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Another example of White privilege?<\/span><\/div>\n

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Some of you are aware\u00a0I’ve been studying racial and ethnic\u00a0issues for\u00a0some time\u00a0now.\u00a0 In the process I’ve learned many interesting things,\u00a0one of them being (contrary to popular opinion),\u00a0that White people\u00a0are\u00a0not an inherently evil race,\u00a0nor are they responsible\u00a0for all the\u00a0evils on the planet.\u00a0 There are reasons why many believe this, but I won’t go into that now.\u00a0 O<\/span>nce I\u00a0got rid\u00a0of this delusion, I was able to realize (and give myself permission to see) that the White race has in fact contributed many good things to the collective human experience.\u00a0 Yes, of course there have been dark periods, but that can be said of all races and ethnic groups at various times down throughout history.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Last year, in order to celebrate this newfound\u00a0knowledge and\u00a0appreciation for my race\u00a0(and test the waters),\u00a0I put an application into ICBC (the state-owned Insurance Corporation\u00a0of British Columbia), for a personalized licence plate with the slogan “WHT PRD,” standing for “White Pride.”\u00a0 I thought since various other races and ethnic groups are allowed to openly\u00a0celebrate\u00a0their identity and heritage (Black History Month, Asian Pride Week, Mexico’s La Raza, to name a few), I\u00a0might be as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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Wrong…..<\/span><\/div>\n

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The application came back rejected because the Manager of the\u00a0Dept. had\u00a0“performed an internet search” and found that the phrase “White Pride” was\u00a0being used by some White Supremacist groups.\u00a0\u00a0His\u00a0Dept’s\u00a0<\/span>determination was that this slogan, among other things,\u00a0“might be considered not in\u00a0good taste.”\u00a0I\u00a0took it up with their Customer Relations Dept. and then their Fairness\u00a0Commissioner, but they both just parroted what the\u00a0Dept. Manager had said.\u00a0 I then filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal for discrimination based on race, colour, and ancestry.\u00a0 That\u00a0took a year and they\u00a0ended up not accepting the complaint.\u00a0 Bad enough, but the\u00a0Tribunal Chair\u00a0took\u00a0things\u00a0a step further in\u00a0his letter and more or less scolded me for thinking that I should be allowed to be proud of my race, and that this sort of thing does not line up with “the purposes of the Act.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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Ok…,\u00a0Round 2.\u00a0 In Feb this year I sent in an application to ICBC for another personalized plate with 3 choices this time:\u00a0 WHT BOY, WHT FLR (feller), and, wait for it….., WHT MAN (I know,\u00a0highly evil).\u00a0 I just got their reply last week and all 3 were rejected — the reason given?\u00a0 Each “contain a collection of characters that may be\u00a0considered offensive.”\u00a0 W<\/span>ow!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>I will take this up with their Customer Relations Dept. and Fairness Commissioner again, and see what kind of reasons they come up\u00a0with this time around.\u00a0 If it’s\u00a0not resolved\u00a0I will file another discrimination complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal and see what they have to say.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Now\u00a0to be fair,\u00a0it may just be that ICBC has a policy not to allow anything “racial” on personalized plates, and just isn’t able to come out and say this\u00a0since they would run the risk of\u00a0sounding politically incorrect.\u00a0 It would be interesting to see what would happen though\u00a0if someone put in a plate application for ASN (Asian) PRD, HSP (Hispanic) PRD, BLK (Black) PRD…, or NTV (Native) PRD.\u00a0 Would these be accepted?\u00a0 If not, and\u00a0if discrimination complaints\u00a0were filed with\u00a0the Human Rights Tribunal, would they be accepted?\u00a0 I’m curious to know.<\/span><\/div>\n

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I know just a handful of non-White folks, and they either don’t\u00a0have cars\u00a0or are apolitical\/not into activism,\u00a0so if anyone knows of any Asian, Hispanic\/Latino, Black, Native, or any other non-White person in BC that wants to celebrate their racial identity with a personalized plate, please help me get in contact with them.<\/strong><\/u><\/span>\u00a0 There is a $100 application fee for personal plates, but I will pay this,\u00a0so it won’t cost\u00a0anyone\u00a0anything.\u00a0 BC Human Rights Complaints are easy to do and free, and have the potential of paying out thousands of dollars if there is a finding of discrimination.\u00a0 If I can’t find anyone, I will put these applications in myself, but it would be better if other individuals of the various racial\/ethnic groups did so.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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With respect to my current applications and rejections, I will\u00a0apply to\u00a0<\/span>www.theccf.ca<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0and see if they\u00a0can help.\u00a0 They’re a non-profit, and if they\u00a0show an interest in\u00a0my case and take it on,\u00a0it will cost little if anything.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I’ve also been\u00a0consulting with a clever \u00a0law student with an interest in free speech and freedom of expression.\u00a0 He is recommending we file for a Judicial Review of ICBC’s decision(s) and\u00a0challenge Motor Vehicle Act\u00a0Regulation 34.04\u00a0for vagueness.\u00a0 I am also\u00a0looking into\u00a0filing for a\u00a0Judicial Review of the HR Tribunal’s decision, but that avenue is a bit more of a long shot.\u00a0 The law student will write the JR application for about $750, and filing fee’s will be about $250. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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I’ll provide updates as things progress.\u00a0 If you’re not interested in this issue, let me know and I won’t send.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Best,<\/span><\/div>\n
Lawrence<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Insurance Corp. rejects my applications for various “white” personalized plates, and the BC Human Rights Tribunal rejects my discrimination complaint. Hi Folks…., Another example of White privilege? Some of you are aware\u00a0I’ve been studying racial and ethnic\u00a0issues for\u00a0some time\u00a0now.\u00a0 In … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[453,541,543,454,542],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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