I live in Canada, a nation known to be one of the most culturally diverse. However, the major stream of its racial profile is white Caucasian. No doubt about that. So it is a country of European descent people wherein other races, yellow, red, brown, and black people are mixed in. In the countryside, like Powell River where I live, there are way less Asians. Unlike some areas like Vancouver or Richmond, Asians in Powell River are definitely a minority.

Several months ago, I had a lovely lunch with my new friend. She is a Caucasian in her late 60s or early 70s, an intelligent woman with a warm compassionate aura. She seems to emanate loving and caring light, and I truly admire her. So at this lunch, although I can’t remember what we were talking about, in the middle of our conversations she opened her eyes wide and said, “oh, that means….how old are you?” So I said, “67” I have no reason to hide my age. She looked genuinely surprised. “What? So you are of the same generation as I am. I had thought you were in your 40s.” It was my turn to open my eyes wide. “What? Wow… I’m so happy. You made my day!” So as you can imagine, I had a wonderful rest of the day, smiling and humming.

The next day, when I went to my usual fitness class, there was a non-regular person, an older Caucasian woman participating in the class. As soon as she saw me, she said, “are you Emily’s mother?” I was stunned. Emily is a slender Chinese-Canadian woman around my age. “What? No way!” Although pretending like it was no big deal, I was offended like crazy….with my chest burning with anger and shock.

What a change in just one day!!

Recently, I read an article about how hate and racism toward Asians are increasing. It had been boiled up by the Covid turmoil and has been persistently continuing.

After the class I said to Emily “somebody asked me if I am your mother.” Emily laughed and said, “she has probably had no Asian friends in her life. There are a lot of people like that. They merely don’t know or not interested in knowing Asian people.”

I thought Emily’s reaction was pretty cool. Yes, she is right. This is not even racism…it’s only a phenomenon coming from ignorance. It made sense to me.

I’ve read somewhere that the discrimination toward Japanese Canadians around the time of WW2 was ignited by the fear coming from ignorance of the general public about Japanese Canadian people. Ignorance is dangerous and could end up in sad situations.

So if you make friends with people from many different cultures, would the world be more peaceful?

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem that simple, does it?

私の住むカナダは多民族国家の最たる国。でもやはり主流はヨーロッパ系の白人。そこに色々な民族が混在しているという感じ。特にパウエルリバーのような田舎に来ると、私のようなアジア人はぐっと少なくなって、マイノリティそのものという感じになる。

数ヶ月前だったかこんなことがあったよ。新しく出来た友達といっしょにランチした時のこと。その友達は知的で優しいオーラに包まれた白人の女性、60代後半か70代前半くらい。何を話していた時か覚えてないけど、話の途中で彼女が「え？」と大きく目を見開いた。「ということは…え？…あなた何歳？」と聞いて来た。もちろん何も隠すことないから正直に「67歳よ」と答えたら「え？じゃあ私と同年代じゃないの。私はまたあなたは40代かなと思っていたわよ。」と言われて今度は私の方が「ええ？」と目を見開くことになった。「そんな…嬉しい！わあYou made my day!」と言って笑った。そしてご想像の通りご機嫌よろしく鼻歌まじりにその日1日を過ごした。

あくる日、朝のフィットネスのクラスに行ったら、いつもは見ない白人のおばさんが参加していた。私の顔を見るなり、「あなた、エミリーのお母さん？」と言ってきて私は愕然とした。エミリーは中国系のどう見ても私と同年代の華奢な女性だからだ。「とんでもない。違うよ」と言ってかわしたけど内心はショック…憮然憮然…胸が燃えてやけど状態。

昨日と今日で何という対照的な出来事！

最近、アジア人に対する人種偏見が北米で増加しているという記事を読んだ。コロナ禍で沸騰した偏見が、まだ根強く続いているという。

クラスが終わって、エミリーに「私のこと、あなたのお母さん？」て聞かれたよ」というと、エミリーは笑って、「アジア人と交わったことがない人なんじゃない？そういう人たちがけっこういるのよ。アジア人のことなんて知らないし見る目もないのよ」とクールに言う。

うん、そうだ。これは偏見以前の現象だね。なんとなく納得した。

日系カナダ人への差別も日本人がどういう民族なのか知らないことからくる恐怖が原因だったというから、知らないってことは悲しいことだと改めて思った。

いろんな人種の人たちと親しく交わるようになれればもっと平和な世の中になるのかな？

ウ～ン…そんな単純なことでもないような気がするけど…ね。