Family treated to racist tirade by St. Johns taxi driver | Spare News

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Willow Anderson and her family had just completed a perfect visit to St. Johns for Christmas.

They had just left the province, so it was an opportunity to see their family and friends again.

But their trip to the airport on New Year’s Day turned into one hell of a taxi ride.

We were home for the holidays and this was unfortunately our last interaction with someone back home, she said in an interview on Monday, January 2.

The guy was at the end of his shift and said something about some violence that happened downtown.

The Andersons initially sympathized with him.

Then the floodgates opened. He thought I would understand, or something, how the province is going to hell in a hand basket, she said.

He said, I think I know who it was, and they’ll never get them because they never fingerprinted them. My husband and I then took a deep breath, knowing what was coming.

The couple had their young son in the car, which made it even more heartbreaking as the driver continued his rant of racial profiling.

He kept going and going and we kept pushing back, Anderson said. I guess there’s no sense or logic, but we felt it was our duty to push back, to model the fight against racism for our son, but also just because we wanted to let him know that it’s not cool for us, that we don’t agree at all.

It was a long drive, and the Andersons finally arrived out of breath.

“My husband and I both took a breath at the same time and said, ‘Actually, can you stop? And finally I said, I don’t want my son to hear this. That’s enough.

The driver then asked the boy how his Christmas went, she said, as if nothing had happened.

After arriving at St. Johns airport, the couple had a moment to sit down and talk about the experience.

We had just had an amazing time celebrating the people we love, many of whom we know would be the targets of this, Anderson said.

We wondered, what if they were in that taxi? What if it was them?

She wouldn’t name the company because she believes the issue is bigger than any driver. But she has continued to try to contact the company since the incident. Her calls have gone unanswered, but she keeps trying.

It’s a problem we have as a society, that people like that exist, and while we may not agree with them, they haven’t always spoken out against them. We just want to roll our eyes and make it go away. And it’s not going away, she said.

You have to stick your neck there, even if it’s not comfortable. I want to join these racialized voices in saying yes, I saw it. I saw it too.

It affects us all. Racism is ugly and it’s huge and it’s everywhere, and that includes Newfoundland and Labrador.

Laurabel Mba says the Andersons did exactly the right thing.

Mba, a communications specialist and member of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador (ARC-NL), says too many people are willing to write off racism in the province as rare and inconsequential.

Newfoundland is, if you are visiting, a very popular place to visit. Newfoundlanders are ready to open their doors and show you all Newfoundland has to offer, as long as they feel like you’re going to leave at some point, she said.

When there seems to be a threat to the Newfoundland culture they have come to love, the kindness seems to fade.

Mba says a few factors have brought racism to the fore in recent years. One thing is the greater influx of immigrants, which a province with an aging population and low birth rate needs to stay afloat.

The other is the alarming rise of far-right nationalism around the world, particularly that which manifested itself under the previous US presidency.

Racism, discrimination and xenophobia have always existed, but it was not acceptable to do so publicly. It was something you said in private, where only like-minded people would be there. You’re not going to be open about it.

As racism escalates, Mba says non-racialized people like the Andersons face a choice.

Once you see it, you can’t see it. Once you see the atrocities of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia and all that, you can’t pretend they don’t exist, she said.

Then you have to make a moral decision. Are you going to fight it, or are you going to create space for it to thrive and exist.

Non-racialized people must become allies in the cause, she said.

Smiling and trying to be polite to the situation does nothing and allows the person to continue to get away with what they’re doing, she said.

Things like this escalate. They grow bolder, and at some point you endanger racialized minorities.

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