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so nothing's changed in Calgary

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Two 20-year-olds in Calgary were convicted of beating and urinating on a first-nations fellow who they - and three under-age friends - found sleeping on the streets. Having grown up in Calgary, where I myself was once spat upon for being an Indian, I'm sorry to see that nothing has changed in that miserable red-neck city. Hell, when I moved there I had no idea what was going when, at the age of 10, I had kids with Irish and Dutch last names asking me why I "looked funny".

And I'm white. I merely have brown hair and large features and tan easily, and when I was younger my features were more rounded (see the pic below, from when I was seven). I wound up hanging around with an Isreali, a Japenese, and a kid whose parents were from Korea. Needless to say, I hated the place, and my antipathy only grew with time.