(First posted on

I almost threw up today when I was forced to face just how racist my neighbourhood is.

I never talk about

#racism

and rarely about

#sexism

or age-ism or generation bias - I think people have a right to like and not like what they will. Human nature means our primal brains (not our neo-cortex, though!) are still most comfortable with the familiar. Fair. But to hate so much as to have to act on it? I just thought the

#GTA

, being cosmopolitan, would have fewer instances of it.

I'm not blind to the neighbourhood colonization thing (similar people 'coming together'), but to flat out tell me to my face... this is straight out of some creepy horror movie. I think my baby has awakened some fear that they were silent about before.

2 weeks ago, a 40-something caucasian man was glaring at me, then came straight up to see the colour of my baby's eyes. I turned and walked away... I didn't expect my maternal instinct to be so fierce, so walking away was best for everyone.

Another time, this red-haired 60-something Caucasian woman (had LOTS of brazen comments and approaches from this group) did the same thing, but she also followed me to 3 different places before confronting me.

On a million different occasions, however, Chinese (not Korean or other Asian groups - Chinese in particular), have been the worst! At a Canadian Tire, a 50-something man said to my partner (totally ignoring me), "ah! Your genes strong! Lucky You! My grandchildren come out black, black, black, black, black...", yea that many times. And he wasn't celebrating their beauty, poor children. I laughed that off because... well, I never had to see him again. But when you see couples everyday, and women in particular, all ages, glare at you and then make "humph" noises and break their necks trying to see her face without getting too close to me (most of them anyway), it gets to be too much.

Then there are the few black people in my neighbourhood who just flat out scowl at me. Really?

At what point is it

#harassment

? I should be able to put my baby in a stroller without being prepared to throw my body over her to protect her from the

#assault

. Right?

I really never focus on race... I'll go to "you're having a bad day" or "you were probably traumatized by someone that looked like me" or 'any of the other -isms' before I have no other possibility left, and even then, I go to "it's your issue if you're a racist, not mine, as long as you don't act on it, in which case, we have a judicial system for that", but I think it becomes assault when it goes this far.

What are they going to do when they realize we're all the same race... human? Even if we all looked the same... people will find something.

Awesome update: ❤❤❤ At least people can see from my friends' comments on Facebook that it's not everyone in the GTA that's that way inclined. I guess that's why I can be surprised by that behaviour. Love you guys. Thank you all so much simply for Being! ❤❤