Xenophobia is part of human nature. A very unfortunate part if you ask me. I was helping a sweet old lady over the phone the other day and she confided to me (in French) "I'm so glad your not a Black". I was helping her over the phone!
Then I realised that I was prejudiced. It never occurred to me that sweet old ladies could be racists. But of course they can be. Anybody can be racist or xenophobic: the old, the young, homosexuals, bi-curious, handicapped, Black, White, Asian, poor, rich, educated, ignorant, doesn't matter.
More importantly, even us tolerant folks can sometimes betray our tolerance by saying something that isn't. Unfortunately, that is what L-Girl over at wmtc has done with her title bouchard-taylor commission tells quebec to grow up . That statement, which is false, is embedded with anti-Quebec sentiment. And I'm calling her on it.
You don't tell a people to "grow-up". That is insulting to the extreme. You don't belittle a nation and culture just because you don't understand it. And by the way, the premise of the statement if false: that people become more tolerant with maturity. Um, no. Sorry. Extremely mature people can be quite intolerant and extremely immature people, and indeed, young children, can be very tolerant.
Further reading on WMTC festering anti-Quebecness:
By the way, here is a previous post of mine that contains some examples (thanks prominent Liberal Party Members) of what not to say when someone brands you as anti-something:
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