I believe in a culture of national forgiveness — even for the woke, culture-less, illiberal left-wing automatons who would happily “cancel” all the rest of us merely for holding the wrong views on a variety of political subjects.
For that reason, I would only call Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a massive hypocrite — not a racist. Trudeau’s blackface and “brownface” costumes were in extremely poor taste, and they both came decades after such dress-up could be written off as an unfortunate product of the times. Still, I do not believe for one second that Trudeau hates people of other races, or that he would deliberately discriminate against them, or offend them if reasonably informed about the potential consequences of his behavior.
And no, that’s not because of his politics, which are neither here nor there. Some believe that holding the right views gives you a free pass to disrespect others and treat people like garbage. It isn’t so. It’s just that I’ve never heard of Trudeau mistreating or disrespecting or singling out anyone because of their race. In defiance of today’s intersectional ideologues, we should all stand up and reiterate that this is the true test and definition of racism.
And yes, it’s still kind of damning that Trudeau can’t even say more photos and videos won’t surface of further instances of him wearing blackface. It reminds me of Anthony Weiner’s uncertainty as to whether there were pictures of his member at large — a dead giveaway that there were. Trudeau really ought to just come clean now and get it over with all at once. Further revelations between now and Canada’s federal election next month will be much worse for him and his Liberal Party if he doesn’t get it off his chest now.
In any event, Trudeau deserves our thanks for helping undermine the conceit of those who look down their noses at the United States — as if somehow we, in taking the risk of moving forward as the most racially diverse nation in world history, thus made ourselves uniquely guilty of racism. The reality is that we, more than any nation, have confronted a horrific demon head-on. We have wrestled with forces that were created long before any of us were born — and in many cases before our families ever set foot on this continent.
America has its flaws, but we have come such a very long way since the Civil Rights era. We have every reason to be proud of that. And if Trudeau needs help adjusting his behavior to fit into a liberal, pluralistic and diverse society like his own, his American cousins are experienced in all this. We’re just a quick phone call away.
