Almost Canadian

Eh?

What I said was supposed to be sarcastic. If 25% of the population are "visible minorities" then couldn't have been that "visible" if s/he wasn't able to see them

dbd33

The figures are a bit odd though, 6% Chinese, 2% Black, 25% total visible minorities. Are there are a lot of one legged white people in Calgary?

By way of comparison, more than half the population of Toronto is non-white. Mostly the whites are limited to traditional roles; governing, policing and so on.

Almost Canadian

Good point

I will be the first to admit that, except for the "Chinese looking" (yes. I appreciate that that is not very PC but that is how I will describe them for the purposes of this thread) people, the impression one obtains when travelling around is that there isn't a huge amount of diversity. The vast majority appear to be white, North American. It is only when they open their mouths that their "origin" becomes apparent. The NE quadrant of the City is known as the place where the minorities live. I have never been there so am unable to comment upon the validity of that statement.

But, it would be true to say there are no other "colours" other than white in Calgary, as it would be to say the same in, say, Nottingham, England. Again, I don't have any stats, this is purely based on my experiences.

Tracie107

OMG - I didn't know that!

JonboyE

No offense at all, and no need to hold your peace.

I live in the Metro Vancouver area. This is a multi-cultural and diverse place. People of British descent account for only about 35% of the population. There are lots of East Asians (Chinese and look alikes), a significant South Asian population (predominantly Punjabi) and many others. Black people make up around 1.5% of the population. Inter-racial relationships are quite common.

I find there is such a spectrum of skin colours that the exact hue soon becomes irrelevant in day to day life. As said above, the Canadian way is to avoid confrontation as much as possible so everyone just tries to get along with each other. Our experience is that my wife (who is Japanese) was a visible minority in the UK. Here she is just a person.

Kelowna is 4(ish) hours drive from Vancouver but in many ways seems a different world. I have visited many times but never lived there. My impression was that it is a much "whiter" place than Vancouver, though when I look at demographic statistics it is not that markedly different.

Canadians can use very blunt and non-PC language when discussing racial matters. Don't worry about this, words are just words and it is the intent behind them that matters. As others have said, most Canadians will go out of their way to avoid giving offense. This is not to guarantee that you will never experience prejudice because bigots exist everywhere. The natives tend to be the recipients of most knuckle dragger's bile.

From reading this forum there are posters who live in Kelowna and love it, and others who just felt like they never settled and left. As a newcomer the onus is on you to fit in with the way of life. I think this will be far more important to your happiness than your skin colour.

DaveLovesDee

Yep, apparently a few people took exception to his description of an ethnic minority I believe.

Steve_P

Percentages of each ethnic group as part of the visible minorities and of the total population.

Note the figures do not add up to 100% so where the unaccounted for 1.7% went to I don't know I just used the website numbers.

Total Visible Minorities - 237,895

Black - 21,060 - 9.8% or 2% of total population
South Asian - 57,700 - 24.3% or 5.4% of total population
Chinese - 66,375 - 27.9% or 6.2% of total population
Korean - 6,835 - 2.9% or 0.6% of total population
Japanese - 4,675 - 2% or 0.4% of total population
Southeast Asian - 15,755 - 6.6% or 1.5% of total population
Filipino - 25,565 - 10.7% or 2.4% of total population
Arab/West Asian - 11,395 - 4.8% or 1% of total population
Latin American - 13,410 - 5.6% or 1.3% of total population
Visible minority not included elsewhere - 1,980 - 0.8% or 0.2% of total population
Multiple visible minority - 6,860 - 2.9% or 0.6% of total population

jackiewalters

First of all many thanks Tracey107 I just may take you up on the offer PM me if you get some time it would be nice to meet up with some one off the sight who is capable of answering my question without sarcasm!! this was much appreciated.

Steve P, as usual your answer is straight to the point and I am now clear on what lies ahead, and may I say I am still and always have been looking forward to my new life in Canada thanks again SteveP.

Almost Canadian trust me, my eyes were wide open it must have been an off day and they must have all been busy hiding from the opportunity to find a Job (dbd33 that was for you!!)

You know what? DBD33 by are people such as yourselves allowed to post such comments on the site? if you havent got something positive to say, please keep it to your self I am finding you very offensive :curse:

dbd33

Do explain. In particular, please expand upon "people such as yourselves"; schizophrenics, Grauniad readers, Londoners?

montreal mike

I have read through this thread and, for the life of me, can't figure out what dbd33 said, or was supposed to have said, to have caused offense. I think JW that an explanation on your part is called for. I can't wait to find out what rubbed you the wrong way.

montreal mike

You ask whether Canada is multi-cultural. The answer is that IT ALL DEPENDS. In the major cities the answer is YES simply because of the influx of non-whites (or visible minorities which seems to be the fancy PC buzz word). But in the outlying areas this is not the case.

Since you are destined to go live in Kelowna you might find it very white. I do not know as i have never set foot there. But even if it were 95% white ask yourself fundamentally what the hell difference does it make? There are bigots even in a place such as Toronto which is only 50% white.

Fitting into the community is all that counts and for most people it is the person you are, not what skin colour God happened to have given you.

stubby42

I'm actually pretty offended by that statment, when I'm in canada I live in saskatchewan, a parie province (rural) and whilst I agree theres no much cultural diversity there is some but it tends only to be in cities.

What I'm really offended by is the statment that the people are intolerant because on the whole they are, most of the racism I've seen is more from ignorance than deliberate (for example I had to explain to a friend why it wasnt appropriate to say coloured person in an essay).

I'm not saying there isnt racism and I'm not saying that there arent racist people but I really dont like the fact that because they live in small towns that your assuming they are in tolerant hicks. I've known plenty of people in the UK that are far worse than the people out in the praries.

Agreed, I know black people, chinese and mexicans who fit into the community just fine and they probably have experienced racism but they've always had their friends their to help.

dbd33

I don't think failing to use the expression of the month to describe people is racism. Hating people because they look Chinese is racism, calling them "Chinese" when you mean Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Asian-but-not-Indian-looking is, at worst, laziness.

stubby42

I dont really understand your point, I've already said its ignorance.

dbd33

You suggested that a person was being racist out of ignorance by using a term no longer considered appropriate. I don't think that's racism at all, it's the intent, not the manner of expression that counts.

I'm perplexed by this: