On race

I reread the book, Black Berry Sweet Juice over the last few days
and it was a nice reminder of the issues surrounding being both "black" and "white" in this country It's a look into the issue of race from those who are of "mixed" race having a black and a white parent.


These conversations can be difficult, even more so in Canada, where we try desperately not to label people. This is often a strength, but in many ways makes certain conversations about issues such as race more difficult. In fact at a recent talk I was at by Adrian Harewood, a black news anchor from the BCC, he spoke of going to a school classroom and saying the word "black" and having some kids recoil in shock that he even uttered the word.


It's been particularly interesting to re-engage with this book and topic as I finally got around to listening to a series of podcasts from the Agenda where they examined immigration and often ethnicity or race was discussed. In fact the way that certain communities are labeled had an impact of their sense of identity and how they engage with the dominant culture. In fact the one thing that seems to link the disparate black communities is that they are seen by others as black. It's an odd thing in many ways to think that the thing that links them, may not have anything to do with their own shared history, but with the reaction of others to them. At the lecture, that seemed to be a question that was struggled with, as Adrian was asked about what links the changing black community together. For me it was interesting to learn about the fact that in the past it was largely immigrants from the Caribbean , who have been increasingly been supplanted by French speaking Africans and Haitians and also Somalians.


In both the book and one of the podcasts it was interesting to note the comparison with the United States, particularly hearing from one of the U.S. guests who pointed to something that isn't often remarked about and that was how racial groups in the U.S. are labeled. In other words difference is much more noticed and labelled. This is where I see the advantage in Canada, or our more open and fluid sense of identity. I will always remember the comments made by Alberto Manguel in his comments following his 2007 Massey Lectures about how he had always wanted to choose his citizenship, and found it odd that it was simply granted depending on where you were born. He remarked that he was astonished at how easy it was for him to be able to contribute and participate in Canadian society, without being labeled or judged. Despite now living in France and being from Argentina and having lived in United States, he felt that being Canadian had meaning and therefore it was important for him to assert that he was Canadian.


What I am increasingly afraid of is that we are losing that openness and that reluctance that we often have here to label people. Increasingly we are told and often (perhaps exclusively?) by those on the right who feel the danger in not defining what it means to be Canadian. This open identity seems to scare them, I'm not quite sure why. In fact I saw a title in a bookstore recently which captures the obvious fear quite clearly it read " Mayday. Mayday: Curb immigration. Stop multiculturalism or it's the end of the Canada we know."

I seem to keep coming back to those Massey lecture often in my thinking about identity, but I found them so interesting and inspiring and relevant. They remind us that cultures change, and there is no such thing as a living culture which is static. If it remains static it will die.

On identity and tolerance

I've been listening over the course of the last few days to the 2007 Massey Lecture The City of Words this week and every time I listen to the podcast I get something out of it.

I've been thinking lately about the fact lately about the inability of some people to put themselves in someone else's shoes. The inability to empathize or recognize "the other". This is something that has recently crystallized for me, in understanding the way some people see the word. Some people have difficulty imagining the plight of the other, the see everyone else as a poor reflection of themselves and fail to understand how or why others think differently. In political language this kind of rhetoric is disguised by the language of "rationality". I have recognize that there are certain things about myself and experiences that I have had that allow me to better understand and empathize with the other.

First, I am a visible minority. As someone who has one white parent however this puts you in a somewhat awkward position, particularly in a country that for many reasons refuses to engage in conversations about race. This fact in some ways put you automatically in a position of being forced to recognize that there is a sense in which you will always be on the 'outside'. This is simple something that white Canadians, particularly those of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc generations often have trouble understanding. I would imagine that this would be even more true in parts of Canada where there are few visible minorities. I think that being a visible minority in Canada (which I believe is a Canadian invention, It is defined as "persons, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." See here.

The other experience I have had that also leads me in the same direction is the fact that I as in the French immersion program. I've heard annecdotaly that many of the participants in the program come from immigrant families, more than you would expect given their numbers anyways. One of the things that it teaches me, and I've seen whenever I've seen people struggle to learn a new language is how "things can be different" in language, how language structures thought. No one who has really learned another language well can pretend that language is just a vessel for ideas. It affects what we can communicate and in what way.

The example given by Alberto Manguel in the 2007 Massey lecture is a good one. He explains how Don Quixote opens with a line that would be literally (roughly ) translated as "In a certain place of La Mancha whose name I don't want to remember..." this construction is required because of the construction of the language,whereas Melville in Mobdy dick uses the same literary device saying "Call me Ishmael". In Spanish this is an impossibility because Melville can embrace all of humanity in those three words, whereas in Spanish you have to define your relationship to your reader. Listen to the lecture for a much much better description, I tried to simplify it here, but used the basic point from the comments in his lecture.

I owe my participation in the French immersion program to my father's strong belief in this country and how important understanding French was. I inherited from him a love of Canada. I think is something that those who simply are Canadian because they were born here, often fail to recognize. Immigrants choose Canada, and this choice has an impact on their perception of the country. Some make this choice without information, or with little thought, but many who choose this country do so because of what it stands for, what opportunities exist, because of what the country "is". I was often amazed at how deep my fathers attachment to this country became. One of my earliest memories and I'm sure one of his best moments was the day of my father's citizenship ceremony. He was surely among the proudest Canadians I have ever met, and it is in large measure because he chose this country.

World Cup fever

I thought I'd post about soccer since it's right before the world cup of soccer, which starts next week in South Africa.

I've been thinking about soccer quite a bit lately, as I have been playing soccer video games, playing soccer myself (well rec 6 on 6 soccer..) and reading about soccer.

I recently bought John Doyle's new book The world is a ball , after hearing him interviewed on CBC about it. So far it's a pretty good tale of his experience in following the game of soccer worldwide. He's not a sports columnist so it definitely has a different flavour to it. He's the regular TV columnist and I actually quite enjoyed his previous book on how TV changed things in Ireland when it arrived.

I'm looking forward to watching the world cup games. For whatever reason (maybe because they wear my favorite colour orange), I cheer for the Dutch soccer team. I've cheered for them since the mid 1990s. Don't really know how I ended up being a fan of theirs. But I've been loyal to them.

I've been lucky also since the last world cup to have enjoyed watching games with two of my Canadian-born Dutch friends.

I'm hoping they can win it all this year. I think that because it`s the first time the competition is being held in Africa, like the first time it was in Asia it`ll be chock full of surprises.

I just hope it is well organized and everything runs smoothly. The soccer will be beautiful regardless.