Close Reading

The first time i travelled across Canada on a road trip, heading west, going town to town along the TransCanada Hiway, i choose a black friend to accompany me. I choose him because he was really easy to get along with and i knew he was an auto mechanics enthusiast, which, as it turned out came in handy on the trip. We were on the road for a few months. I grew up in a city in a little multicultural bubble of liberalism and was taught as a child not to judge others based on skin colour or sex; to be respectful towards people of all ilks and ethnicities. The thing is, i was young enough to not really realize that i was in a bubble. As we travelled though parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta, where there are few to no blacks in many towns, i began to realize that Canada is quite racist in the outback and little towns mid country. I was surprised and actually angered by it. My friend took it in stride however. For example, i was meeting people, getting invited home for dinner and meet the wife and kids sort of thing, and my friend couldn't even get a conversation going with most people, they just totally ignored him and gave him a wide berth. I know underlying all of that is just the fear of an unknown quantity and the fact that a lot of Canadians watch American news sometimes which tends to be chock full of black in gang wars, shooting each other and committing violent crime so they get a false view of black culture because the news at that time rarely showed blacks unless they were committing a crime.

As a Canadian who has traveled to 12/13 provinces/territories (sorry NFLD) and all regions of the mainland USA I have couple comments. First, both Canada and the USA the accents and culture are very different depending on the area (another similarity!). People from Vermont have more in common with people from New Brunswick than they do with their fellow Americans in Texas. People from British Columbia have more in common with people from Washington than they do with Quebeckers. Second, I actually find that Americans are super friendly in some states, more outgoing than Canadians (like say Tennessee). Also, Drew, if you ever want to go to the Far North in Canada it's a whole other world of Inuit people speaking Inuktitut on Baffin Island - for me that area seems like another country!

I live in Toronto n I respect Canadian culture as well. One should learn to mix up with other people and get respect in turn. I have problem with those who belittle their own country just to keep up appearances as Canadian. Be good Indian first then you will be good no matter where you live. Our actions here define the image of our country.

Moving to Vancouver was a great experience tbh, I'm of nigerian heritage but was born in Finchley, North London...\nCanadians are friendly and extremely welcoming ( Coming from the UK i found this so off-putting ) lol. Ironically its non-white Canadians i had funny experiences with.... from dating to renting its weird\n\n\nAsians under 27 always asking some crazy questions ( Are you an NBA player ) lol it's cute at first but after a while when little koreans walk up to me talking about ( You look like will smith ) it makes you think... To be fair these are not inherent negatives, But asian canadians alone did treat me weird i found, Indian girls i met all wanted to be with me but where also very ashamed to say so or let their family know, but thats a cultural thing so i understood.\n\n\n Of all the demographics White canadian and native men where the most welcoming and open to me, in my experience.. White women of-course where cool too but that does not really count, especially as a good looking black guy with an accent LOOL you know how that goes!! My Tinder and Bumble were obscene LMAO\n\nRenting from asians while black and Male!? is almost impossible!!! Except they think you have rich parents!! Its impossible in Van unless you are an Arab exchange student lol \nArab and Persian students studying english have no issues renting in Vancouver, for some reason!!\n\nI lived out the St. Regis downtown for a month, Looking for places to rent, i had seen so many places online and filled out applications but never got call backs, asides from 2 group showings i went to, i could not even set up a viewing with the apartment building i wanted... \n\nTill i met an african girl in school, and she told me something i found completely crazy.\nShe told me to make a new e-mail addy and to use my English name when i e-mail, then set up a viewing but to show up with a white friend preferably a girl and that if the owner is asian, i should look around, and offer to pay 6months upfront before they get a chance to ask what i did for work or whether i was a student or not LOL. Needless to say, i did what she said and It worked the asian lady asked me to come get the keys later that day. Its just life, as a property owner they really just wanna size you up, not fair and kind of pathetic but its not inherently evil...

