For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 05, 2014

Ellie, what’s the worst he could say? Does he actually know any racial slurs? And even if he was gonna say, “oh, they’re Japanese.” so what? It’s not offensive, it’s just stating the obvious.

The first appearance of Dawn. One of my favourite characters.

And Brian! That ws the brother right? :)

I loved Dawn and Brian but Elly was being a bit rash…

Too bad Elly thinks Michael is going to embarrass himself (and, at the same time, his mother) by pointing out the difference between him and the “new kids on the block.” The only difference he cared about was if they were going to be his age. They were, and he was really happy about that! ;)

I didn’t know that some kids were different until some adult told me they were. But by then I’d already figured out that there were adults that didn’t know Diddly or her brother Squat.

Geez, wouldn’t they just be another family of Canadians (or Canucks if you choose)?

I remember the summer I was 7, my family had moved to a new neighborhood. Just a few months later, a new family moved right next door, with TWO daughters, ages 6 and 5! I still keep in touch with the older one (the younger one became somewhat of a Duggar; last I heard she & her husband had 10 children and were homeschooling).

I remember being ‘just kids’, too!!!!! Too bad that part didn’t last.

That would have been nice, but I don’t think it was ever true. My neighborhood wasn’t very mixed, but we were taught by pour parents to accept people, and that racial epithets were not to be uttered. And we did hear them. And I was disappointed in more than one friend or neighbor for making intolerant remarks. We had a few cliche’s in our heads- but we unlearned them.

He’s so happy. Why am I tearing up, here?

@Nabuquduriuzhur

I’m with you didn’t realize it wasn’t proper to associate with certain people as a child (honestly didn’t see the difference we all bleed red correct) until the adults in my life told me. Never have and still don’t understand why people get hung up on skin color, belief systems, lifestyles, income, accents, you name it.

Shame on Ellie for thinking like an adult.

What’s interesting about your statement is the one group you left out of the 6 you mentioned. Another telling sign is your use of the “Democrat Party” phraseology. Curious…

the ignorance of some commenters is just proof education or the lack of it is very important. like there is any difference between the Party that runs America, both sides are owned by the Rich. but keep believing otherwise and show your ignorance.

You gotta love the conflicting messages of society: Celebrate our differences but don’t ever mention them.

yeah…there’s tons of research out there that shows it’s actually the REPUBLICANS that need to divide and put down people in order to get votes…just look it up.

It’s well known that the more inclusive and educated a population is, the more they vote Democrat.

“You have to be taught, before it’s too late,Before you are 6 or 7 or 8To hate all the people your relatives hate.You have to be carefully taught.”

South Pacific, Rogers and Hammerstein.

Agreed. If you watch old war movies, they are full of epithets against Japanese soldiers and citizens. However, even by the time I grew up (30 years before Michael & Lizzie), such epithets were confined to those movies and rarely, if ever, used in the home or around children. My dad fought in WWII, and neither he nor my mother ever used epithets or profanity of any kind in the hearing of my brothers and me. Mike and Liz are another generation removed from that and are unlikely to have heard such things at home.

All of that being said, Elly is clearly uncomfortable about what Mike might say, so there is something going on here. It is fun to see Mike so guileless while the adult is walking on eggshells. It is also obvious that Brian and Dawn are used to such behavior from adults, judging by their expressions.

Things were worse when I grew up in the 40’s. The people I grew up with didn’t need political parties to divide them. My father had belonged to the KKK in the 20’s (“everyone did!”) and when he got liquored up, would go on and on about the ______s, the Catholics, and the Jews, and how Eleanor Roosevelt had started all the current fuss. Fortunately, my mom was much more tolerant, and we both were glad when the local Y integrated their swimming pool.

Lynn’s Notes:

This strip received some nice mail. Folks expected to read a sarcastic punch line. Growing up in North Vancouver, we were always playing with and studying next to kids from China, Japan, and other Asian countries. In fact, it was hard to learn French as a second language when we were more familiar with Mandarin and Japanese. I wanted to draw an Asian family, and the Enjos stepped in.

While waiting for out co-op to be finished, we lived for a year on the edge of Steveston, the largest Japanese ancestry neighborhood in Canada. Great experience. Never did learn much Japanese in that short time and never got above 5th kyu in kendo, but learned a bit about the culture..sbwertz: In Ed Murrow’s Person to Person interview, Oscar Hammerstein said You’ve Got to be Taught was his favorite; Dorothy said her favorite was Getting to Know You, the same thing from the other direction..comicsssfan: The Hong Kong immigration was much later (thanks to accelerated citizenship for those with British or other Commonwealth passports). When I lived there, Chinese was the fourth and fifth most common first language, after English, German, and Italian (French was eighth). They refused to say whether Mandrian or Cantonese lead, as that had political overtones. Now it is undoubtedly Cantonese. A large number of the Hong Kong men still work in Hong Kong, traveling home to the Lower Mainland on weekends. Because of the time spent in the air commuting, they are called “astronauts”.

Says alot if you ask me. check out the way the children are looking at her. Then look at their faces in the final panel. "The hand that rocks the cradle sometimes feed their children alot of s———.

Aside from racial epithets, sometimes kids make some pretty nasty remarks about physical differences and accents. We had a recent immigrant from Asia in my elementary school. She was teased about her slanty eyes, and the other kids would talk in a singsong way to make fun of her accent. Fortunately, the teachers were right on top of it, so it didn’t last long.

I have also heard kids make ignorant remarks that were not intended to be hurtful, like asking whether someone with a different eye shape is able to see properly, or assuming that everyone with a similar appearance is from the same place.

Michael! I’m shocked! They can’t be your age — they’s two of them, obviously of different ages. You only have one age. (Maybe their average age is the same as yours — then it works out.)

Except that Michael did not know his maternal grandparents that well at the age he is in this strip. His maternal grandparents lived on the opposite side of Canada. They only visited once a year in the summertime. Mike had no idea about racism against the Japanese yet. It was not until he was an adult when Grandpa Jim moved to live with the Pattersons. Only April grew up with Grandpa Jim.

Elly assumed Mike was pointing out the fact they were Japanese. That was what Elly noticed first before anything else – she shouldn’t assume everyone else would too. Mike only noticed that they were the same age as he and thrilled to have a new playmate in Brian. Mike is not as prejudiced as his mother – after all he is friends with Gordon.

No Elly…you should hush up and listen to your son! You might learn that children are not born nor think prejudiced. Us adults are guilty of that a lot.

I REMEMBER THIS ONE!

Daniel: My ancestors? They were all here a sesquicentury ago, some more like eight or ten millennia..Rebel Strike: Unfortunately, Canada was only slightly better. Despite US pressure, Canada held off this action until awhile later when a Japanese submarine tried to shell Estevan lighthouse – the shells reached land, but not any structure – the light was to warn of shallows at the mouth of Juan da Fuca Strait, the boundary between Vancouver Island and Olympic Peninsula. Since the sub had been in US territorial waters, the pressure forced Canada to move them east of the Coast Range. Unlike the US, where the pressure was from the Realtors Association wanting cheap property, Canada made their assets Crown Property. No concentration camps. David Suzuki’s family moved all the way to Ontario, where he went to college. After the war, their property was returned, unlike in the US. Ironically, the only part of the US where Japanese-Americans were not imprisoned, was Hawaii. They discovered the territorial economy would collapse without them.