On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:24:38 -0700, Michael Sylvester wrote: >Just curious as to the lack of hyphenated identities in Canada : >African-Canadians,Asian-Canadians,Italian-Canadians, and so on.
Far be it for me to speak for my neighbors to the north but I believe that if you think there are no hyphenated Canadians, then you haven't looked very hard for them. For example, Ukrainians in Canadian often identify themselves as Ukrainian-Canadian. A nondefinitive source for this is provided by Wikipedia (standard disclaimers apply): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Canadian >Virtually everyone in the U.S who is a citizen can adopt >a hyphenated brand.In the U.S ,terms like African-American, >Vietnamese-American,Greek-American abound. Except for >French Canadian (not hyphenated),hyphenation (my term) >does not seem to exist in our 51st.State. Again, Wikipedia provides some info on this point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadians_by_ethnicity A more fundamental question is why would someone identify themselves as a "hypenated" citizen of a country. Members of ethnic groups usually have different reasons for coming to a new country. Some come to create a new life and identity, others are in "diaspora", having left a home nation perhaps with the hope that some day they may return. In anticipation of such a return, they maintain aspects of an ethnic identify, such as relgious beliefs, language, cultural practices, and so on. Maintaining these things become important especially if it seems that only one's children or one's children's children might be able to return "home". This would seem to be an important consideration for identifying White people as "hyphenated" citizens because their ethnic identity probably cannot be identified readily unless they speak, dress, and/or behave in ways that indicate their ethnicity. Non-White groups can be readily identified (e.g., being of African or Asian descent) and their status as a "hyphenated" citizen might be imposed upon them because of visible racial differences though they too might be in "diaspora" and are desirous of returning home. Then again, some people might just want to bicultural. I'll now let the Canadians speak for themselves. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
