Paradoxes of the Canadian mosaic: “being, feeling and doing Canadian”

Abstract

Abstract This autoethnographic narrative shows how discourses of belonging for racialized identities within Canada’s mosaic are bounded by history, cultural politics, and attendant social struggles. Using an intersectional framework of Asian Critical theory, politics of location, and cultural capital, this paper demonstrates how ideologies of belonging are sustained by processes of cultural and institutional socialization which maintain hierarchies privileging some social groups over others and produce racial/ized difference and inequities within Canadian citizenry. As a second-generation of Chinese ancestry born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, my lived experiences in a predominantly white English-speaking environment illustrate how my status as “model minority” or “honorary white” has been a precarious position. Bonilla-Silva warns us that “honorary white” positioning may be revoked in times of economic, racial or ethnic tension. Dramatic increases in anti-Asian hate incidents during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic—earning Vancouver, BC, the title of the “anti-Asian hate capital of North America”—is an example of how these racialized statuses are paradoxical designations which deny the existence of social inequities. Critical research must interrogate how the continued use of mis-aggregated data that essentializes diverse population groups and perpetuates harmful distortions of Canadian citizenry contribute to, rather than dismantle, discourses of race in “multicultural” Canada.