Looking north: Exploring multiracial experiences in a Canadian context

Abstract

The perspectives of Canadians who share stories in this chapter about their mixed‐race lives provide a broader context for understanding multiracial students in the United States and considering how colleges and universities in differing national and cultural contexts might best serve this growing population.

Studying “Mixed Race”: Reflections on Methodological Practice

“…The curiosity narrative foregrounds the messiness of race discourse in the Canadian context, particularly in an era of "official multiculturalism." I theorize that the curiosity narrative stems from a post-race or color-blind multicultural discourse where the rhetoric is that "everyone is equal" and "people do not see race" (Mahtani, 2002a;Taylor, 2008). In this context, race and racialization are positioned as insignificant to people's life experiences, resulting in the denial of racialized power dynamics at work in the "what are you?"…”

“…The curiosity narrative is demonstrative of how normalized questioning is in the respondents' lives (and how they themselves normalize it), and says much about the extent to which the external gaze is built into the operation of race in Canada. The curiosity narrative foregrounds the messiness of race discourse in the Canadian context, particularly in an era of “official multiculturalism.” I theorize that the curiosity narrative stems from a post-race or color-blind multicultural discourse where the rhetoric is that “everyone is equal” and “people do not see race” (Mahtani, 2002a; Taylor, 2008). In this context, race and racialization are positioned as insignificant to people's life experiences, resulting in the denial of racialized power dynamics at work in the “what are you?” question by respondents in their framing of the question as stemming from “mere curiosity.”…”