Thursday, August 04, 2005

"First of all, she's black..."

Fans of WKRP In Cincinnati will remember this as the punchline to a joke Bailey told about the nature of God. Well, it's now the honest-to-goodness truth about Canada's next viceroy. The next Governor-General (the Queen's representative in Canada) is a black woman, Michaelle Jean. Born in Haiti, she's been living in Quebec most of her life and is a well-known journalist on CBC (as was Adrienne Clarkson, the current GG). On the one hand, I want to congratulate Canada for toppling another barrier. But on the other hand, is it something praiseworthy? Isn't it only the due of any Canadian citizen of notable achievement, regardless of race, sex, or religion?

2 comments:

James Redekop said...

I wouldn't say it's the *due* of any Canadian of notable achievement -- we have too many of those to make them all Governor General. :)

You're right, it shouldn't be remarkable. But then, none of the news programs I heard about it on actually remarked on Jean's background beyond her CBC career, so maybe we are getting somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Encouraging. We'll really have arrived when none of this seems in any way remarkable. We're getting there.