Multiculturalism

I know I've ranted in this blog before about racism in London, but there've been a couple of incidents this past week that have gotten me thinking about it again.

The first involves my flatmate, who's Portuguese. We were talking about travelling around Europe, and she mentioned that she thought the French were friendlier than the English. I disagreed with her, telling her that I thought the French had been the rudest people I'd ever met, and do you know what her response was? Using her fingers to slant her eyes, she said, "Well, maybe that's because you're Asian."

I basically turned on my heel and walked out of the room, but that's not the first time she's said something like that. Back when she first moved in, she had asked me a question and I responded with the answer and a smile. She paused, looked at me for a second, then said, "You know, I don't know what your expressions mean. You people have very different expressions." Stunned, I asked her what she meant. She said, "Well, I've never had contact with an Asian person before, but I can't understand what your expressions mean." I suppose my annoyance must have showed on my face because she immediately added, "Oh! I can see that you're unhappy now!"

The funny thing is that I don't think she's inherently racist; just ignorant. And I think that's symptomatic of a lot of Europeans. I was reading The Star's "Acts of Kindness" section the other day and saw a story about a Chinese-Canadian who was beaten in the Ukraine by a bunch of skinheads, simply because he looked Asian. Add to that the racism I've faced in schools and the attitudes of many Continental Europeans I've encountered, and you can see how startlingly backwards Europeans are beginning to look to me and how uninformed their idea of multiculturalism.

I suppose all of this (along with 2 instances of racism between pupils I had to deal with on Friday, along with 1 directed at me) has made me miss Canada all the more. Having grown up feeling Canadian rather than Asian/Korean, it's been an adjustment being made to feel that the colour of my skin is what defines me. And I'm sick of telling people I'm Canadian, only to have them say, "No, really. What's your country?"

So today, and I'm sure every day after this, I feel privileged to be Canadian. I miss Canada and, believe me, when I'm ready to settle down, Canada is the country I'll be settling in.

I'm going to end this post with something I came across the other day. Apparently, back at the beginning of 2008, someone in Pakistan advertised a reward in a newspaper for anyone who killed a Canadian - ANY Canadian. In response, an Australian dentist wrote the following, to help define for people what a Canadian is:

A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

A Canadian may also be Cree, Metis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians.

A Canadian's religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu to none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognizes the right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking anything in return. Canadians welcome the best of everything; the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds. But they also welcome the least - the oppressed/persecuted, the outcast, and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada. You can try to kill a Canadian if you must, as other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world have tried, but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbor. This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian.