X What will 2021 bring? Ox >» Can you expect the unexpected? Matthew Fraser Opinions Editor H2: we are, inching closer and closer to the end of the year, and what a year it has been. Canceled Olympics, global lockdowns, global protests, a hotly contested election, and an ungodly number of celebrity deaths. This year came in and showed us all who the boss is. But what will the next year bring? Will the asteroid of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (which took place in the year 2021) be around the corner? Though asteroids are hopefully off the table, the Trump legal team has done its best to close off this year with shenanigans and improbabilities more suiting a Mr. Bean rerun than a presidential send off. The Rudy Giuliani arc included high notes like an appearance in Borat, an impromptu press conference outside of a landscaping office (not to be confused with the actual Four Seasons), rivulets of hair dye running down his face, and I think a possibly inebriated witness rambling her way through a deposition. The former New York mayor has turned the daily news into an early SNL sketch. However, this may lay the groundwork for the next stop on the Ez Ke Trump train; could 2021 be the year when likely-soon-to-be-former president Trump starts his rumored Fox News competitor? With talent like Kayleigh McEnany and Sidney Powell, ready to wrangle cameras and dazzle audiences, Donald Trump may be able to return to his TV roots with more power than ever. Despite those funny bits, the continuing paroxysms of the American empire might still cause pains for those in Have an idea for a story? M opinions@theotherpress.ca the country. With the eviction moratorium ending December 31 and no second stimulus cheques on the way, there may be horror and homelessness on the horizon for some. Though Joe Biden has promised to be the great uniter, this is a problem that he must address immediately or risk there not being much of a country to unite come summer. Here in Canada, vaccine worries, and distribution could be a whole problem in and of itself. With arrival dates currently ey tebe eae eee ey e 2020: A historic and revolutionary restart * No time to work ¢ What will 2021 bring? ..and more unconfirmed and the regular paranoias of ineffectiveness and side effects running rampant, actually delivering a vaccine to the people could be a larger problem than anticipated. In fact, a recent CBC news article outlines efforts and plans to track the distribution and results of the vaccine campaign in a manner never done before. All this however will be happening against the backdrop of continued outbreaks and increasing levels of social uneasiness. Whether enough of the public waits their turn to get vaccinated may depend in no small part on how well people have adjusted to the continued state of fear versus how badly the virus has ravaged the country. But there is hope for a rescheduled Olympic game to look forward to. If 2021 can bring anything to the fore it will be another crack at athletic glory to help shift gazes from the feelings of desolation that have grown and expanded over the year. At this point, any mention of the games would be welcome. If 2020 showed us but one thing, it’s that prediction is impossible, and that adaptation is the way of survival. The motto from game show Big Brother is the new way of life: “Expect the unexpected.” Well meaning and useless » Are you racist and will a billboard help that? Matthew Fraser Opinions Editor know I missed this because COVID had me squirreled away in my house. I saw while walking up Commercial drive a billboard that first shocked then invited scorn from me. It was so simple and yet so strange; black background, four words written in white: “Am Ia Racist?” I was shocked to see that someone had had the audacity to ask everyone who could read that question; it drew scorn from me when I realized that this was a serious effort from our government. A CBC article describes it as a “public awareness campaign launched this month [November] by BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (BCOHRC).” The campaign was started November 16 using bus stops and billboards to ask these supposedly reflective questions. The problem with these types of efforts (at least as I see it) is that they change a legitimate fight and good effort into some foolish slogan with a song and dance. I’m glad to say that most people are not racist. I would go so far as to say that though you (just like I) have some stereotypes and negative views we need to work on, neither of us are racists, nor would such a billboard cause an epiphany for those who actually are. All this does is transfer the goodwill of people towards a temporary guilt trip while twisting the best parts of progressivism into a lifestyle brand. This is not a slogan to be made t-shirt ready and plastered about as if it has no meaning, it’s a word that carries a long and serious history that has shaped our world and built barriers to literally keep a few people from succeeding. We should have better ways to address the real prejudice that exists. There is no forthcoming introspection when the people who really need to be changed see this; people like Daryl Davis who make it their job to reach out and convert actual white supremacists are not aided by these types of ads. The racial justice of the “60s was not the result of a few bus stop signs and the last time I checked the majority of people knew instinctively that what happened to George Floyd was terrible. We don’t need this. But then I had to ask myself, who was this for? I realised almost immediately that it wasn't really for the minorities; this isn’t meant to show solidarity to the roughly half of Vancouver’s population that isn’t white. No, this was meant to assuage the bleeding-heart progressive elites that sees phantoms of oppression everywhere but as Jay-Z once said: “wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight.” All groups virtue signal, progressives just do it the loudest. In the aforementioned article, BCOHRC Kasari Govender mentions that this was in part a response to the uptick in anti-Asian racism that occurred as COVID rolled threw Canada. Certainly we need to be concerned about that, but does anyone really believe that this will be the push that tips people into accepting others for who they are? Is this really the first step towards a better world? Assuming that a better world really is the end goal, we must ask if this gets us any closer. One of the questions asked in this campaign is: “If I don’t see skin color, am I a racist?” As a black opinion writer, I think I am in a unique position to answer that question. No, you are not a racist if you don't “see color.” In a perfect world, I can and would forget that I am black because it is unimportant in most situations. The fact that my skin color must be at the forefront of all interactions brings unnecessary racial dynamic to every situation. For some reason, the young liberal today thinks that the best world we can live in is one where the dynamics of race, self-description, and ability is the only one talked about and at the forefront of all interactions. I must be coddled in every conversation; I must need a billboard questioning everyone as to whether or not they are racist just so I can feel safe. But as James Baldwin once said: “A liberal [is] someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.” Don’t get me started on conservatives though.