Metro Vancouver is a diverse city where half the residents identify as people of colour, but only one percent of the population is racialized as Black. In this context, African-Canadians are both hyper-visible as Black, and invisible as distinct communities. Informed by feminist and critical race theories, and based on interviews with women and men who grew up in Vancouver, "Where Are You From?" recounts the unique experience of growing up in a place where the second generation seldom sees other people who look like them, and yet are inundated with popular representations of Blackness from the United States.

This study explores how the second generation in Vancouver redefine their African identities to distinguish themselves from African-Americans, while continuing to experience considerable everyday racism that challenges belonging as Canadians. As a result, some members of the second generation reject, and others strongly assert, a Canadian identity.

Autorentext

Gillian Creese is the associate dean of Arts, Faculty & Equity, and professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia.

Klappentext

How do children of immigrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa negotiate multiple identities as Black, as African, and as Canadian?

Inhalt

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Imagined Communities, Discourses of Blackness, and the New African Diaspora in Vancouver

3. "No one looked like me": Remembering Migration and Early Childhood

4. "Cool Black guys" and Girls "trying to feel good in your own skin": Navigating Adolescence

5. "More of my friends are Black": Adult Friendships and Romantic Relationships

6. "I have so much more opportunities": Education and Career Goals

7. Living "under a microscope": Navigating Public Spaces

8. "People still ask me where I’m from": Belonging and Identity

9. Growing Up African-Canadian in Vancouver: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Place

References

Index