DoingEthnography@sta

Toronto, Ontario, Canada is known for more than Drake and the Toronto Raptors. It is a city celebrated for its cultural and ethnic diversity. Today, people are often surprised to discover just how many cultures coexist here without the pressure to assimilate. Of course, this wasn’t always the case. Historically, Indigenous peoples and immigrants of colour were pressured to assimilate into dominant White, Eurocentric norms of speech, dress, and Christian ideology as a condition of social acceptance.  As a Toronto-born child of Jamaican immigrant parents, I grew up in a unique position: close enough to my heritage to feel rooted yet surrounded by communities whose culinary traditions echoed our own. For instance, it was not uncommon that, just as I was about to sink my teeth into a crispy fried Jamaican dumpling dipped in stewed chicken, I would glance across the table and catch my Filipino classmate eagerly unwrapping siomai, a delicate dumpling filled with seasoned pork, beef, or s...