The Rural Reality A Conversation on Race in Rural Canada
to begin
i wish to acknowledge that i am speaking
on the traditional unseated territories
of the musquam
squamish and sueyla tooth nations
i was eight years old when i watched the
fantastic
kung fu western film shanghai noon for
any of you who does
don’t know shanghai noon is a buddy cop
comedy set in the old west
where the lead character uh chun won
played by
hong kong film legend jackie chan teams
up with owen wilson’s character
roy o’bannon to save a captured princess
along the way we see chun juan dressed
in classic cowboy attire
shooting guns riding horses and getting
up to all sorts of misadventures
to me chan won was my hero
here was a man who represented both
sides of my identity
as i had grown up on a horse ranch where
we bred and trained race horses
in rural canada
chun won represented both sides of who i
was and he helped to romanticize my
interpretation of my chinese heritage
which up until this point
i knew very little about growing up
i was the only asian kid to ever attend
my elementary school
as soon as my asian heritage came to
light i was instantly placed on an
advanced
placement program where i was skipped a
grade the following year
pressures were placed upon my shoulders
to be that
smart asian kid as after all the school
district had spent an incomprehensible
amount of time elevating me up through
the gate grades
no one stopped to ask if this was what
was best for me
i was dubbed ching li
by my peers a name that i would
not shake until it was replaced by an
equally demeaning nickname by a
gentleman on a pipeline work camp
triscuit the rice cracker
and i have to hand it to them on that
one that one is it’s pretty cr
pretty clever this conflating of my
identity into something i wasn’t
is a very common occurrence for people
of color in rural communities
and it was something that i embraced
because it made me different
and unique now
allow me to unravel this
story about my dear friend hassan
hassan and his family moved to my
hometown
from london when we were children
hassan’s family
is of sudanese descent and because of
this they are practicing muslims
being a practicing muslim in rural
canada has its challenges
with none being more profound in this
particular
story that hassan tells me of when he
and his family were pulled over by two
rcmp officers on the side of the road
hassan tells me about how terrified
he and his family were terrified for
a couple of reasons the first reason
being that
hassan and his family were black
immigrants
alone on a lonely highway in the frozen
north with two rcmp
officers hassan’s mother wore hijab
and his brother’s name was muhammad
hassan tells me about how his brother
muhammad was constantly the focus
of people’s racial intolerance in our
hometown
muhammad felt uncomfortable being
addressed by his own
first name preferring to be known as mo
hassan tells me about how moe was
questioned for
an incomprehensible amount of time by
these two
rcmp officers when he was only 10
years old this
was his reality fearing your own first
name being seen out in public and
traveling all of this
was a challenge and now
you might be wondering why i’m telling
you this
and don’t you worry we’ll get there
multiculturalism has been the law of the
land in canada for decades
multiculturalism was first enshrined
into canadian law under section 27 of
the canadian charter of rights and
freedoms
canada and the united states takes two
different approaches to how
they integrate their new immigrants into
their societies
canada favors the mosaic model while the
united states favors the melting pot
model
can any of you uh do any of you have you
ever heard of these terms before
the mosaic model seeks to adhere to the
principles that
uh new immigrants should keep their
identities intact and become an
amalgamation of various cultures
histories and religious nuances all in
one
creating this aforementioned mosaic
the melting pot model seeks to
for all new immigrants to remove their
identities so as to take on the american
identity
for themselves at first glance the
mosaic model appears to be
more sensitive to the histories of the
immigrants coming into our society
can any of but can any of you accurately
and
uh think of an example where the mosaic
model was a true representation of of
immigrants being integrated into your
societies
is it accurate to say that the mosaic
model is being followed in your
communities
in the beginning of the coronavirus
pandemic
anti-asian racism was at an all-time
high a recent study by
statistics canada that was published on
may 12th revealed
that asians felt a 30 increase in
perceived hate crimes
i myself was the target of people’s
racial intolerance in my
small community in rural canada
my little brother who is white and i
were going to get groceries when it
happened
a white pickup truck drove in front of
the safeway and rolled down its windows
to reveal its occupants
there was two men and one woman both of
them stuck their heads out of this truck
shouted at me heckled me and spoke an
incredibly racist rendition of chinese
a classic my brother
not knowing what to look for when it
comes to these sorts of things didn’t
even
even really understand what was
happening until he had already gotten
inside
anti-asian racism is increasing
dramatically and when the pandemic being
began videos flooded social media of
asians being harassed and discriminated
against
the chinatown lions in vancouver were
defaced not once but twice
and i won’t deny i was shocked and still
am by the events that transpired
it had been years since race had ever
really been a thing for me and
part of the reason why i moved out of my
hometown was it was the easiest way for
me
to prevent myself from being harassed
and
demeaned for the color of my skin
living in international metropolises
like vancouver
or paris race was never really a
deciding factor for who
who i was that’s not to say that racism
doesn’t exist
in places such as this because it does
it’s just
not so in your face
the death of george floyd shocked the
world and anti-racism protests
swept the globe the words
i can’t breathe
those words will resonate with me until
the day i die
i can’t breathe
the words of a man suffocating under the
crushing weight
of privilege and prejudice
i can’t breathe
coming off the coattails of the incident
at safeway i saw this
as my chance to finally begin making
moves
and advancing the conversation on race
within my community
it was time to start a discussion the
year is 2020
and racism should not exist
it was in the weeks afterwards while
helping to lead an anti-racism protest
in my community
which was met initially with positive
reactions we had lots of mothers and
teachers come to show their support but
we also received
pushback the pushback came in the form
of online hatred
it came in the form of hecklers shouting
all lives matter from their lifted
pickup trucks as they did
nasty burnouts in front of our protest
site
but also curiously came in the form of
the confederate
flag now i know what you’re probably
thinking
tristan the confederate flag in rural
canada
that’s ridiculous in early july
cbc reported on an anti-racism protest
that was occurring in the okanagan
and it was met with counter protesters
brandishing the confederate
flag the confederate flag is a symbol
that is
very commonly seen in the united states
a prevalent symbol in the deep south
with a history that is steeped in racial
prejudice
what if i was to tell you that this
symbol is just as prevalent in rural
canada
as it is in rural america
this brings me back to my dear friend
hassan
when hassan first got to my high school
he was greeted to a wave of orange and
blue
a young teenager had just tragically
passed away and to honor this teenager’s
memory
baseball caps t-shirts and sweaters were
all engraved with a symbol of the
american
confederacy
the tragic death of this young man was
not the genesis
of the confederate flag being flown in
canada
the confederate flag is a common symbol
that we see in rural areas
as an immigrant to canada these images
to hassan were shocking
if not totally horrifying
he at first he did not understand what
this symbol meant as he was too young
but as he learned about it in school he
was horrified to see that his classmates
teachers and peers could all fly such a
symbol
he asked me tristan what is the
difference
between this symbol and the swastika
flag of nazi germany
the only answer that me and him could
come up with was that the nazis
primarily targeted
european jews white people
hassan’s story is but one of many for
people of color in rural canada
and highlights disconnect between the
ideals of the mosaic model and the model
in
the way it’s actually put into practice
in in his new home hassan felt societal
pressures to be the prototypical black
kid
one who was outgoing good at sports and
gets along with everyone
this is not unlike the the experience
that i had
when my asian heritage came to light and
i was placed in an advanced placement
program
societal pressures were placed upon my
shoulders and hassan’s shoulders that
any child is going to struggle to live
up to
now imagine this
you’ve immigrated to a new home where
your new peers place stereotypical
societal expectations upon your
shoulders
they call you out and they expect you to
behave in a way that they
think that you should act all the while
they fly the flag of a group that fought
to enslave your people
now i ask would you stay
and live in such a place
all throughout my childhood race was the
number one thing that caused problems in
my
in my day-to-day life primarily due
to the societal expectations that were
placed upon my shoulders due to the
color of my skin
and the slant of my eyes it didn’t
matter
that that i was just a kid
and who was placed in this program at a
very young age
i didn’t get to choose this it didn’t
matter that hassan
was a shy kid who was more interested in
drama
and theater than being that outgoing
sports jock
it is here that we truly see the flaws
of the mosaic model
the mosaic model thrives in urban
centers
where communities can form within
your own community in rural areas this
model does nothing but create
barriers during my days protesting in my
hometown
a man drove from a small community an
hour away
just to bring us coffee and donuts
he pulled me aside and he said tristan
have you had any problems with counter
protesters and i said no
and he said that he had heard rumors of
the proud boys appear wanting to show up
at another anti-racism protest in a
community
a few hours south for anyone who’s
unaware
the proud boys are a white supremacist
organization
that were founded by a canadian and hold
deep roots both in canada
and the united states just like the
confederate flag is phone in canada
white supremacy exists and thrives here
too
i don’t have all the answers to these
incredibly complex problems and i
wouldn’t be standing here on this stage
if i did
i’m not a doctor or an engineer
i’m not an entrepreneur or politician
i am just a 23 year old kid who is tired
of having to justify
his own self-worth due to the color of
his skin and the slant
of his eyes i
am just a 23 year old kid who’s had
enough of carrying around a pocket knife
in his pocket out of fear of being
assaulted on the street
i am just a 23 year old kid who has had
enough
and above all else i am just a 23 year
old
canadian for people like myself and
hassan
the battle for equality has raged for as
long as we can remember
and we wouldn’t i wouldn’t be here
discussing these issues if this could
all be fixed easily
we have come to a generational reckoning
and it has become clear though that
black indigenous
and people of color can’t do this on
their own
we need allies we need
white allies we need the people
who hold that privilege that we crave so
dearly
to take a stand not just on social media
but from the comforts of our own homes
and the privacy of our workplaces
for too long people have acted as
voyeurs
to our struggle and have done nothing
we need people to stand up
just like george floyd we are have been
suffocating for far
too long and we need those other three
officers
to rip that row cop off of our throats
we need people to stand up
don’t let your uncle cry
about reverse racism or white genocide
at christmas dinner
don’t let your boss or your colleagues
tell that insensitive joke at the water
cooler
call them out and let them know that we
see you
and we will not tolerate this sort of
behavior anymore
the people of this nation we celebrate
the cultures of the world and
as more and more nations unite
under the banner of multiculturalism and
globalism
canada serves as an example
an example that unfettered
multiculturalism
without a plan in place to properly
integrate immigrants into
our societies not just in urban centers
but in the small rural communities as
well
none of this is going to change this is
a problem that can’t just be hidden
behind the curtain
any longer the year 2020
is going to go down in history as one of
the most tumultuous
and uncertain years of the modern era
and as this story is taught to students
in schools
which side of this story are you going
to be on
thank you
you