Saskatoon MLA shares one of many racist messages she has received on social media

A Saskatoon MLA is sharing one of the countless racist messages she's gotten since being elected in order to highlight the hate that people of colour receive online.

"I would often delete them. And this time I was like, you know, by me not saying anything, I am just allowing this to continue," said Saskatoon Centre MLA Betty Nippi-Albright of a Facebook post she received last week and decided to share on her social media.

The writer of the shared racist rant calls Nippi-Albright names, claims Indigenous people are always taking and are a selfish culture.

Nippi-Albright, who is a member Kinistin Saulteaux Nation, said the hate and racist comments have increased since she has become vocal about the duty to consult and the sale of Crown Land.

"I would get these [Facebook] comments about Indigenous people.'You should be happy with what you get, and you're always complaining.'"

Nippi-Albright said people will leave hateful comments on her public and personal Facebook pages, but then block her from replying or trying to figure out who they are. 

"It really speaks a lot about who they are, and it also tells me I'm doing the right thing," she said.

"I'm obviously shaking things up."

After posting the racist message, Nippi-Albright said someone sent a message telling her to stop whining.

"I'm like, 'Hey, I face this all my life, I'm just calling it out. And I'll keep calling it out, because this is a reality in our province and we as citizens are not speaking up enough about it,'" she said.

"And we're not holding our government accountable and saying what tougher measures do you have in place for racism?"

Nippi-Albright said women — and especially Indigenous women — don't want to step up and put themselves in this kind of position because it's so difficult in a paternalistic system.

"I've been fortunate to have lived in both worlds," she said. "So for me to step up and to be vocal about it, I want other other Indigenous women to also realize that and see that, hey, I could see myself in that lady, and she is saying exactly what I've been feeling and experiencing. 

"And it's helping her to see that she is not alone."

In the Legislature last week, Nippi-Albright spoke about how politicians need to represent vulnerable people.

"I use a lot of my own personal experience here in this house, and I will not apologize for that because we need representation in this house," she said.

"We need people in this house standing in my role where I'm at to talk about what is actually happening out there."