Emad Barsoum writes: In the times of Inclusion and Diversity

The nation woke up to horrifying news, the discovery of yet another unmarked mass grave in Saskatchewan that contained over seven hundred and fifty bodies of indigenous children. Such discovery took place just a month after a similar mass grave was discovered in another site in British Colombia, and as some observers stated, these are not the only sites, there could be more.

What a shocking and dreadful discovery that made us realize that many of us were living an illusory life, believing that we are exempt from committing any sort of racism, apartheid, or genocide. Unlike the United States that witnessed massive terrorizing acts against its indigenous people, as history tells us.

Our appall is greater because we lived believing that such deeds never happened on our land, while the States never denied the genocides and ethnic cleansing that was performed against its natives. Even Australia was not free from a systematic ethnic cleansing against their indigenous groups.

Remarkably enough the new world has been the arena for the acts of ethnic cleansing, simply because the immigrants were taking land that they did not have the right to in the first place, and they have seen themselves as a superior species from the natives.

 Indeed, they had the inventions of gunpowder, the wheel, and other objects that allowed them to prevail, however, they lacked any form of humanity and civility.

While Europe at the time of new world discovery was fighting religious oppression, welcoming the renaissance, revolutionizing the arts, and establishing the very basis of civilization and sophistication, their pioneers on the far side of the world were exterminating other human beings, who had done them no wrong and simply inhibited their own land.

As we speak about discovering those unmarked mass graves, we must remember that such genocides happened in the twentieth century, while the world had already established its codes of humanity and ethics, yet it was not applicable to the indigenous people of the New World.

It is very ironic to witness those who have practiced all acts of racism are now calling for diversity and inclusion, the inclusion that they could not achieve with the indigenous, and the diversity that is laminating a massive ethnic and religious division, that has distanced its people and isolated them in closed communities.

Each community is carefully watching the other while avoiding social or economic interactions with them. One group will not see physicians from a different ethnic background or even religion, another group will not purchase products or services from a provider from the opposite group.

Even more, ironically, some business owners would tend to hire people from certain ethnic backgrounds to attract customers from within those groups, however deep inside them the business owners are not accepting others or believe in diversity and inclusion.

Our society is suffering from the buried fire under the ashes, and it is the duty of all who believe in a better, safe, and prosperous future to stand up against all forms of hypocrisy and create the future we look for.