Hey Cracker!

As a white person I can honestly say that racism is not something that I have ever dealt with, that was until now. Clearly I cannot not truly relate to someone that has dealt with this type of behavior their whole live but I am certainly getting a taste of it.

If I had known that this is what life was like in the north we never would have come here. It’s stressful to be at work and wonder if your house will be broken into just because someone doesn’t like what you did to them while you were at work doing your job. Or if the next time you tell a kid to get out of the store that it won’t have some kind of nasty repercussion.

In all the blog reading I did before we came to the north not once did I read anything that sent up a red flag. Maybe those people just thought it best to keep the negative to themselves. Or maybe they never rocked to boat so to speak. Maybe they kept their heads down and went about their business so they never saw how it really is here.

I may be painting a broad stroke but most of the people here are just not good people. They don’t trust the ‘white men’. And like I was told yesterday, ‘We stick up for our own’. Very true and if that means lying to get out of something so that they can stick it to the white people you can be damn skippy that they would not think twice about doing it.

We know that entire families come into the store and steal. Kids steal, elders steal, teenagers steal, everyone steals. It’s just a matter is will they get caught.

We have a rule in the store that is if you are a kid that you don’t come in unless you are with your parents. It’s a loose rule and one that can only be enforced if one of the WHITE management staff happen to be standing near the door when someone comes in. The kids know that they aren’t suppose to be in there but you know they try to come in any. ‘But I have money’ they say, ‘I don’t care if you have a million dollars, get out. You know the rule’.

Early this week I told two boys to leave again for like the 100th time, I recognised them because it’s a fight to keep them out. The one has been caught stealing many times. I didn’t know at the time but he had been told that he was actually banned and that if he came back again the RCMP would be called (keep in mind the RCMP is the only police presence here). And you will be shocked to know that he came back again a few hours later and this time Drew saw him. Then all hell broke lose. Drew grabbed on the the kids coat as he went to run back out the door and pulled him into the store manager's office, yelled for me and dialed the cops. This kid is about 12 but he was crying so hard that you would have thought that he was 4.

Oh and on a side note, this is how fucked up it is here. After 5:30 if you call the RCMP, the call gets redirected to Iqaluit, and you speak to dispatch there. After you tell them what you need they then call the RCMP in Igloolik. So even though the station is literally 500 feet from the store it takes 15-20 minutes to actually see an officer.

The night that kids were throwing rocks at our house and I physically went to one of the staff houses (they don’t stay in the station 24 hours a day) I had to come home and dial the phone number to actually get a cop to come to my house. Good thing I wasn’t be stabbed.

Anyway, the whole drama with this kid. The cops show up the kid is screaming like he’s being beaten. Thank god only the small part of the store was opened and not the whole thing because like I said the people here ‘stick up for their own’, more like get involved in things that have nothing to do with them.

They escorted him out but had to pick him up off the floor because he refused to go. What a sad life it is when as a 12 year old you are being taken home by the police.

Things were quiet after that and I thought we’d have a few weeks of peace. Yep a few weeks, as something tends to happen here that often.

So I was going about my business working and I noticed these older boys, (I know now that they were 15) were acting a bit shifty as i walked past them. Sadly because of working here I am now on a constant state of watch.

I was going to say something to Drew as I walked by him, but he was on it already. He walked up to the group and asked them if they were in the store with their parents, of course not. Out you go then. As they are walking one kid drops an energy drink out of his sleeve. Drew picks it up, grabs the back of the kids coat and makes toward the office. The kid was having none of it, fighting, grabbing at shelves and clothing racks to slow himself down (all on the security camera).

Drew yells out for me. One other thing that we have also learned here is that if you are going to have an altercation make damn sure that you have a witness that will back you up.

I get to the office the kid is crying so much he’s dry heaving but claiming that Drew was choking him. Drew tells me, stand by the door because he keeps trying to leave. I come in and shut the door and the kids makes for a get away. So I get into a pushing and pulling match with him, I get jabbed with a few elbows. This is in like the blink of an eye. Drew jumps up and pulls the kid back away from me, the kid falls. Starts screaming louder. Punches Drew in the leg. Unfortunately the main store is opened while all of this is taking place so you can just imagine how many people want to get involved. I had to actually tell some lady that is was none of her business. And therefore got told ‘you white people are all the same’.

The cops show up, turns out the kid is actually one of the cashiers kids. At this point I had called one of our local stock boys into the office since i was no match for a jacked up 15 year old and I was pretty shaken up. Drew told me afterward that the mom said some not so nice things to him, very racial. And,’ you always get away with this’. The cops told her that Drew had every right to put his hand on the kid and then quoted some legal stuff. Told her to shut up and then she quit. Ok?

Oh and took him home herself so there were no consequences for his actions. Which is the biggest issue here. The kids get away with too much stuff and no one does a damn thing about it. ie, spray painting the hamlet office and the store truck, lighting shit on fire, ect.

It’s not nice here. And I'm haunted by the words that were spoken to me at the airport when we landed here. It was a man from Pond Inlet here for a visit, a very nice man I might add. A man that Drew and I spoke to often. He told me that I would hate it here. I wish he hadn’t been right.

I miss Pond Inlet.