Terrorism & Family Wednesday, Nov 12 2008

It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been keeping myself busy with things. I am currently unemployed and it is surprising how busy I am because of it. In addition to wedding planning and job hunting I have found myself to be the gopher of the family. I am asked to conduct tasks that other family members can’t because they don’t have the ‘free time’ that I do. At least I’m not bored out of my mind.

Something that has been bothering me lately is POC that conform to right-wing justifications on the war on terror. I’ve noticed this with some of my to-be family members. As I’ve mentioned before, my fiance is of Taiwanese descent while I am of South-Indian descent. Just like some of my family members, some of his family members are very conservative, right-wing individuals. We used to be too until we received a broader perspective of the world through our experiences in the past couple of years. So these family members constantly justify the ‘war on terror’ and the fight against ‘terrorism’. One of the things that bothers me about this is their lack of recognition that ‘terrorists’ is often times used as a synonym for dark-skinned Asian peoples (or those that look like them). I know what it is like to be looked at with suspicion because of the colour of my skin. I’ve watched as my family was constantly stopped for a ‘random check’ when we tried to cross the American border while White families easily passed through without so much as a blink. I saw how my father struggled to find a full-time job (he is highly educated and experienced in his field) and how he didn’t get hired until he shaved off his beard. I’ve seen how people would only make eye contact with my White friends while avoiding looking at me while they spoke to all of us. The fact that our family is Christian, that we support charities, that we pay our taxes, that we are proud Canadian citizens, that we work hard does not matter. To those who scrutinize us and question us on our terrorist capabilities all that matters is that we look like those terrorists. Those who killed ‘innocent’ Americans. All they see is our skin colour and our ‘foreignness’.

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Identity Through Koreanness Saturday, Aug 16 2008

I have been listening to Japanese and Korean music for the past seven years, and counting. The music made me look into other forms of Japanese and Korean media, such as variety shoes, music shows, movies, dramas, etc. which in turn gave me greater exposure to Japanese and Korean culture, respectively. With Korean culture in particular, or should I say, overt mainstream Korean culture, I found that there were many things that I could relate to. The mentality, the hierarchy, the gender discrimination, idealized images, etc. were also rampant in my parent’s culture. Even though my parents didn’t buy into many traditional Indian values (mostly because they were Christian and somewhat progressive – they’re still quite conservative), I was still exposed to these socialzing factors via other family members and through interaction with other Indians.

In a sense, the exposure that I had to Korean culture and those who talked about their issues with it (mostly Korean Americans) helped me feel like I wasn’t alone. Not necessarily like I belonged, because I am far from finding a “community” that I really fit into or can find a nice nook to plant my butt in, but more so knowing that there are others who are struggling just like me. That’s one of the reasons that I read so many things by Korean Americans/Canadians or Koreans in American/Canada because since there isn’t an Indian community for myself, I can kind of look to them from a distance for guidance. I think it’s better to read about others’ experiences to reflect on your own life, even if it isn’t completely the same, rather than not having anything at all.

For my research, which is on second-generation Keralite Christian women in the GTA, I read a lot of literature on Korean Christians in the U.S. This was mostly because they have so much more literature than any other recent racialized Christian community, but also because the more I read about them, the more I understood my own community. The immigrant experience, the conflict of living between two worlds, being brought up by immigrant parents, feeling isolated by White Christian communities, constantly racialized, etc. These issues were actually being addressed in this literature. I didn’t feel like I was the only one who noticed. And it feels good to know you’re not alone; that you’re not imagining things, or your not looking too much into your observations. It’s good to have that verification. And so, having some sort of connection with the Korean community in Canada/U.S. (even if it is just online or thorugh literature) really helped me deal with a lot of identity issues that I had. I’m still dealing with it, but I just wanted to share how it is possible to learn more about yourself and your experiences from a different culture than your own.

This book in particular helped me a lot. Actually, most of the literature written by Rebecca Y. Kim has. “God’s New Whiz Kids? Korean American Evangelicals on Campus” by Rebecally Y. Kim (2006).

P.S. I can read Hangul and I can’t even read Kannada.

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My Beef With Census Canada Tuesday, May 13 2008

It was recently declared by the most recent Census Canada data (from 2006) that South Asians have surpassed the Chinese with the largest population in the visibility minority category. From those that filled out their census form, 1.3 million people have South Asian ancestry.

There are two things that bothers me about these stats (other than people not filling out their surveys). First, the term South Asian is so broad and essentializes a diverse group of people into a category based on an abstract construction of race. According to the Cesus Canada, South Asians are individuals who were born in or whose ancestors were born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Yup, definitely diverse. So why are all these countries lumped together while other categories like Chinese and Filipino are given their own? Just because we all fall under a category of “brown skin” doesn’t mean we should all be grouped into one category. I really don’t understand the logic behind the creation of these ethnic categories.

Second, the census asks people what ethnic categories their ancestors are and not what ethnic category/categories they want to affiliate with. Therefore someone like me, a visible minority whose ancestors fall under the category of South Asian, cannot claim my ethnicity to be Canadian. Some people would object to this, but I think it is important to find out how people want to identify themselves rather than forcing them into a labelled category based on their ancestry. Why should a person living in Canada have their identification constrained by how Stats Canada and other official organizations want to label them. If I want to call myself Canadian then I should be able to do that regardless of whether or not I was born in Canada or how my parents and grandparents affiliate themselves. First, second, and third generation Canadians should not be treated differently than later generations and all Canadian residents should be given the right to label themselves as they want. Limiting people’s ability to do so and restricting the access to classify one’s ethnicity as Canadian perpetuates the misguided ideology of Canada as a White nation where only “real Canadians” are those of fully European ancestry.

REFERENCES
The Globe And Mail: “Canada’s visible minorities top five million”

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