Talking About Identity
Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language
“Where are you from?” “What is your nationality?” “I didn’t know you were…” “I’m not racist, but…” “It’s just a joke.” “What does a white person know about racism?” “Some of my best friends are…”
James and Shadd’s enormously popular Talking About Difference (BTL, 1994) has been thoroughly revised and expanded and makes a fine introduction to dozens of key issues involving all of us in Canadian society. Some of these issues include ethnic, racial, class and social identity. All the authors provide analysis as well as personal reflections. The book also shows the rich experiences and many ways of growing up, immigrating to, and living in Canada.
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Praise
The collection provides a useful and complex opening to issues of identity and differences through illustration of the varied ways in which the individual author’s identities get played out through daily interaction.
– Labour/Le Travail
Talking about Identity is a comprehensive selection of personal reflections on social experience. It is grounded, provocative, enlightening, useful and, above all, compelling to read.
– Richard Fung, coordinator at Centre for Media and Culture in Education, OISE, University of Toronto
Contents
| Acknowledgements | |
| Introduction | Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language Carl E. James |
| Part I | Who's Canadian, Anyway? |
| Chapter 1 | "Where Are You Really From?" Notes of an "Immigrant" from North Buxton, Ontario Adrienne Shadd |
| Chapter 2 | What's Your Background? Kai James |
| Chapter 3 | Jewish, Canadian, or Québecois? Notes on a Diasporic Identity Susan Judith Ship |
| Chapter 4 | Québécitude An Ambiguous Identity Guy Bédard |
| Chapter 5 | I Want to Call Myself Canadian Katalin Szepesi |
| Chapter 6 | Hello ... My Name Is ... Katalin Szepesi |
| Part II | Growing up "Different" |
| Chapter 7 | My Mother Used to Dance Valerie Bedassigae Pheasant |
| Chapter 8 | Zebra: Growing up Black and White in Canada Lawrence Hill |
| Chapter 9 | "I Am Canadian but My Father Is German" Lori Weber |
| Chapter 10 | Present Company Excluded, of Course ... Revisited Stan Isoki |
| Part III | Roots of Identity, Routes to Knowing |
| Chapter 11 | Revealing Moments: The Voice of One Who Lives with Labels Did Khayatt |
| Chapter 12 | German-Japanese-American-Canadian: Chapters in a Twentieth-Century Life Gottfried Passche |
| Chapter 13 | It Was Always There? Looking for Identity in All the (Not) So Obvious Places howard ramos |
| Chapter 14 | The Elusive and Illusionary: Identifying of Me, Not by Me Camille Hernández-Ramdwar |
| Chapter 15 | Is It Japanese Artist or Artist Who Is Japanese? Lillian Blakey |
| Chapter 16 | Corridors: Language as Trap and Meeting Ground Angèle Denis |
| Chapter 17 | A Black Canadian Woman of Diverse Ethnic Origins Marlene Jennings |
| Part IV | Race, Privilege, and Challenges |
| Chapter 18 | "I've Never Had a Black Teacher Before" Carl E. James |
| Chapter 19 | White Teacher, Black Literature Leslie Sanders |
| Chapter 20 | Whiteness in White Academia Luis M. Aguiar |
| Chapter 21 | Learning from Discomfort: A Letter to My Daughters Barb Thomas |
| Chapter 22 | The "Race Consciousness" of a South Asian (Canadian, of Course) Female Academic Arun Mukherjee |
| Chapter 23 | There's a White Man in My Bed: Scenes from an Interracial Marriage Pui Yee Beryl Tsang |
| Part V | Confronting Stereotypes and Racism |
| Chapter 24 | "I Didn't Know You Were Jewish" ... and Other Things Not to Say When You Find Out Ivan Kalmar |
| Chapter 25 | But You Are Different: In Conversation with a Friend Sabra Desai |
| Chapter 26 | Ties That Bind and Ties That Blind: Race and Class Intersections in the Classroom Paul Orlowski |
| Chapter 27 | "We Are All the Same — Just Because You Are Black Doesn't Matter" Gifty Serbeh-Dunn and Wayne Dunn |
| Chapter 28 | Can Blacks Be Racist? Reflections on Being "Too Black and African" Henry Martey Codjoe |
| Chapter 29 | "Why Are Black People So Angry?" The Question of Black Rage Adrienne Shadd |
| Interrogations | by Stephen Patel |
| References | |
| Contributors |
