One may be able to assume that the concept of racism in Canada, due to the multicultural nature of the nation, would be essentially non-existent or would have little significant impact on the society. The reality of the situation, however, is that racism has left significant impacts families and children across Canada over the course of the country’s history. The main issue this paper proposes to analyze is how racism has impacted immigrant families and children during the historical time frame of Diamond Grill. Fred Wah’s autobiography, Diamond Grill, exemplifies many of the numerous fashions in which racism has affected Chinese families, including his own, as well as children and students. Within this text, Wah, being of Chinese descent,
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During Wah’s narration of the events of Diamond Grill, Wah himself experiences segregation both during his time in school and as an adult. Stanley’s literary work “Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians,” provides an essential context that explains the different fashions in which Chinese-Canadian students are treated by their fellow students and teachers. Stanley references a specific event during the July of 1922, which involved a pair of high school teachers who informed a group of Chinese students that a school tennis court was closed, only to the utilize the court for themselves moments later (Stanley 24-25). This event led to a vote among the Victoria School Board in 1922 which resulted in the segregation of Chinese and white pupils in schools in Victoria. Stanley argues that the act of segregating students essentially rendered the Chinese students in the school feeling a sense of difference and alienation (Stanley …show more content…
Wah refers to the fashion in which he would ‘hide’ his Chinese side when he witnessed other children using racially discriminatory terms against more apparently Chinese people. In response to this racial discrimination, Wah states himself, “I become as white as I can, which, considering I’m mostly Scandinavian, is pretty easy for me” (Wah 98). This statement, in particular, exemplifies Wah’s attempt to separate himself from his Chinese friends out of embarrassment. In the same fashion that the Victoria School Board ultimately separated the Chinese pupils from the white pupils in Stanley’s text, Wah also finds himself separated from his Chinese friends and families while he pretends to be white himself. This feeling of difference that Wah experiences can be further analyzed in the portion of the book where he dictates his struggle to enter King’s Family Restaurant in Chinatown (Wah 136-138). Throughout this excerpt of his book, Wah narrates his inner confliction between wanting to eat the beef and greens dish served at the restaurant, a staple of his Chinese culture, and not wanting to be seen by other Chinese-Canadians due to his embarrassment of only being half Chinese. This confliction emerges from Wah’s insecurity of being caught in between white and Chinese, further amplifying his feeling of separation
During Wah’s narration of the events of Diamond Grill, Wah himself experiences segregation both during his time in school and as an adult. Stanley’s literary work “Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism, and the Making of Chinese Canadians,” provides an essential context that explains the different fashions in which Chinese-Canadian students are treated by their fellow students and teachers. Stanley references a specific event during the July of 1922, which involved a pair of high school teachers who informed a group of Chinese students that a school tennis court was closed, only to the utilize the court for themselves moments later (Stanley 24-25). This event led to a vote among the Victoria School Board in 1922 which resulted in the segregation of Chinese and white pupils in schools in Victoria. Stanley argues that the act of segregating students essentially rendered the Chinese students in the school feeling a sense of difference and alienation (Stanley …show more content…
Wah refers to the fashion in which he would ‘hide’ his Chinese side when he witnessed other children using racially discriminatory terms against more apparently Chinese people. In response to this racial discrimination, Wah states himself, “I become as white as I can, which, considering I’m mostly Scandinavian, is pretty easy for me” (Wah 98). This statement, in particular, exemplifies Wah’s attempt to separate himself from his Chinese friends out of embarrassment. In the same fashion that the Victoria School Board ultimately separated the Chinese pupils from the white pupils in Stanley’s text, Wah also finds himself separated from his Chinese friends and families while he pretends to be white himself. This feeling of difference that Wah experiences can be further analyzed in the portion of the book where he dictates his struggle to enter King’s Family Restaurant in Chinatown (Wah 136-138). Throughout this excerpt of his book, Wah narrates his inner confliction between wanting to eat the beef and greens dish served at the restaurant, a staple of his Chinese culture, and not wanting to be seen by other Chinese-Canadians due to his embarrassment of only being half Chinese. This confliction emerges from Wah’s insecurity of being caught in between white and Chinese, further amplifying his feeling of separation