Talking about Difference : Encounters in Culture, Language and Identity /
edited by Carl E. James and Adrienne Shadd.
- 1st ed.
- Toronto : Between The Lines, 1994.
- ix, 244 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
"In Talking about Difference, Canadians from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds - Aboriginal, African, Jewish, East European, and Asian - present their impressions of what it's like to grow up in, immigrate to, or work in Canada. Their personal stories illuminate the complex ways in which culture, race, class and identity find expression in our daily lives. The stories - variously warm and harsh, humorous and thought-provoking and always engaging - deal with the everyday questions of who is really Canadian, of growing up and living in more than one culture, of stereotyping, and of confronting racism. The range of experiences and of styles - essays, letters, personal narratives, and journalistic articles - offers an entertaining and instructive glimpse of life in a country with a rapidly changing and vibrant population mix." (Book Cover) CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction: Learning from Encounters / Carl E. James and Adrienne Shad Part I: WHO'S A CANADIAN, ANYWAY? Where Are You Really From? Notes of an "Immigrant" from North Buxton, Ontario / Adrienne Shadd But What Is Your Nationality? / Susan Judith Ship Québécitude: An Ambiguous Identity / Guy Bédard I want to call myself Canadian / Katalin Szepesi Hello...My Name is... / Katalin Szepesi Part II: GROWING UP My Mother Used to Dance / Valerie Bedassigae Pheasant Zebra: Growing up Black and White in Canada / Lawrence Hill Growing up Ukrainian in Toronto / Jerry Diakiw I Ain`t Sitting Beside HER / Shyrose Jaffer Present Company Excluded, of Course / Stanley Isoki My New Home / Denny Hunte Grade Six, 1993 / Kai James Part III: IDENTITIES: LIVING IN MANY WORLDS Revealing Moments: The Voice of One who Lives with Labels / Didi Khayatt Is it Japanese Artist or Artist who is Japanese? / Lillian Blakey Being German, Being Canadian / Gottfried Paasche Why Admit You Are an Eskimo? / Doris J. Saunders When an Immigrant Meets an Aboriginal / Pui Yee Beryl Tsang Part IV: RACE, PRIVILEGE, AND CHALLENGES I've Never Had A Black Teacher Before / Carl E. James White Teacher, Black Literature / Leslie Sanders White Privilege: What's In It for Me? / Karen Lynn Learning from Discomfort: A Letter to my Daughters / Barb Thomas Part V: STEREOTYPING IS A COMMON PRACTICE, BUT... Stereotyping / Kai James I Didn't Know You Were Jewish...and Other Things Not To Say When You Find Out / Ivan Kalmar But You Are Different: In Conversation with a Friend / Sabra Desai Part VI: CONFRONTING RACISM The "Race Consciousness" of a South Asian (Canadian, of Course) Female Academic / Arun Mekherjee One Family. Indivisible? Or Me, and Two of My Children / Boyce, Robert and Belle Richardson There's A White Man in My Bed: Scenes from Interracial Marriage / Pui Yee Beryl Tsang Black Nationalists Beware! You Could Be Called a Racist for Being "Too Black and African" / Henry Martey Codjoe Bibliography Biographical Notes