CANADIANS - multiracials, hyphenated, mixed, halfbreed...

[MattHunX]

I have to make a presentation for my class about Canada on the documentary film: Between: Living in the Hyphen (http://www.nfb.ca/film/between_living_in_the_hyphen).

I'm almost finished and have researched some history (on policies, on immigration and attitude towards immigrant). My teacher would like me to get information on what Canadians, especially those of more diverse ethnic backgrounds think of words like: hyphenated, mixed, halfbreed or...multiracial (<<< I know this irks them, I have posted this on the RDF forums too).

From what I've gathered so far, the situation of the immigrants wasn't very different from those in the "Melting Pot"...they say it has become a salad bowl. The U.S. hasn't been really a melting pot for decades. There was a China Town and Little Italy...not quite assimilation.

[Randydeluxe]

I just read your post aloud to three Canadians and here were the immediate responses:

"We don't assimilate."

"We're multicultural."

"I don't like those words (half-breed, etc), but if someone wants to call themselves something, they can."

[Woodbutcher]

I was born in Finland and came to Canada at the age of 16. I consider myself a canadian, not a finnish-canadian. I think that pointing someone out as an italian-canadian or any hyphenated canadian is demeaning; it's as if they weren't equal to other canadians.

[FedUpWithFaith]

I was born in Finland and came to Canada at the age of 16. I consider myself a canadian, not a finnish-canadian. I think that pointing someone out as an italian-canadian or any hyphenated canadian is demeaning; it's as if they weren't equal to other canadians.

As an American I agree with that too, including African-American, although that appears to be the current popular appellation for black people. I try to avoid it though.

[devogue]

Everything I know about Canada I learned from South Park.

[Svartalf]

Meh, I was born in Canada, my parents took me back to France when I was 8... and now I'm pure French... I didn't get the culture when I was growing up there, and what little I got was mostly left behgind (beside a taste for maple syrup on my pancakes, peanut butter sandwiches and choc chip cookies)

[Saim]

I found that video was very interesting. As an Australian-born member of a visible ethnic minority and a bilingually-raised child of immigrants, I have experienced (or heard of from other "ethnic" Australians) encounters very similar to those recounted in the video by visible minority Canadians, so it was interesting to see how similar the situation of ethnic minorities in Canada. Obviously the situation is somewhat different in Canada though because of the tension between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians, though (I wish Australia had that diversity within its dominant European culture).

I was born in Finland and came to Canada at the age of 16. I consider myself a canadian, not a finnish-canadian. I think that pointing someone out as an italian-canadian or any hyphenated canadian is demeaning; it's as if they weren't equal to other canadians.

I think that definitely is a problem, but I'd prefer the dominant group to identify as British or Anglo than for everyone else to just become "Canadians" (at least in terms of their ethnic identity).