Open letter to the person who called my automotive detailing business, Whitehorse Auto Spa, at 3:05 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4:
You called me to tell me that you didn’t know I had employees from a certain ethnic group (your actual words were fairly more racially slurred), and you’d be taking your car elsewhere to get cleaned. Taken back, as I’m normally not accustomed to this kind of comment, before I had a chance to respond, you yelled further profanities and hung up. I tried calling you back, but you simply hung up on me, after shouting several more insults.
Racism isn’t by any means a huge problem in Whitehorse, in fact, this is one of my first experiences with it here. In my opinion, Whitehorseians are very representative of Canada as a whole, accepting of different cultures and traditions. We all learn to live and work together in an environment where race or ethnicity aren’t automatic detriments to one’s character, and you don’t get pre-judged based on something like the colour of your skin.
So to the person who called me, this is an open invitation for you to come down to my shop and we can have a discussion about your concerns. I’d love for you to have the opportunity to meet my wonderful staff, who work very hard day in and day out to keep Yukon automobiles clean and sparkly.
Martin Lehner
Whitehorse