As the lone Canadian of the group here at 8Asians, I sit back and read with great fascination the many issues that go on in Asian America. Many of us in the Asian Arts Community up north have worked with, met, spoken to, got drunk with many other Asian-American activists and we all seem to agree that us up north, have a different set of issues than you all down there. This isn’t to say, we don’t understand issues, but certainly we have a different way of dealing with and looking at it. So, it has been a long time request that I write a post that sort of explains my theory as to why there is such a difference between Asian America and Asian Canada (yes! there is a difference!).
I believe it rests in how the society is set up. Up here, right from kindergarten – we’re taught that Canada is a mosaic – Pieces of different stones put together to create a nation. Not the melting pot (re: assimilation) of America. Also we’re officially a bilingual country where just about everything you buy is labeled in both English and French – the national languages. Not so much the case in America despite the country having a rather large Hispanic population. I think this is the base in how Canada is more apt and welcoming to other cultures and America either you’re American or you’re not – despite ancestral heritage.
America is already founded on numerous other cultures that made the nation in the first place – and by not acknowledging the efforts made by other cultures further creates this delusion that America is created by Americans for Americans. In Canada, many politicians acknowledge that approx. 52% of Canadian residents and citizens were not born in Canada and that Canada is a nation of immigrants.
In Toronto, arguably the most multicultural city in North America, there are numerous events to celebrate the diversity of the city. Our most recent was Caribana – a week long annual event that celebrates the Caribbean and West Indian culture with a huge-ass parade/ party. The Ontario Health Minister and Toronto city councillors propose opening up the street food menu to include street food from around the world. (I’m salivating at the thought of ramen kiosks and Korean BBQ tents.) Richmond, BC has Night Market – similar to those seen in Asia – which comes alive on summer weekends with 3 rows of Asian food vendors and 3 rows of random flea market-type knick knacks you can buy for cheap. (I left broke.)
North America is separated by ocean on both sides of the coast. America tends to be very insular where Canada tends to reach out. Canada tends to import a lot of products – America tries to use their natural resources to create products from within. Canada is strongly affected by world news – most of America hasn’t walked outside the 5 block radius of where they live and work. (course, I’m generalizing here – but I got lost in both Astoria and the Bronx and while the people were friendly, they couldn’t tell me where the major intersection was.) In schools, children in America pledge their allegiance to the flag. Children in Canada are lucky if they can remember the national anthem in French and English. (It’s a running joke in the country, but I still have trouble sometimes.) Also, there is no specific trait of being Canadian other than being stereotypically polite, drinking good beer and being rather apologetic.
So in an environment where we are rather encouraged to take pride in our ancestral heritage and engage in other cultures, we Asian-Canadians are fairly laid back doing the representation thing our own way – mainly through art and media. We’re proud to be Canadian, but we also don’t take ourselves so seriously, realize the nations shortcomings and even poke fun at it.
This isn’t to say Canada is a bed of roses because there are still lots of things wrong with the country as racism, prejudice and hate crimes still occur. The Chinese Canadian National Council exists because of irresponsible journalism and is one of the councils responsible for the Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The province of Quebec is a different culture onto itself being primarily French (or more specifically) Quebecois and where everything is French first and English second. Last year, an 8 year-old boy was suspended from school in Montreal because students around him were disgusted by his habit of using a fork and spoon to eat – an eating style practiced by Filipinos. And earlier this year Bloc Quebecois Leader Andre Bouclair refused to acknowledge that his comment “Yeux Brides” (slanted eyes) relating to his surprise of seeing about a third of undergraduates being of Asian descent was offensive. (He lost by a landslide in the election.)
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8 Comments to “Thoughts from North of the Border: Mosaic vs. Melting Pot”
Bertie wrote:
A weird phenomenon I’ve seen in urban areas is that people can live their entire lives almost never speaking to anyone outside of their race. When there’s a critical mass of people in the same minority group are in a given area, they can form their own insular groups from which they can choose not to venture out. In urban areas, there is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot.
In law school, a Korean classmate from Los Angeles asked me how it was to grow up in the south around “those white people.” “Wasn’t it weird?” he asked. I was completely dumbfounded that he even asked me that question. Honestly, when I grew up, I never really thought about it. You just made friends like everyone else. It was only until college when I realized there was something called the “Asian American Identity”(tm). At first, it was sort of fun, but then after college, I thought about how weird it was to segregate ourselves and define ourselves because of race. Each minority group would just stick to themselves, which prevented cross-cultural communication and, ultimately, understanding. I also noticed that each group would subtly accept the idea of “us” and “them” – and this was exacerbated when people would automatically assume that the Asians didn’t want to speak to anyone else. But the Asians would then assume that white people don’t want to speak to them. (Sorry, I’m painting with broad strokes, but it’s a blog comment – I’m trying to say a lot in a small space.) So much misunderstanding. Eventually, these misunderstandings and the lack of cross-cultural communication lead to stereotyping and racism.
So, despite the purported “progressiveness” of the Northeast, the people here are totally racist! They hang out with their own kind, date their own kind, have bizarre ideas about different cultural groups, etc. The identity politics in the NYC area is dizzying.
