manifest as; drug and alcohol abuse, chronic illness, and suicide. (Kirkup) In the First Nations population, suicide rates are twice the national average with no indication of change. (SexualAssault.ca) As well drug and alcohol abuse rates are higher in aboriginal communities than anywhere else in Canada. (SexualAssault.ca) Poverty is also a very big problem for native communities, the children who survived the residential schools never learned any proper life skills that they could effectively use to find a job to make money or they were prevented from obtaining a job from the resulting mental health problems. Many aboriginal communities live in poverty and a lack of proper parental supervision is also a very big concern. All of these contribute to the
high rates of
sexual assault on
native reserves.
(SexualAssault.ca)
All of this, is the
result of prejudice, discrimination, and hatred, that’s it. If equality is the goal, than first target the problem. Native Americans aren’t
the only ethnicity
to have a long
history shrouded in racism, they are just one example of what is just going to continue to happen over and over again if something doesn’t change. Many people believe that this type of prejudice and discrimination is in the past, but it most definitely is not. It is still very much a problem today and societies ignorance to residential schools is a prime cause of what allowed them to continue for so long. Ignorance was the first step, and it looks like this and similar events in history weren’t devastating enough for people to learn the lesson the first time, it’s scary to think of what the future holds if society continues down this path of blatant ignorance.