Discussion and Conclusion

Not only do multiracial people confound societal conceptions of race, they also exist in a space within which race, culture and national identity intersect. In the context of multiracial individuals, what are we really assuming when we discuss race? Because the concept of race refers to socially constructed categories, it is often assumed to correspond to cultural differences. However, as David Goldberg questions, "What racial culture, exactly, is mine?" (Goldberg, 253). It is important to recognize that race and culture are not synonymous; the former does not determine the latter. In fact, this type of thinking is partially responsible for and is deeply embedded within racist discourses. Thus, the traditional lenses with which we view race and culture distort the shifting realities and the fluidity with which multiracial individuals may cross traditional boundaries. Teja Arboleda, a multicultural educator who is of Black / Filipino / German descent but who grew up in Japan, clearly draws these distinctions. Although he culturally identifies as Japanese, assertion of a Japanese cultural identity could never be accepted elsewhere as long as he looked non-Japanese (Arboleda, 1998). At the same time, many of the experiences detailed by those interviewed reveal that situations that are assumed to be due to their multiracial background are in fact the result of cultural dissonance. Are the experiences of biracial and multiracial individuals in Canadian society a function of race or are they a function of how bicultural individuals must learn to straddle the cultures that once bound their parents' identities and have been passed down to the next generation?

In many ways, conceptions of race and culture are based on an outdated vision of what North American society looks like. The oft-repeated experience of going abroad and being told that one does not "look" Canadian reveals that, although we are officially taught that we can achieve unity through cultural and racial diversity, Canada is still perceived as a homogenously white nation. In the face of growing diversity and increasing intermarriage, the reality is that national identity can no longer be equated with racial or cultural homogeneity. When the boundaries of nationality, culture and race intersect, the lines that we draw to separate these things are becoming indistinct in practice. As globalization proceeds and national boundaries are blurred by migration and intermarriage, nationality, ethnicity and culture can not be bounded by racial categories. The existence of people of mixed race brings attention to these social boundaries and the labels that we give to them. In fact, all bicultural people, whether they are second generation or biracial Canadian, reveal the inherent societal assumptions and ideals of culture and race. Nationality and ethnicity are weak insofar as neither correspond to the physical and racial parameters associated with these categories.

These are issues that are important to consider when examining the experience of mixed race people in Canada. Although it is considerably more common to come across multiracial individuals in our society, there is a danger that we are creating new myths about multiracial people. Ayesha, for example, questions the way in which mainstream culture has been embracing multiracial people because, as she says, "It's creating a new myth that isn't necessarily created by the voices of the people involved." In many ways, however, multiracial people do transcend racial typologies and stereotyping. They embody a new way of conceptualizing identity; as cultural hybrids, they are able to embrace multiple identities and can choose to be many things at once, not just separate parts of an incomplete whole. As the numbers of multiracial people expand and tolerance and understanding of such diversity increases, the adjustment issues faced by people of mixed race are likely to diminish. Their presence will become an ever more visible reminder of the false attributes of racial differentiation and separation created and maintained within our society.

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