The story “We’ll Take the White One” by Dawn Dumont seemlessly portrays its negative effect on the First Nation people. According to the website of Anti-Defamation League ( https://www.adl.org/racism ), racism “Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another.” In the story, the church and the government of Canada thought that they could “beat the Indian out of” the children (page 269) by forbidding their language and culture, forcing them to learn English and Christianity, and punishing them severely for the lightest of the mistake. We can see that from reading the story on page 268: “A year after he was enrolled at the school, the nuns and priests at the school decided that my dad’s last name, “Day Walker,” was too Native-sounding and changed it to “Walker.” Dumont’s mother also watched two girls being beaten with a strap for attempting to escape from the residential school (Dumont 268). Additionally, the Residential schools did not care for their students. They neglected and abused the students, creating generations of failing and low self-esteemed children. Dumont’s mother says, “When I started junior high, there had been at least fifteen reserve-raised girls in my class. By the time i graduated, there were none left. The others had transferred to city schools where they fit better, where there were more Native students…” (Dumont 273). Lastly, the white people had no regards for the First Nation people’s feelings. From the story, on page 266, there was a couple of white people came to meet Dumont’s grandfather. The couple straightforwardly said that they wanted to “take a child”. They even said they “could also take one more.” That was absurdity at its best, for they to said those words out. How could they adopt a child when their parents are still alive and well? From all of the point above, we can see that racism had negative effect on people of the First Nation, and we should do more to reconcile and restore their culture.
WORK CITED
Dumont, Dawn. Nobody Cries at Bingo. Tbistledown Press, 2011.
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