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...

What’s it like to be a taxi driver in Arima today?  I often felt scared when I had to commute alone at night. After 6:30 p.m., most ‘H’ cars (registered taxis) stop working and are replaced by ‘P’ cars (personal and unregistered cars), which makes it more difficult to find a trustworthy ride. My friends or relatives would usually call and stay on the phone with me until I got a car. I felt safer having someone on the other end of the line. I had to keep a serious face and often adjusted my gestures and body language to appear less vulnerable. Sometimes I even carried sharp objects with me in case there were threats to my safety. There have been visible increases in crime - petty and violent - in Trinidad over the past few years. Combined with the limited public transportation, drivers and passengers alike face more and more unsafe conditions while traveling around daily. For my mini-ethnography in Caribbean Anthropology, I wanted to focus on taxi drivers’ everyday experiences of dr...

Have you ever seen those scenes in a movie set on a gorgeous beach, with lots of people enjoying the sunshine, kids building sand castles and bathers losing track of time as they enjoy the water? We all know what happens next…queue high pitched scream, the camera pans to someone drowning, then exciting, suspenseful background music ensues as a lifeguard appears next to the victim who inadvertently tries to pull the lifeguard underwater as they frantically kick and thrash about. Cut! That basically describes my life as a 20-year female water polo player in Trinidad. Every tournament is plagued by violent tugs, pulls, and kicks underwater, as if treading water for long periods isn’t enough. The worst part is, referees barely ever see these things happen underwater. We the players, are well aware of these things happening below the surface. While some see this extra aggression as part of the sport, others admit to the emotional and physical toll it takes. And, women players are expected t...