Racism Beyond Skin Color

As reported in various Australian and European newspapers and websites over the last two days, four French young woman were victims of verbal abuse and even death threats Sunday night, while riding a bus in Melbourne, because they were singing a song in French. 

"Speak English or die motherf***er." 

"Get off! Everyone on the bus wants to kill you and you're going to have to get off the bus eventually b***h have you worked that out yet?"

While two men shouted at the girls - and eventually at only one of them, who kept on singing - the rest of the passengers encouraged and approved of the insults and threats that were made to the French tourists. The only response of one of the French girls was "You are crazy!", they didn't engage in an argument with the aggressive men and didn't get off the bus. A window was smashed shortly after one of the two men got off the bus and the passengers had to wait for a replacement vehicle in which they were transferred for the rest of the ride. None of the people who verbally abused the French girls were asked to get off the bus or were given a warning of any kind by the driver.

Racism based on language

The four French tourists were White, so were the men who verbally attacked them. The song they were singing was not offending to English speaking people or Australians. The only thing that got almost every passenger on the bus angry was the fact that another language was spoken - or should I say sung - by the four tourists. It was the only difference between them and the locals and yet it seems like it was enough to raise such anger and aggressivity among the passengers. 

At that point, racism goes beyond skin color, religion or lifestyle. It is hard to believe, but incidents like this particular one do happen, and not only in rural areas of the most developed countries, but also in urban settings of the world's biggest cities, which we like to call diverse and multicultural...

Canada, where French and English coexist. Or do they?

If we take a look at the northern neighbors of America, we can also notice the phenomenon of language racism. Canada is an officially bilingual country, but most of its provinces (the equivalent of the American states) are not. Quebec is the only official French speaking province of Canada, while New Brunswick is bilingual and the rest are English speaking. 

Red = English
Green = French

The situation in this country can sometimes compare to the bus incident that occured this weekend in Australia. Even though they are all Canadian, the language difference between Quebec and the rest of Canada makes it difficult for Quebecers to identify themselves as Canadian. For different reasons - including language, but also many more - Quebec has been fighting for its independence from Canada over the last 50 years and more. 

What is particularly interesting is the fact that among Quebecers, there are francophones (French speaking) and anglophones (English speaking) who are at the same time victims and offenders from a racial point of view. Whether they are White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, they identify as being either francophone or anglophone, and sometimes give a lot of importance to that aspect of their cultural identity, which leads to anger towards the other language.

Being a Quebecer myself - French is my mother tongue but I do speak English and even a little bit of Spanish - I must say that this whole language rivalry saddens me. I have witnessed a lot of racism and stereotyping of francophones and anglophones, and I don't understand how language can divide a nation. Don't get me wrong, Quebec is no warzone for language battles and it is a peaceful, beautiful place to live, but it is a land where racism does go beyond skin color, unfortunately.