November 27, 1992

Other Feature

the Other Press

 

Living Cross Culturally

 

by Richard Navarro

 

David, our five year old
son went to his mother one day
and said : “Mummy, Erin (his
younger sister) and I are mixed
up!”

“Why do you say that?”
his mother asked:~ ~

He answered : “Well,
you’re white and daddy is brown.
We’re mixed up.”

His mother explained :
| “No, David, you and Erin are
mixed. Your daddy is from the
Philippines and I was born in
Canada, and my mother came
| from Ireland. You and your sister
are mixed, not mixed up. It’s your
_ parents who are mixed up!”

The fun in a cross-
cultural marriage does not come
only from the children.

After several
evenings when my Irish-Canadian
wife kept serving potatoes for
dinner, I complained with my
Filipino accent : “I am fed up with
potatoes night after night, I want
my esteemed rice!”

My wife replied ; “It isn’t
esteemed rice but rather steamed
| Tice. Short s.” And then she

pronounced the word properly,
_ repeatedly.
Undeterred, I countered :
“1 don’t care whether it’s esteemed
Tice, or fried rice, I just want my
rice. I have had enough of
potatoes!”

For the past eight years,
living cross-culturally has been a
day-to-day experience for Kim and
| myself. It is equally a reality in the
| lives of the majority of people in
Canada, particularly those in
' British Columbia’s Lower
Mainland.

For example, the Globe
; and Mail Report on Business
stated that Richmond, B.C.’s
current demographic picture shows
that one in five residents is Asian.
(Incidently, the article listed and
described the 10 cities in Canada it
considered as the best places in
which to live and to start a
business. Richmond was one of
these cities.)

One in ten residents of
Surrey is of East Indian
background.
| An Angus Reid poll
_ conducted in July, 1991 asked
Canadians if they lived ina
neighbourhood with people of
other races or ethnic backgrounds
and eighty-two percent of the
respondents said they lived in a
racially or culturally diverse
| neighbourhood.

The 1991 cencus revealed
that thirteen percent of the total
population of Canada speak
neither English nor French as their
- first language, up from eleven

percent five years ago.
The schools in the
_ province’s Lower Mainland and
the Fraser Valley show the validity
of this survey finding in a practical
way.

For better or for worse,
we live in a multi-ethnic
enviroment and whether we like it
or not, we will have to relate with
peoples of a variety of cultural
backgrounds.

The question is how. Not
to answer this question may have
disastrous conseqeunces.

Vivid television images
related to the Los Angeles riots

expression of a deep-seated
frustration of inner-city poverty.
Maybe so.

Almost every night for
the past several weeks the
television news reports have been
giving to us the running tally of
those who died and those who get
wounded in the horror of
Sarajevo’s three-party “ethnic
cleansing” campaign.

 

AA.
this summer remain imbedded in
our minds. The white policemen
beating up a black man named
Rodney King. The resulting
rampage in South Central L.A.
neighbourhoods when the jury (all
white, middle class, and
suburbanite) acquitted the cops.
The black men stopping a blond,
white truck driver and pulling him
down and beating him up. The
Korean retail merchants protecting
their businesses from looters,
utilizing high-powered guns. The
replacement of a white police
chief with a black one.

Some people proposed
that the root-cause of the problem
which precipitated the L.A. riots
was basically economic; they say
that the upheaval was merely the

    
 

What about the terrifying
neo-Nazi attacks on the Gypsies,
the Vietnamese boat people and
other asylum-seekers in Germany?
Or the estimated 5,000 daily
deaths in Somalia while clan-
based loyalties fight it out for
power.

Suddenly, this summer
South Africa’s apartheid issue has
become passé, displaced by these
other dramatic conflicts.

Given all these world
events, the question remains : how
do we live harmoniously in a
multi-cultural setting?

I have three suggestions.

One : Treat everyone the
way you want to be treated.

Treat everybody the same
way, regardless of their ethnic and

cultural background. In other
words, avoid discrimination on
racial or whatever basis. This
means not giving preference to
onegroup over another.

Jesus, in his Sermon on
the Mount, said : In everything, do
to what you would have them do
to you.

The Golden Rule applies
in all aspects of our lives,

 

 

particularly as we seek to bridge
cultural differences.

Two : Do not stereo-type.

Stereotyping is painting
an ethnic group with the same
broad brushstroke. The negative
experience with one member of an
ethnic group can result in the same
perception toward all others in that
group. This stereotyping simply is
wrong. A group is composed of
individuals; individuals mean
differences.

During the first day of
this new school year, a public
elementary school in Abbotsford
was in the news because the five-
year olds found themselves in two
separate and distinct groups-one
group being all-white or Caucasian
and the other group being all East

Indian. Apparently, some school
authority classified the pupils
according to their last names,
incorrectly assuming that those
with East Indian surnames
required help in English. These
Canadian-born children deserved
to be evaluated on an individual
basis.

So often we hear of Asian
immigrants categorized either as
gang-members terrorizing our
neighbourhoods or as wealthy
businessmen trying to buy up our
neighbourhoods. But the majority
of Canadians of Asian origin
belong to neither group.

Similarly, most of the
labels thrown at particular ethnic
groups are false generalizations
which do not accurately describe
the group or its members. They
usually come out of ignorance.

Three : Seek to learn
about other cultures.

A cultural or ethnic group
will have similarities or
commonalities which are not
distinct. Our responsibility is to be
informed on the values, beliefs,
and behavior of various ethnic
groups. And teach your children
about other cultures. The less
ignorant we are of each other’s
cultures, the more tolerant we will
be of each other. Understanding
breaks down prejudices. After all,
there is always something good
and something bad in every
culture.

Comprehending the
reason one cultural group wears a
certain kind of attire will make us
understand why they insist on
keeping it on even in the
workplace. At dinnertime, one
particular culture group serves
food utilizing only the right hand;
knowing this will avoid
embarassment when with
members of this group.

Living cross-culturally
demands our continual efforts at
getting informed on other people’s
cultural traits, practises, and
values. Ignorance breeds racism,
while understanding promotes
appreciation of other cultures.

When Kim and I got
married, the pastor commented
that it was also a marriage of two
cultures. He meant my being
Filipino and my wife being
Caucasian. We have learned since
that culture has more to do with a
set of values, beliefs, and behavior
acquired than the skin color one is
born with or the country of one’s
origin. If this is the case, every
marriage is a cross-cultural
experience. Ours then is far from
extra-ordinary,

Living cross-culturally,
for us, has meant having rice this
evening and potatoes the next.
And raising gorgeous, noy mixed-
up, kids who, hopefully, will
continue to enjoy the ethnic
diversity that surrounds them.

Richard Navarro is a
freelance writer and is the Area
Manager for World Vision
Canada