorities every day in North America. I’m sorry that it feels terrible. There’s a pile of our used hankies over there, if you’d like to borrow a few.
Um, wasn't this supposed to be an assault on the sensibility of indigenous people? Why is your article about boardrooms and reproductive rights? That is to say, Ms Renzetti, why is this all about you? Isn't it a very real form of cultural appropriation when you take an insult aimed at someone else, someone with real and actual grievances, and pretend it was aimed at you, a privileged white woman living the good life as a successful journalist in Toronto? And why pretend this dreadful assault on your person was perpetrated by
all white men instead of just five young louts who have never heard of you, don't read your articles and probably don't give a rat's arse about the bien-pensant Globe & Mail?
