Quote:
Originally Posted by dobbles
I have something I want to see what Acey and Crown think of and if its consistent with their lived experiences...
Growing up in the small town midwest as I did, there usually was a small amount of minorities in communities. You would often have that stereotypical 1 or 2 black families that allowed the community to think they had diversity and weren't racist.
However, the one thing about those minority families, is they had to lead a very 'white' life. They had to keep quiet, keep their head down, not cause trouble, stay in line with cultural norms, etc.
Then what you would see in towns that actually ended up with a large influx of minorities was pretty severe racism. I am familiar with a few towns that had meat processing plants that ended up bringing in large amounts of minorities as cheaper labor. Those communities would turn ugly when they had to deal with minorities actually having their own culture and way of life.
This is all anecdotal of course, but it just seems like we have a large portion of society that thinks they are cool with minorities because they know a few but those few have always had to tiptoe through life to stay off the radar.
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I would say the "oreo" black person fits in much better, at least in Lethbridge. In high school (late 90s) I was one of just a few students that listened to hip-hop. It seemed to me that Asian and Hispanic people fit into the community much better than black and aboriginals, the latter being treated much worse than I ever have.
I don't know about the causing trouble and such, as my parents came to Canada from South Africa because they knew they'd probably be killed for their love (Dad is white, Mom is black), so they instilled in us pretty young to keep our heads down because there was a very serious distrust of any system. We did follow cultural norms, but that was mostly because my parents believed that Canada welcomed them and let them be together, so the least they could do was respect and observe Canadian traditions. I don't know anyone that loves Canada Day like moms and pops.
The only South African holiday we observe is National Heritage day, which honors King Shaka. When I was married my parents observed the tradition of Lobola, where the parents of the groom bestow gifts upon the family of the bride as a thank you for allowing her to join our family and to show she is valued. We also do our own form of amadlozi worship, which is where you go to Zululand 3 times a year and pay tribute to your ancestors. What we do is go to a cemetery and clean off headstones and leave flowers for graves that look like they're not visited. We also practice Ubuntu, which is basically just being a good person and believing that with being interconnected we can achieve more than we can alone.
I don't know if I actually answered anything, or just rambled lol. But, what you said sounds pretty accurate.