Cricket pitch vandalized in CDN
A popular cricket pitch in Côte-des-Neiges was cut up by vandals recently. It’s not mentioned in the item, but I wonder if there mightn’t have been some racism in the gesture, since most practitioners of the sport locally are from South Asia or the Caribbean.
JP 19:28 on 2021-07-04 Permalink
I appreciate you pointing that out, Kate. It’s a very real possibility. Either way, there are people (or a person) out there who begrudges other people having fun. I actually think someone drunk as it suggests in the article is less likely.
MarcG 21:02 on 2021-07-04 Permalink
I’ll suggest, before Chris does, and not in any way agreeing with his general worldview, that this may have been bored people destroying whatever they can destroy. The things I’ve seen down by the river in Verdun since the beginning of the pandemic, e.g. knocking over rock statues, cutting down trees, burning said trees, garbage fires, etc, etc, presumably done by bored people of all ages, are not racially motivated but plentiful. There’s a cricket field nearby as well, I hope they haven’t had to deal with similar idiocy.
Chris 12:58 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
MarcG, I’m not sure what you think my general worldview is, but one of my general worldviews is that claims need evidence. There appears to be no evidence of any motive here at all. Jumping to *any* conclusion is thus unfounded. These days many seem eager to jump to “racism” as a motivation for everything. This could just as easily be motivated by anything else. Hopefully there were witnesses or cameras and we’ll find out.
Mark Côté 15:59 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
There is one major divide in this kind of conversation, which is repeated near daily on this blog and in many other places. On the one hand, it’s hard to argue against wanting evidence before coming to any conclusions behind some given scenario. On the other, it is unreasonable and wilfully ignorant to ignore the broader evidence of systemic social problems (e.g. racism). It’s sort of like statistics: they can’t dictate anything (aside from probabilities) about a specific future event even when there is a demonstrable trend. It is frustrating to “the woke” that the systemic angle has to be put aside before examining every questionable event. At the same time, the evidence of systemic problems on its own isn’t going to provide a completely satisfactory nor useful conclusion for any given event, which is something “the non-woke” hold onto.
Something needs to be done to synthesize this dialectic… something about using an understanding of systemic racism (or any other systemic problem, of which I personally believe there are many) as a lens to view specific events, or to guide investigation, without coming to premature conclusions. This is a pretty tall order for humans.
I mean, that is, of course, if “the woke” and “the non-woke” actually want any sort of rapprochement, which is another (interesting) issue.
Chris 18:58 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
Mark, well said.
MarcG 21:03 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
Indeed.