Before I moved to Brampton, I had no idea HOW MANY Indians actually lived here. I'm of south Asian descent but I grew up here as a Canadian. I still keep my culture but I'm Canadian FIRST. It's true too, some of them don't believe in deodorant, holy shit I literally had to tell a guy who sat beside me on the bus that he smelled. I know it was rude but if someone doesn't tell these people, they will think not wearing deodorant is normal. I miss the Canada I grew up in. My friends were mostly white but there was a nice mix of us: white, black, asian so we all got along. Today, everyone is in their own groups, strangers are the enemy, there is so much more segregation than there has ever been. Not long ago at a Tim Hortons I heard an Indian guy who was clearly new to the country telling his friend he didn't have to learn English because everyone in Brampton speaks Punjabi, it was insulting hearing that.....Listen up Indians and any immigrants coming here: BEFORE you come here, learn English, LEARN the customs and learn the CANADIAN WAY. You owe it to Canada, give something back before you start taking.

there is racism and prejudice everywhere. on every level no matter gender, race, religion, culture. etc. no matter where you go. but if these guys take a trip to any of those corrupted third world backwards countries they would see how good they really have it. us foolish americans canadians dont know how good we have it. we are living in the freest country nation and society ever seen in the history of the world. at least our country creates new laws every year to make our people feel safe. but other islamic countries continue following laws made in the 15th century. do you see and appreciate the difference.\n\nsure people will label you based off your skin tone and your demeanor. BUT WHY? because they have had bad history with those that look just like you. i have had REALLY REALLY bad experiences with asians in everything. so i naturally stay away from all asians and i do not trust them. HOWEVER, i feel when foreigners come to this country they ruin it for the rest of the citizens that are of similar foriegn race eventhough they were born there. WE NEED TO PUT OUR NATIONS CULTURES first. and thats what we have to teach everyone. we put our canada america pride priority and whatever culture we came from LAST. THATS WHY its best we learn to fix our people in a whole in our country before bringing in anymore foreigners who do not respect our nation. lets stop third world immigration and work on making our country great again. so we can stop all this crime in our neighborhoods. because it hinders our progress. once every race color ethnicity of people are acting right then we will have no prejudice based off color or even gender because everyone is giving everyone respect. but because CRIME IS HIGH in all foreign races, and we continue to disrespect eachother. nobody feels safe anymore. whether your light skinned white or black.

growing up in canada, i felt left out in the blk community b/c i am a 5th generation blk cdn on mom's side and 3rd on my dad's - when other black ppl not canadian born met me - i tell them i'm cdn, but i always used to get the question - where are you really from - they were looking for me to say the islands - when i told them my paternal grandma was born in 1901 in canada - that's when the questions stopped. i've been told that b/c i wasn't from the islands, i had no culture in college, but a mbr of the black student society put him in his place i heard he got into a lot of trouble. i was asked what do we eat as in food as canadians what kind of music do we listen to - at our blk canadian weddings, the only carribean song played was hot hot hot by arrow - we played straight up r and b and motown. i hv been rejected by other blk men b/c i'm not west indian enough...it was hurtful. even with 'friends' they made of my cdn heritage but i used to think, why are you making fun of me knowing that my family and ancestors were in canada first - they were 1st generation - i live in the usa now and i'm with an african american man - he has never treated me as if i were different and he loves going w/me to canada. my parents told me it was jealousy on those ppl's parts - one guy i used to be friends with in college, when i went to his house, his mom was from the islands, when she met me - she said, 'you cdn ppl are loud' and that did it for me - i didn't date her son but when he met my parents, they never said any of that crap to him. in the usa, the african americans don't treat differently at all - my ex mom in law thought we were american but decided to live in canada - b/c she was surprised that blacks do live in canada. her other daughter in law's family were from the islands - but she gravitated more to my family and felt comfortable around them more than her family and this ex sis in law would brag about the islands this and that and she would make comments about my looks being skinny and such but it was jealousy - i didn't care much for her b/c she was very insecure. i felt once again, i was a young girl in college again - being around island ppl....i would love to meet drake and ask him did he feel left out and isolated because he wasn't from the islands - he makes me very proud being a blk canadian - his dad is african american and his mom is jewish. i still hv dealt w/racism not much with wht ppl, but with my own ppl - which is quite sad and on top of it-colorism, that also played a part from my family - being called pygmy, chocolate dip, nappy hair - it hurt but these so called relatives, they aren't all that anymore, they had hard lives as children...when ppl see something in you that is special and they don't have, that's when their ugliness shows -

To people who say That Canada is their country\nCanadian themselves are immigrants and they were immigrants once. Attacking natives and taking over their land is something that all Canadians should remember. Original Canadians are Natives.\n\nIf Canada hates Islam so much, why they allow Muslims to enter their country in the first place.\nif you allow religious people to live here, you should bear their religious and cultural practices as well. \n\nYou idiots don't know anything About Islam.just for few groups who were created by the west to ruin Islam's reputation, and for destruction of Muslim countries, You open your dirty mouth and throw out bad words at Islam with what ever dirt you taste. So educate yourselves and have respect for all religions regardless of race and language and get respect back. Canada is for everyone.