"Mixed-race families swelling in Canada, StatsCan says"

16 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2010-04-21 14:10

toddsschneider

More than 340,000 children in Canada are growing up in mixed-race families, a new report from Statistics Canada reveals, and the number of mixed unions is increasing much more quickly than that of other partnerships.

Growing numbers of mixed ethnocultural unions and international adoption mean five per cent of children in two-parent families in Canada now live in diverse households, said Anne Milan, senior analyst and co-author of the report, released yesterday.

"There's close to 294,000 children that have mixed-union parents," she said. "And if you look at a mixed-family concept where at least one person in the family - not necessarily the parents - is a visible minority and at least one is not, or there's two different visible minorities, it's over 340,000 children that are in that kind of a mixed-family situation."

Wed, 2010-04-21 14:47

Yiwah

Cool. Maybe during my daughters' lifetime, the whole issue of 'mixed race' can continue on its path to the land of MEH.

Wed, 2010-04-21 18:25

Maysie

Todd, why did you post this in the anti-racism forum?

Wed, 2010-04-21 18:41

Yiwah

Um...seems like the trend is not giving a shit about race when picking your lover? Not sure how that doesn't belong here?

Wed, 2010-04-21 18:54

RevolutionPlease RevolutionPlease's picture

There's a double edged sword in the way the media uses this and how it's interpreted.

Wed, 2010-04-21 19:08

Yiwah

RevolutionPlease wrote:

There's a double edged sword in the way the media uses this and how it's interpreted.

So, should this not be reported at all? Or do you have some suggestions for reporting it in a way less likely to piss off the already intensely racist?

I figure, fuck them, here's reality.

Wed, 2010-04-21 19:24

Maysie

Hey Yiwah.

The link to the stats, which do not include Aboriginal people, make it fairly clear that the cause or correlation of this phenomenon is a combination of second and third generation people of colour who live in larger urban centres, and who by virtue of sheer numbers and acculturation are simply exposed to more folks who don't share their own cultural/racial background. That's a perfectly fine theory.

I find it interesting but not surprising that mixed race families where both parents are people of colour are not considered mixed race families.

There's a very common assumption that white families who adopt children of colour, or white folks who are coupled with folks of colour are specifically more anti-racist than white folks not in mixed relationships.

This is not necessarily true.

P.S. For the record, the names on the list of the different groups indicated by Stats Canada of who is a "visible minority" is absolutely appalling. And the exclusion in specific statistics of Aboriginal people is yet another form of cultural genocide.

Wed, 2010-04-21 19:49

Yiwah

Maysie,

What link to stats? I see only a news report mentioning the stats, not the stats themselves, do you have a link to the actual study? I was only able to find the [url=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2004001/article/6882-eng.pdf]2004[... study.

You said: "I find it interesting but not surprising that mixed race families where both parents are people of colour are not considered mixed race families."

However, the article linked to said:

"[B]While couples comprised of people from two different visible minority groups are less common and account for just 0.6 per cent of all couples in Canada, their ranks are growing even more quickly, increasing by 50 per cent between 2001 and 2006.[/B]"

So it appears they are considered mixed race families.

The entire idea of a visible minority is a bit ridiculous, but I'm wondering what sort of definition you think would work better, and what exactly about their definition is appalling?

I've never been quite sure why Aboriginal people are sometimes included in the 'visible minority' category, and other times not, but I fail to see the sinister hand of cultural genocide here. Could you be a bit more specific about how this exclusiong affects cultural genocide?

Edit: No idea how my font got wonky and smaller...

Wed, 2010-04-21 19:57

Maysie

From the article, which is directly from Stats Can:

Quote:
Statistics Canada uses the Employment Equity Act definition of visible minority, which is "persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." This includes Chinese, south Asians, blacks, Arabs, West Asians, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latin Americans, Japanese and Koreans.

Chinese is a nationality, South Asia is a region, Black is a skin colour.

Yiwah, you know what, I'm very crabby about these kinds of studies in general, and you're right the link is not to the stats but to the Gazette's article. I should stop being such a bummer. Sorry.

Oh, and to fix wonky fonts, edit your post, cut and paste it into the "clipboard" (the icon with the T on it) then import the text back into your post box. You will have to re-do the link if you do this.

Wed, 2010-04-21 20:08

#10

Yiwah

Thanks for the quick reply Maysie.

Stats Canada itself (via the Employment Equity Act) doesn't conflate nationality with colour the way the article managed to...but the whole 'non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour' is ridiculous enough.

Thu, 2010-04-22 01:33

#11

Lily_C

I was also wondering why this was newsworthy at all, but you folks have done a great job picking through the finer points I missed! It does look like the article is trying to suggest the people have become less discriminatory when it comes to picking a lover, but I've always felt that it was family pressure that stopped people from doing so in the past rather than personal preference. Maybe cultural differences too.

But people overcome these, my parents did, and they were fortunate in facing very little discrimination for their choices. The article does focus on children, though, so I'm not sure what the author is try to suggest, but growing up in a "mixed race" household where your parents look different is no big deal. I never really noticed. It's if your parents look too similar, you have problems!

Sat, 2010-04-24 14:27

#12

Aristotleded24

Yiwah wrote:
Cool. Maybe during my daughters' lifetime, the whole issue of 'mixed race' can continue on its path to the land of MEH.

I remember once watching a Law and Order episode where the detectives were investigating racially-based murders. In the course of the show, one of the detectives said something along the lines of "I don't see the big deal about race, in a couple hundred years the races will all be so mixed up that no one will be able to tell the difference."

Sat, 2010-04-24 15:24

#13

relic

Human hybrid vigor, is there such a thing, when it comes to mixed-race births? Just curious.

Sat, 2010-04-24 15:36

#14

toddsschneider

My ex, a BSc of mixed race herself, assured me human hybrid vigor was real.

Sun, 2010-06-06 02:22

#15

Doug

Swelling? Someone should get them some ice.

Thu, 2010-06-17 10:02

#16

Pants-of-dog

relic wrote:

Human hybrid vigor, is there such a thing, when it comes to mixed-race births? Just curious.

Studies suggest that people are subconsciously attracted to those whose pheromones indicate a different genetic template in terms of disease immunity. In other words, we are chemically attracted to those people who won't get sick from the same things we do.

This seems to me to be an example of hybrid vigour.

Quote:
One of the first and most famous experiments on the science of attraction asked women to rate intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness based on men's sweaty T-shirts. Claus Wedekind of the Zoological Institute at Bern University in Switzerland wanted to see if women could differentiate between men with similar and dissimilar immune systems.

Dr. Wedekind believed that women, using pheromones as signals, would rate T-shirts from men with dissimilar immune systems higher on all three counts, thus making the likelihood of genetically diverse, healthy offspring greater. He found that "women... who are dissimilar to a particular male's MHC [immune system markers of identity] perceive his odor as more pleasant than women whose MHC is more similar to that of the test man."

http://www.college.emory.edu/hybridvigor/issue1/attraction.htm