I Became a Race Realist Studying and Working as a Contractor

Subscribe to future audio versions of AmRen articles here.

This is part of our continuing series of accounts by readers of how they shed the illusions of liberalism and became race realists.

I’m a young man born in the mid-1990s who grew up in Ontario, Canada. I came from an upper-middle-class family and spent most of my childhood time (schooling, sports, extra-curricular activities, part-time work, etc.) around my fellow Euro-Canadians. My siblings and I also made friends with non-white classmates and other children and never had any sort of racial hatred for anyone.

As a teenager, I was constantly lectured about anti-bullying, racism, sexism, diversity, and how multiculturalism is so wonderful for us whites as a society. You could basically say to me, “You were drinking the Kool-Aid.” My response would be, “Yes, you are very right!” For I had no real-life experiences dealing with non-whites on a larger scale. The schools I attended as a child and teenager were 95 percent white, and the neighborhoods and towns that I lived in were 98 percent white with only a handful of non-whites here and there.

After I finished high school, I enrolled into a technical-college program (what you American readers would call an associate degree at a technical-community college) for a skilled-trade certificate and an HVAC engineering technician diploma. During my time at technical college, I began to notice stark racial differences among my peers, classmates, and international students in how they approached learning. 

My black classmates were unbelievably incompetent and could not read blueprints or do basic arithmetic and function graph equations without us white students constantly having to support and tutor them on basic skills. The wealthy international students from South Asia were constantly skipping classes, often missing out on in-class technical labs or frequently asking (begging) me and several other white guys for homework and assignment answers that they were too lazy to find for themselves. 

When it came to the final year of my program, instructors paired us up into groups of 3-5 for an industry-sponsored applied project. I ended up with an international student from India and a black classmate. To keep a long story short, I had to do the entire final HVAC project myself, and these two non-whites even flaked out on me during the day that we had to present our projects to our instructors and program industry sponsors. I was very disappointed with how things went. Nonetheless, I finished my technical program and got my HVAC diploma and a certificate in sheet metal work.

After graduating, I found my first job (as an HVAC technician and sheet metal worker) at a medium-sized contracting company that specializes in facility maintenance, renovations, and servicing. I was very excited by the opportunity, as this company did HVAC maintenance, renovation, and new installation work for 95 percent of all big-city public schools! On top of that, I was given a company van, company tools, company phone, and company gas card. It was like I had struck a gold mine!

My excitement to work as an HVAC contractor for big-city public schools quickly eroded when I started to experience surreal and extreme differences I had thought impossible on the grounds of public schools. The first school site that I was sent to (an all-black public school) was such a mess it absolutely blew my mind away! Half of all the HVAC equipment (boilers, piping, radiators, furnaces, ventilators, etc.) that had been designed, built, and installed by my company several years earlier was smashed up and needed to be repaired or replaced! Of course, the school board and the government were willing to foot the bill for all the damages that the black students had caused, but that was not the end of my first day of contractor work.

That same day, black teenagers smashed up and set fire to my work van parked in the public school parking lot. That left me wondering, “Why would anyone do such a thing like this?” There were other instances where groups of black students would try to provoke me to a physical fight (I ignored them as much as possible), or would try stalking me around the school building attempting to steal my tools, or else they’d try asking me for money. All contractors entering public schools must sign paperwork agreeing not to speak to or engage in conversations with students. So, I would guess that those students knew that rule and were simply pestering me as much as possible. This was the type of garbage that I had to deal with on a day-to-day basis at all-black or majority-black public schools!

After spending several months dealing with HVAC problems at majority-black schools, I got fed up and requested a transfer to other school sites with fewer social problems. My company accepted, and I was put to work on various public school sites across the city. These school sites had student populations that were mostly South Asian and Middle Eastern. They were slightly better than the majority-black public school sites, but were still very chaotic. There were multiple instances where a given public school site was closed for hours or days on end because of a shooting, stabbing, or mob violence that occurred between a Sikh student and a Hindu student. The mass media will seldom report such incidents of non-white student violence, but this local Toronto news article at least scratches the surface at what goes on at some of these public schools.

The only public school sites that I enjoyed working at were ones that were majority-white. These schools were the safest, cleanest, and most amazing sites that I’ve ever worked at as a contract HVAC technician. There were no shootings and no stabbings, and not a single white student harassed me while I was working on site. Nor did I find any cases of vandalism or destruction to the HVAC equipment at these sites. It was like I had traveled from the depths of hell to heaven when going from majority-non-white public schools to majority-white public schools. The differences in attitudes, mannerism, discipline, and personal dignity between non-white and white students astounded me!

After working for that company at big-city public school sites for almost two years, I left it. That was many years ago. Never would I want to go back!

If you have a story about how you became racially aware, or about your firsthand experience with race, we’d like to hear it. If it is well written and compelling, we will publish it. Please feel free to use a pen name and send it to us here.