When reading Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill, I couldn’t help but think about the evolution of racism in Canada. On page 14, Wah describes a conversation he had with his mother, about marrying a Chinese man and the racism she faced. She notes that, “there was a lot of racism in those days… it isn’t like it is now, a completely accepted thing…” How about today, Mrs. Wah? Is interracial marriage a completely accepted thing? Does racism still exist in Canada?
To me, racism in Canada is still very apparent. However, over the years, people have learned that it is wrong to be racist, it is taboo. Because of this, the racism still remains but it seems like it is often masked as a “joke”, talked about with a selective audience, or discussed behind closed doors. Wah notes in his book, on page 165, the “old fart pink-faced investor worries about the Hong Kong real estate takeover… [and] moans that UBC has become the University of a Billion Chinks.” Since this book was written, nothing much has changed and this passage unfortunately speaks to the current attitudes that I witness all too often.
Racism is so engrained from Canada’s past that it still appears to be lingering in the attitudes of its people. In Linda Besner’s article, she quotes labour professor David Camfield saying, “all this racist history has left its mark on Canadian society, and it affects how people interpret these issues today.” Besner’s article discusses the brutal history of racism against Chinese immigrants in Canada, and how it has evolved into a fear of the “Chinese takeover” due to a multitude of Chinese immigrants investing in Vancouver property.
I can barely bring myself to type the “C Word” on this blog, and I must admit I’ve heard the “joke” about UBC before. I have also heard people talk about how “we” (caucasian people) are becoming the minority in Canada. These types of comments simply make me uncomfortable. It is difficult to be proud of the so-called cultural mosaic of Canada, a country that boasts its acceptance of all cultures, when I see and hear the animosity about other cultures “taking over” all too often. Canada, racism is not a joke, nor is it acceptable under any circumstance, and it’s time to move past this intolerance and ignorance.
I’ve always been somewhat nonchalant when it comes to the issue of racism as I think that it’s somewhat like the bacteria the live on people’s faces; it’s gross and does no good to anyone, but everyone has at least a little bit of it in them and it’s near impossible to completely get rid of without an excessive amount of effort. I remember the recent controversy in Richmond where lobbyists tried to get the city to legislate English signage on the increasingly Chinese-populated environment. At the moment, I just chuckled to myself and waved it off as “just another one of those silly movements entitled white people come up with.”
I’m sure the irony is quite plain to see.
Having lived in Vancouver for practically all my life, I’ve come to the admittedly defeatist conclusion that racism is here to stay whether we like it or not. A multicultural environment is not a recipe for perfect cultural harmony; in fact, one can argue that an environment which openly welcomes immigrants from all nations is more vulnerable to racism and racist attitudes. Chinese people may have been the victims of terrible racist sentiments in the history of Canada, but that doesn’t stop immigrants who know nothing about it from coming to Canada and bringing with them their own racist preconceptions. Racism is multidirectional; it’s not just a “white person thing”.
But to take it back a step, the western concept of “racism” is exactly that – a western idea that is not shared by many other cultures. At the very least, Chinese people have no qualms about making stereotypical comments about other people and other cultures because the idea of “racism” simply isn’t something that they feel the need to concern themselves with. The Chinese name for China literally translates to “Middle Kingdom”; to the Chinese, the most central people in the world are themselves, and anybody else is simply a “foreigner”. This worldview obviously clashes with western culture; but isn’t claiming racism on a culture with no concept of it little more than ethnocentrism as well?
Interesting thoughts hugoliu, thanks for your comment!
Hi Carly! Thanks for your post. As someone who is Chinese but has grown up in a Western cultural environment, I think it is interesting the fact that racism is still something that is prevalent today even though Canada is supposedly recognized as being ‘multicultural’ or as a melting pot of cultures. This week, I know a lot of people tried to come up with new terms or new definitions to more adequate represent their experiences such as in Brooklyn Kemp’s post on the “second hyphen” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/brooklynk474/). However, has there, in recent years, been a production of a new term that we use to call different levels of racism? I do not believe so but correct me if I am wrong. As you (and Fred’s Wah’s mother) have aptly noted, racism was prevalent a century ago and it remains prevalent today. Yet what has changed is the degree to which people are racist. A century ago, there was formal practices of segregation in place, especially in the US where, for example, the front of the buses was where the white people sat and the back, the black people. That severity of racism (if we put racism on a continuum) inspired many to react — Rosa Parks is among of the people’s whose individual actions comes to mind (https://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp). Today, in Canada, attitudes have changed in the sense that that sort of formal racism is prohibited, yet it still seeps through the jokes and the snide comments that are used to mask that. In a sense, since it isn’t instituted in formal practices, does that make it any less racist if we were to put racism along a continuum? Should we even put racism along a continuum and just allow that one word to encompass the formal and social acts of racism? Would it useful to come up with new terms to describe different levels of racism? What would be the social and political implications of that new term?
Hey Vivian, thanks for adding to the discussion! I don’t think there is an official term to describe different levels of racism. I believe that if there was, it would essentially justify the lesser degrees of racism as something that’s not quite as bad as say, the “extremist” racism. When in actuality, racism is just racism and in all its forms, it’s ugly.
Hey Carly, great blog! Very thought provoking, especially your comment on how racism is “masked as a ‘joke’,” nowadays. When I read that point I couldn’t help but think about comedians who have the so-called “artistic freedom” to incorporate racist remarks in their acts. I find it odd that when comedians make these comments, people find them sidesplitting; yet if we make racist jokes or remarks that are remotely similar to a comedian’s, like you said, it’s often frowned upon, to say the least. Take Russell Peters, for example, who pokes fun at different races. While some of his acts are quite amusing, couldn’t some of his jokes be perceived as borderline offensive? I’m not trying to bash Russell Peters, I just find the double standard an interesting topic of discourse. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Hey Raffaella Thanks very much 🙂
Good point about Russell Peters! I have only watched him a few times, but I have felt a little uncomfortable while watching his stand up at times. He light heartedly makes fun of cultural idiosyncrasies, and I’m sure some people do find him offensive. What’s interesting about Russell Peters is, if you took away the racism from his jokes, would he even be funny?
I am so disheartened to hear about this “UBC” acronym! After three years at this uni I had still managed to elude hearing that until now (I guess that’s a good thing..!). Though I *have* heard of us called the University of Beautiful Cars (see this Tumblr: http://universityofbeautifulcars.tumblr.com/ ) and the University of Building Construction (sadly, very true).
It’s so important to think about the racism that may be going on in our midst, either intended or unintended. Sometimes people are genuinely curious and are just unable to articulate that curiosity properly, or they are ignorant about some cultural norm that makes them stick their foot in their mouth (we’ve probably all done it..). Being able to correct them in a non-judgemental way and being willing to engage in an open-minded conversation go a long way toward diffusing tensions and ensuring that a pedagogical mindset is upheld.
It is also critical that we, as academics, recognize the power of the language that we use in the university setting. There is a documentary ( http://www.whatilearnedinclasstoday.com/ ) that a group of First Nations studies students put together in 2007 that highlights some instances of very racialized comments made in classrooms at UBC, including many that were not addressed by any of the student’s peers or even the professor. It can be so difficult for many people to speak up in class and to defend their own ideas, but it is much more important that students who experience racism at our university know that the large majority of us do not tolerate racism. We all benefit from classrooms in which students feel comfortable raising questions, posing ideas, and speaking opinions freely, and this does not include a place for racism (or sexism, or ageism, or homophobia…).
Great post, Carly! Way to get the discussion going 🙂
Thanks Jessica!
I’m originally from Toronto and having lived here for six years now, one of the things that continues to surprise me is the attitude avowedly liberal people have toward the Chinese. In everyday discussions, in passing, at the barber shop, I continually here people make remarks about how Chinese people are driving up property costs so that Vancouver’s “native” inhabitants can no longer live within the city. There’s a resentful attitude toward the Chinese reinforced by the belief that many do not make the effort to assimilate or learn the language. They are also thought of as rude and ill-mannered, which is often a cultural misunderstanding.
Now that China has earned the status of a superpower, there is this fear of “takeover” that has revived a lot of the earlier prejudices, which come as a shock considering Canada’s reputation. One of the things people forget is that we are all immigrants in Canada at some level, but people still have this feeling of entitlement. I did not notice this so much in Toronto, but then Toronto is a little bit more of melting-pot where as Vancouver seems to have three dominant groups: white, Chinese and Indian. I also had not heard people refer to Indians as brown people until I moved here.
I’ve heard of the UBC acronym before, but that was from someone substantially older and had not heard since. I guess its easy to take a liberal attitude when the playing field is relatively level, or when you’re in a superior position, but when things change its interesting to see how it awakens prejudices in people thought long extinguished. I know this is a bit of a dramatic comparison, but you think of the cultural state of Germany before the Nazis took over, a period that gave birth to some of the greatest thinkers of all time. You would have thought it impossible for such a progressive country to revert to such behaviour, but the fear of Jewish takeover was enough to completely reverse all they had established. I know the situation in Canada is not quite the same, but I think both attest to the tendency toward prejudice and violence that lurks within every person despite however cultured, accepting or enlightened we consider ourselves to be, and that if we are not careful, things can take a turn for the worst.
Definitely Aaron! Thanks for adding to the discussion! 🙂