A short, emotional YouTube monologue (Nov 2023) by Sandi L Boucher calling out everyday anti-Indigenous racism she and others face in Thunder Bay and across Canada. She describes being subjected to racist comments in public (coffee shops, car dealerships, hair salons), criticizes bystander silence, urges institutions and individuals to act, and frames the message as solidarity with Indigenous people who cannot avoid these daily assaults.
Chapters
This isn't going to be pretty. This isn't going to be professional. What this is going to be is honest. When I plan to make this video. I was angry. I was so angry. That's why I came up with the title of this video, the Thunderbake. Just F off. Because you know what? I have a dream, a crazy dream that I don't think I'm going to live long enough to see. Do you know how crazy it is? I'll tell you how crazy my dream is. I want to be able to go to a coffee shop or a restaurant and not have to put up with the racist garbage in the conversation from the couple at the next table. I want to be able to buy a car and not have to listen to the ignorant comment, the salesperson. And I want to be able to get my hair done without having to bite my tongue. Because the very aggressive male in the salon just has way too many opinions. He's free to share. And you know what? I used to think it's because I'm fair. That maybe if they realized I was indigenous and not their stereotypical what an indigenous person looks like, but that maybe I was like tattoos given away at all, that maybe they'd shut up. But what's heartbreaking is in all three of those cases, they either knew I was indigenous or there was someone who was dark and indigenous in the same place. And I can hear the people of Thunder Bay saying, it's not all of us. But you know what? All of you people that are not the ones saying these things are equally at fault because you're not shutting them down either. White silence is just as dangerous to us. Why can't I just go for a coffee and not have to hear that? Why? This is Canada 2023. And I don't think it's my workload that's making me tired. People wonder why I never go anywhere because here is a safe space. Here. I don't need to put up with that. Come on. You gotta agree with me that we can do better than this. You gotta agree that we are better than this. Because I'm sick and tired of having to endure just to try to live a normal life. And by the way, share this to all those employers and all those university and colleges professors sitting back wishing that indigenous students could just hang in there, that they could just stick with that job and not give up. If they could just finish their schooling and not give up. You have no effing idea the battle they're fighting every single day just to get to your building. What they have to endure in the lunchroom, in the cafeteria at recess time, in the yard, on the bus on the way there, in the store on the way home when they're exhausted and just want to buy some food for their kids. Quit judging us for finding it hard to live in the BS you refuse to acknowledge and refuse to fix. The only difference between me and them. I have a YouTube channel. I have an audience. When I'm standing on a stage, someone might actually listen to me. So all those people that are going home tonight angry or crushed or frustrated because of some racist idiot, this is for them. And if you're offended by this, don't comment on this video. Don't say anything to me. Say something. The next I'm a racist idiot feels the need to open their mouth because this has got to stop. We are losing way too many. Way too many are staying in the communities. Not because they want to, because the price is too high to go anywhere else. Frig. I'm starting to think the price is too high to leave my house. We can do better. And tomorrow I will be fine. And tomorrow I will believe in possibilities again. But tonight. I just really wish things were different because that is pure bs. And if you're on this page, I pray to God you agree with me.
