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That's exactly the 'lie' being presented. In the late 19th century up to about 1910, there were much higher rates of Aboriginal kids dying than normal, and it
by jollybean 4y ago
That's exactly the 'lie' being presented.
In the late 19th century up to about 1910, there were much higher rates of Aboriginal kids dying than normal, and it was mostly due to tuberculosis. It would 'set loose' at a residential school and mortality rates were high.
There were investigations and it was a 'big social issue' even 100 years ago.
Since about WW2, the rates of death at res schools have been fairly consistent with those in the general population.
The term 'genocide' may apply in the context of the government wishing to 'educate' Aboriginals purely in the Western sense and to suppress their culture, but the world folds all to nicely into 'killing' the children etc which is how the word is used in popular imagination.
The 'narrative managers' in the press are keenly aware of the power of their words, and that they will be misinterpreted, to great effect.
The factual reality of Residential Schools is absolutely worth of consideration, it's a serious issue, but it's also deeply misrepresented in the press.
"If it was just a virus, particularly in the early days of medicine, this would be a scandal created out of thin air."
I wouldn't entirely want to make the claim that 'because it's tuberculosis' fully exonerates the schools, but I'll bet $100 that tuberculosis at other remote boarding schools (non-aboriginal kids) would have somewhere near the same effect in most places during that era, where as you hint 'medicine was a mess'.
But either way, you're hinting at 'the distortion of information' begin presented by the narrative driven press, which is sad, because it's a serious issue.
- pyuser583 4y agoAt best, you prove that the real issue here isn’t ethnic identity but social class. You might be right. What was the fatality rate at Eton during this time?
- jtode 4y agoUnless an out-group was being kept in a low social class on the basis of their ethnic identity. The entire residential school system was about ethnic identity - removing theirs and making them take on ours, by taking children away from their families and handing them over to religious authorities. There's a whole bunch of people in this discussion thread who are clearly not Canadian and clearly not informed about this, who seem to believe they're railing against appropriating an issue for political points, by appropriating one of our most shameful national issues (and implicitly denying it, however artfully) in order to make political points.
- jollybean 4y agoThe people railing are Canadian, and they are doing so because they know they have been lied to by the press. The 'problem' are those who continue to misrepresent the situation and fail to understand for some reason (especially after been given the facts) that this is going on. Sending kids to boarding school where mostly people learned to speak English and do basic math - is not the same as sending kids to camps to kill them. The liars want to have us believe they're essentially or historically the same thing, when there's no truth there at all.
- pyuser583 4y agoThis post is about a false fact pattern being amplified to support a narrative. This false fact pattern is being amplified on both sides of the border. My local American newspaper is trying very hard to tell horror stories about local Indian schools.
- jollybean 4y agoWell, Eton was the elite of the elite. And I'm not actually trying to say this was not an 'aboriginal specific' issue. I think the issue with them was real, but decontextualized and misrepresented by the press, which is the focus of the article. The press drives narratives and will ignore context if necessary. Sadly, if you stray away from the press, most independent outlets are full if inanity and made up facts, it's very hard to get factual stuff, meaning any individual truth seeker has to become a kind of 'independent journalist' - it's very hard. I think most people end up down rabbit holes of misinformation, which is worse than the 'generally factual but biased' press.