Brown Canadians
Brown Canadians is a term for multiple ethnic groups as a metaphor for race based solely on human skin colour. The term Brown Canadians is used to describe Canadians who identify as and are perceived to be . Used in association with brown identity, the term commonly refers to Canadians of South Asian descent.
The group constitutes a significant minority of the people living in Canada.
Terminology
Brown Canadians have been reported in media, and written of in journalistic, scholarly and artistic works as a distinct group or racial classification in a variety of contexts. Although there can be descriptive overlap, Outside of domestic identity, Christopher Stonebanks has produced research proposing how brown Canadians in Malawi are more likely to be referred to as Azungu (usually meaning light-skinned foreigner) by native people, rather than Amwenye (Asian) due to them being English-speaking and Westernized South Asian diaspora.
History
19th century
In 1897, a group of soldiers from the Punjab region of South Asia passed through Vancouver during the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Predominantly settling in British Columbia to work in the forestry industry, South Asians became the first large and established brown community in Canada.
20th century
Predominately focused in British Columbia during the early 1900s, increased South Asian immigration to Canada allowed the brown population in Canada grew to nearly 5,000 by 1908. However, the act of 1908 indirectly halted Indian immigration to Canada, as later evidenced by the infamous 1914 . This prompted many to return to South Asia or immigrate to the USA, resulting an population decline to below 2,000 by the 1914, followed by relative stagnation through much of the early 20th century.
In 1985, Sugith Varughese wrote and starred in CBC Television's Best of Both Worlds, which Varughese described as a film about "brown people in Canada". In 1995, critical of the racial classification, Brian Maracle claimed that the Canadian government wanted to convert indigenous peoples into the category of brown Canadian.
In a 2005 New Letters interview, Bharati Mukherjee proposed how the government's designation of a visible minority had facilitated racial discrimination against brown Canadians. For example, between 2008 and 2012, a Toronto Star investigation reported how brown Canadians had been disproportionately targeted by police.
In 2017, Charmaine Nelson wrote that the experiences of brown Canadians, along with the indigenous peoples of Canada and black Canadians, needed to brought more centrally into the culture of Canada. Author Naben Ruthnum has suggested that brown Canadian writers are somewhat burdened by a perception of a cultural expectation to produce diasporic-based writing, rather than contribute to the mainstream. In 2018, Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen discussed how their podcast, CBC's The Secret Life of Canada, was influenced by prioritizing the racialized stories of brown, as well as black, and indigenous Canadians.
Academic research
In 2011, a Simon Fraser University-published thesis by academic Wendy Naava Smolash explored how Canadian media contributed to racialized discourse which portrayed brown Canadians within a certain context.
Published in Studies in Canadian Literature, a 2012 analysis by Chandrima Chakraborty, of Shani Mootoo's literature, examined the cultural negotiation of identities between brown and white Canadians, as well as other Indian diaspora.
Widyarini Sumartojo's Simon Fraser University-published thesis in 2012 explored brown identity in Greater Vancouver, specifically focusing on South Asian youth in the region.
In academic Ayla Raza's Being “Brown”, which is based on brown identity in the youth of Greater Toronto, the 2014 thesis explores how a shift from skin-based to culture-based racism has been experienced by brown people living in Canada.
The group constitutes a significant minority of the people living in Canada.
Terminology
Brown Canadians have been reported in media, and written of in journalistic, scholarly and artistic works as a distinct group or racial classification in a variety of contexts. Although there can be descriptive overlap, Outside of domestic identity, Christopher Stonebanks has produced research proposing how brown Canadians in Malawi are more likely to be referred to as Azungu (usually meaning light-skinned foreigner) by native people, rather than Amwenye (Asian) due to them being English-speaking and Westernized South Asian diaspora.
History
19th century
In 1897, a group of soldiers from the Punjab region of South Asia passed through Vancouver during the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Predominantly settling in British Columbia to work in the forestry industry, South Asians became the first large and established brown community in Canada.
20th century
Predominately focused in British Columbia during the early 1900s, increased South Asian immigration to Canada allowed the brown population in Canada grew to nearly 5,000 by 1908. However, the act of 1908 indirectly halted Indian immigration to Canada, as later evidenced by the infamous 1914 . This prompted many to return to South Asia or immigrate to the USA, resulting an population decline to below 2,000 by the 1914, followed by relative stagnation through much of the early 20th century.
In 1985, Sugith Varughese wrote and starred in CBC Television's Best of Both Worlds, which Varughese described as a film about "brown people in Canada". In 1995, critical of the racial classification, Brian Maracle claimed that the Canadian government wanted to convert indigenous peoples into the category of brown Canadian.
In a 2005 New Letters interview, Bharati Mukherjee proposed how the government's designation of a visible minority had facilitated racial discrimination against brown Canadians. For example, between 2008 and 2012, a Toronto Star investigation reported how brown Canadians had been disproportionately targeted by police.
In 2017, Charmaine Nelson wrote that the experiences of brown Canadians, along with the indigenous peoples of Canada and black Canadians, needed to brought more centrally into the culture of Canada. Author Naben Ruthnum has suggested that brown Canadian writers are somewhat burdened by a perception of a cultural expectation to produce diasporic-based writing, rather than contribute to the mainstream. In 2018, Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen discussed how their podcast, CBC's The Secret Life of Canada, was influenced by prioritizing the racialized stories of brown, as well as black, and indigenous Canadians.
Academic research
In 2011, a Simon Fraser University-published thesis by academic Wendy Naava Smolash explored how Canadian media contributed to racialized discourse which portrayed brown Canadians within a certain context.
Published in Studies in Canadian Literature, a 2012 analysis by Chandrima Chakraborty, of Shani Mootoo's literature, examined the cultural negotiation of identities between brown and white Canadians, as well as other Indian diaspora.
Widyarini Sumartojo's Simon Fraser University-published thesis in 2012 explored brown identity in Greater Vancouver, specifically focusing on South Asian youth in the region.
In academic Ayla Raza's Being “Brown”, which is based on brown identity in the youth of Greater Toronto, the 2014 thesis explores how a shift from skin-based to culture-based racism has been experienced by brown people living in Canada.
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