Kids say the darndest things

My ambivalence towards kids was reaffirmed by one little punk last Tuesday. Hollam and I went to UCC to eat lunch and as we went to buy our food, we noticed a lot of kids in the food court. Western has summer programming for kids to let them play sports and obviously to give parents some slack. Hollam and I were just having an ordinary chat when *ting*, something hits Hollam's eating utensil. To me it seemed as though something fell from the ceiling but he thought it was a bottle cap. We glanced around to see if anybody was missing a bottle cap and would likely have thrown it at their buddy but missed and hit us instead. We didn't really see anybody who was playing around so we thought somebody did it intentionally. So we saw a table of guys drinking bottled pop, but they didn't seem as though they would have done it. After a couple of seconds, we just went back to our conversation and then *whack*, something ricochets off my juice can. This time we absolutely knew it was intentional. My next plan of action was to look as quickly as possible around to see who was laughing. That's usually the easiest sign of guilt when throwing random food articles at people. I spotted 3 kids apparently trying to stifle laughter. A long stare at them was sufficient to let them know that I was on to them. So I thought. As I returned to my lunch believing that this childish behaviour would end then *zing*, a Skittle comes flying at Hollam. This time I have enough evidence to nail these brats. One boy was holding a Skittles candy package, a girl next to him was giggling and another boy was also looking in our direction. I told Hollam we should just stare at them and use our age to intimidate them. I now believe that using seniority really has no relevance these days (compounded with a past experience in which a bunch of us high school students were heckled by French elementary school kids)...these kids boldly and brashly just looked back at us without fear and even continued to laugh. Normally if someone were my age I might confront them, but being kids I gave them the benefit of the doubt and ignored them. Then I heard the unthinkable..."Ch, Chin, Chink...Chinky...Chink!" WTF?!?! That immediately sent waves of anger seering through my body. I paused for a moment to let sink in the gravity of the insult that was so cowardly yelled in our direction. Firstly, where do kids learn racist remarks like that? I thought we were past all that racist bullshit. This is Canada after all. Either someone they know is perpetuating it or we still have serious racism issues to deal with. Secondly, do they even know what Chink means? Thirdly, when did respect for elders become obsolete? I mean this one boy had 2 strikes against him. He was white and he targeted of all the people in the cafeteria, 2 Asian people, then called us Chinks. And then he doesn't give a damn that we are older. Someone like him was better off being punished by the camp councillor, so I went to the table where councillors were seated and told them what happened. They dealt with it promptly and took two of the boys off (the 2nd boy was ratted out by the 1st as being an accomplice). An ironic strike 3, the 2nd boy was black. It turns out that they were sent to the office to be picked up and taken home immediately. One of the kids was crying too, haha! I'm sorry but he does not get sympathy from me.

In my 23 years of living in Canada I had never experienced such blatant racism before. I was shocked beyond belief. And to think, I am probably 3 times more Canadian than that one boy because he was a third my age. Anyhow, I'm also fortunate to see the racism instead of being treated poorly for being "different" and not knowing it. I'd rather be treated like shit and know it was because I'm Chinese than to experience the more deadlier but subtle version of racism that is maltreatment for no apparent reason. I only hope that this boys grows up one day feeling ashamed of his actions and breaks the chain of racism.