Friday, October 16, 2009

Observations

Orangeville was a very white town. It's changed a lot since we first moved there, but it was still mainly white. I've gotten comments that Whitby is also very white. Maybe, for a 110 000 people town, but after my ultrasound today, I will have to say that just because a town appears white, doesn't mean that it's not full of immigrants.
Every person (staff and clients) I saw/heard at the ultrasound office was white, but all had accents. And not British accents.
Ahead of me was a white teen girl and her mother. They were sitting and chatting, in a foreign language that sounded eastern European. It was a little agitated, and then all of a sudden, the teen slaps her leg and dramatically says "No! Are you serious?" and carries right on in her native language.
Hidden multiculturalism...I wonder if white immigrants face the same sort of racism/issues as non-whites?
I was waiting one day near the pharmacy in Wal-Mart. There were two ladies (sisters) chatting away. Two young boys, dressed in long white robes and white caps come walking by. The ladies snicker and make a few comments about Hallowe'en, and "you're in Canada now, eh". Would they say something like that to a white person wearing a religious necklace charm representing a non-Western religion? Would they scoff at a Texan wearing a big cowboy hat?
When we were house hunting, we drove around one new neighbourhood. Rob made several comments about there being no white people and he couldn't live there. The kids did find one white couple. They got quite excited. Then I heard them telling their friends that we didn't pick one house because everyone was brown and black and dressed funny. Would we have encountered reverse racism?

I find immigration and emigration fascinating. It's not something I think I'd ever do, and it must take a phenomenal amount of courage to leave your homeland. Why do some people think this is a reason to ostracize a stranger?

2 comments:

Cheryl said...

We live in a mostly black neighbourhood, not realizing this until after we moved. The family downstairs is black and my landlord who owns the house is from Egypt. There are hardly any white people in pickering, its mostly mixed cuz we are so close to Toronto. Growing up in an all white community and moving here has been a huge change. But I have come to learn that everyone around us came from somewhere else in the world. We are all immigrants, in a sort of form. My grandfather came from Scotland, your grandfather came from Ukraine. Yet we are now Canadian. But I do feel that when you leave your home country you need to better adapt to the new land. I has very strong opinion about not being able to say merry Christmas because it can offended certain cultures. I see this as ignorance on there part for not welcoming the traditions of their new country. I do understand the religionists factor with the clothes as well, but its not a Canadian way and so i do question the need to contine wearing it. Maybe with more time this will change. I mean my grandfather didn't wear his kilt, once in Canada... see my point?!

The Mother said...

Yes, we here in Tx scoff at the guys who wear big cowboy hats anywhere off the ranch (except on Go Western Day).