Anyway, outside of the urban areas minorities have to speak to people of a different color, or they won’t be speaking to anyone at all. If you’re a minority in the south, you might have to try a little harder to make friends initially, but eventually, you’re seen as an individual, not a member of some “foreign” group, and then you’re accepted. And then people come to the understanding that everyone is pretty much cut from the same cloth.
I prefer the melting pot approach. The salad bowl approach just leads to more problems, in my opinion, especially in America, where race seems to be an obsession.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 12:17 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
In my experience, America has been moving away from describing itself as a “melting pot” at least for the last ten years.
No doubt some people still use the phrase, but what I hear more often is “tossed salad” instead of melting pot. I guess a tossed salad is more like a “mosaic.” I would equate “taking the elements of a salad and putting it into a blender” to a “melting pot.”
Or maybe I’m just hungry and need to have a snack.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 2:43 pm | Permalink
claire wrote:
Sometimes I think that America is like a confused, angst-ridden teenager experimenting with extreme beliefs, hating its parents and just being a general punkass. We don’t know what we want. Melting pot, salad, mosaic. It’s all up in the air. I thought this was a great post though! It illuminates a lot of what I think we already feel deep down. And I must be hungry like Joz because mmmm ramen AND Korean BBQ? Lastly, there is nothing wrong with using a spoon and fork to eat. It’s the most effective way to shovel rice in and by god, if that is unAmerican or unQuebec-ish, then I don’t want to live in this hemisphere.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
It’s REALLLLLLY hard to generalize that much about the US, her politics and her history… because at the foundations, it’s always been so localized… What happened in one corner of the country may have effected the other parts… or not.
Some of the peculiarities and theories I’m working on as to why the US is just so… weird and that relate well with the differences from Canadia are thus:
* US independence was very much founded on the idea that we were different and separate from the Brits… that and the founders were descended from social and religious outcasts helped to hone that difference. This possibly accounts for our obsession with assimilation and being “American” and not from where your people are from… but then you add this to ghettoization of many ethnic groups, white and not and you get the Neighborhoods the Northeast, New Orleans and the old SF are known for
* The early US was very much into State’s Rights (not just for slavery!) and still true Repubs still push this agenda and so do I. In my research, other countries have “states” but none of them are as powerful as the states united here. Therefore local laws and customs have treated race and language differently. Bertie (the one I know?!!?) stated the sitch in NYC beautifully… it’s weird cuz I can pick out the different white people out there: Irish, Jewish, Russian, Italian… easily, whereas here in the Bay.. all just white. Many cities in the US are officially bilingual and states also make that distinction. San Jose, my home town, is officially tri-lingual: English, Spanish and Vietnamese. SF is at least customarily tri as well: English, Spanish and Chinese. When it comes to a federal and “national language”, many conservatives (not neo-cons, they are weird), balk at the idea of the Feds detailing that much of our culture, so it’s never really passed and if it did, it would at least be bi-lingual: Spanish, English because by then the Latino voting block will be huge.
I rather like that the US doesn’t have an official language… maybe it shouldn’t ever.
There’s more to this, of course… but it’s 5pm and I’m pooped.
Great to hear from the North…
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 3:56 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
Claire: I love how we can take a post about anything and then start talking about food.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 4:12 pm | Permalink
Akrypti wrote:
If I’m not mistaken, the original term “melting pot” came from a play about the Jewish Diaspora. The illustration on the bill depicted the melting concept with Blacks and Asians feeding the “fire” that boils the melting pot. We’re not actually thrown *into* the pot…it’s originally a term regarding assimilation of all the Caucasians of “diverse” European descent. Blacks and Asians at the time were still seen as unassimilable.
Thus, as an Asian American, I shy away from the term “melting pot” altogether.
Posted on 09-Aug-07 at 4:56 pm | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
One day I’ll write on my own site why I hate the world Caucasian used to mean “white.” But not here.
Also, I’m not feeling your quotes around the word diverse in when referencing the European population. Need I point to the countless wars, racism, empires, revolutions, localization, unification and debates on “Europeaness” to say that yes, Europe has a tonne (get it?) of diversity packed into a small funny-shaped peninsula. And when they all started coming to North America? You better believe they hated each other for that diversity… that is, until they found Others to scape goat. But we all know that story…
But yes, as a white American, I also cringe at the phrase melting pot and tossed salad (dirty!) and even, get this, “multiculturalism”.
Posted on 10-Aug-07 at 9:38 am | Permalink
j wrote:
OK – Regarding the first post I do have to chime in. Obviously you haven’t heard of AFRICAN Americans, ITALIAN Americans etc. Although a melting pot – red and yellow melt into ORANGE. In the US I have found there is more acceptance of the contribution of others than here in Canada – I live in Ottawa. Any city in the US has areas e.g., Little Italy, China Town etc. etc. – that seems more mosaic to me than the capital City which merely recognizes the French. Also, don’t be fooled that everything is in French and English in the stores – maybe in the cap and NB but elsewhere…NOT. And look at the animosity between Anglophones and Francophones and recent surveys of the incredibly pathetic numbers of BI-LINGUAL canadians. Can we really claim to be so morally superior as your post implies? What planet are you living on? Anti-Americanism here in Canada is rampant – no wonder the yanks don’t want to visit.
Posted on 20-May-08 at 7:18 pm | Permalink
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