Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
As someone whose ancestors left Europe four centuries ago, eked out an existence in a new land, suffered colonial domination, deportation and even attempted ethnic cleansing themselves, and personally had no involvement (personally or even collectively) in the most impactful of the former mother country's global imperial activities that rolled out in the centuries following, the idea that my predecessors were somehow influential "shapers" of the contemporary world doesn't resonate much with me.
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Of course it doesn't resonate with you because you don't have to live with it on a daily basis. For non-white Canadians, the inevitable question they always have to address when they meet someone is "where are you from originally?" as if they have to explain their family history and reassert their "canadianess".
also
Travelling in Europe—
Euro: Where are you from?
— "Canada."
Euro: You don't look Canadian.
— "Oh, what's a Canadian supposed to look like?"
Crossing the US Border:
<hands Canadian passport>
Border Guard: What's your citizensihip?
— "Canadian." <thinking, how the F#@K else would I have this passport>
Border Guard: Where were you born?
<clenches teeth and surrenders the answer sheepishly>
This shit becomes normal to you, it becomes part of how you see yourself, to the point that you don't know who you are without it. It never goes away.
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