I find that each day there is something new to learn. We keep some views that we hold for a long time; and then all of a sudden we get shocked when something happen and finds that the view we hold is wrong.
For a long time, I had the perception that racism and discrimination are directed mainly on the colour of the skin; that the fair-skinned people look down on the dark-skinned ones. The Blacks and the Browns, which include Filipinos and other Asians, are stigmatized as the visible minority, a group excluded from the Anglo-Saxons, Italians, Polish, and other Europeans and North Americans.
Several weeks ago, I was in a gathering of family and close friends. It was the birthday celebration for my grandniece. My niece married a Canadian of Irish-Scottish origin, It was just a party of relatives on both sides and a very few intimate friends. One of them, a dear friend of ours, is a Latvian-Canadian, We have known her for more than thirty years and she is like family to us. I introduced her to the members of the family of my niece’s husband and she was warmly welcomed.
At the dining table the conversation turned on our early days in Canada. One of the matriarchs of my niece’s husband’s family was talking of how she and her husband settled in Caledon and engaged in farming. My friend mentioned how she was born in England and how her parents were displaced during the Second World War and immigrated to Canada when she was a little girl.
Until now, she added that she feels different because of her accent. That remark sort of shocked me. I have always considered this friend as a white Canadian and I never thought that she has some feelings of being different from other Canadians who are white like her.
“Oh, yes,” she said, “I felt different when I was a little girl in school here. Just like the Irish whom I think were also discriminated here in Toronto.”
I went home deep in thought. I became more aware of the different ethnic groups that tend to live close to one another in the Greater Toronto Area. There is the St. Clair area which is predominantly Italian, or the Danforth which is mostly Greek, or certain parts of Markham wherein most of the population is Chinese. Do people feel more at home and secure among their own kind?
What makes people stick together? What repels them from certain individuals or groups?
Since my arrival in Canada, I have lived and worked with a variety of people of different origins and cultures. I have been exposed to different languages, religions and traditions. I have tasted food that I n ever had before. Indeed, it was an interesting learning proce3ss that has enriched me emotionally, socially and mentally. I believe I am more open-minded now than when I first arrived in Canada.
`But there are reasons that inhibit some people from accepting others, be this an individual or a group. There are barriers that people set, knowingly or unknowingly.
One of the most predominant is power, be it physical, mental, financial, political, educational or religious. We are afraid that power may control us and make us lose our freedom. Language is another barrier that separates people. The fear of lack of communication or being considered dumb because we do not comprehend another person may make us reluctant to socialize with people who do not understand or speak our own language. On the other hand, some individuals make others with different accents very conscious by pointing out that they speak differently.
One should never be ashamed of his or her accent. When one points it out respond right away, “Of course, because I speak another language, other than what we are using. How about you? You have your own accent too.”
Right here in Canada, English is spoken with different accents. People from Quebec are influenced by their French language; residents who came from Great Britain have several accents. There is what is known as the Queen’s English and there is the accent of the common people. The Irish speak with a beautiful tilt while the Scottish has a certain burr.-r-r.
Almost all Filipinos speak in Tagalog or Filipino, the national language, but the influence of their own first language like Ilocano, Pampango, Pangasinan or Visayan is very noticeable.
Even Filipinos whose first language is Tagalog have different accents depending on the region they came from. Batangenios speak differently from Bulakenyos.
People with the same religion may differ in their traditional ceremonies like weddings or celebrations to honour their God or saints. Among Catholics, Filipinos brought to Canada the veils and “Aras” ceremonies in weddings. They also brought the “Flores de Mayo” to honour Virgin Mary in May, and the “fluvial parade which the Bicolanos hold to honour Our Lady of Penafrancia.
The differences in the ways food is prepared by various cultural groups show the influence of crops that grow in their places of origin. Filipinos make ”atsara” out of papaya while North Americans and Europeans make cole slaw and sauerkraut out of cabbage. Most of the Filipino desserts use coconut milk while here in Canada, milk is the common ingredient.
These diversities in the ways of life of different ethnocultural groups have similar roots. The differences in the geography and climate of the regions of the earth have made people adjust and develop a way of life using the gifts of their environment. With the tremendous progress in transportation and communication, immigration has been facilitated such that these different cultures now live together in places like Canada where they find more freedom and opportunity for a better life.
These differences that they bring should not be reason for them to live in exclusion. When shared, understood and appreciated these diversities would enrich the lives of all the members of the community. The differences are assets that can be shared, not power to put down one another. They can be shared in education, government, health and nutrition, religion and other aspects of life that all human beings participate in. Let us put aside ethnocentrism or the belief that our own culture is more superior than others. Let us open our minds to the reality that all men have similar needs but not similarly endowed. By sharing what we have, we