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UBC Theses and Dissertations
A class act : how East Vancouver working-class youth perceive racism and economic inequality Orlowski, Paul Michael
Abstract
This critical ethnographic study had a two-part general problem statement: 1) How do east Vancouver working-class youth locate themselves in terms of ethnicity and class? 2) How do east Vancouver working-class youth perceive racism and economic inequality? Twenty-five working-class adolescents from a senior secondary alternative school were interviewed and observed over a six-month period in 1996. The youth belonged to the following ethnic groups: Chinese, Vietnamese, First Nations, White, and Indo- Canadian. Almost all of the participants felt that racism was increasing in Vancouver, although most were only able to recognize more overt forms of racism. The data suggest that all of the participants were very aware of their race or ethnicity. Most of them, however, were unclear about their social class: 22 of the 25 participants described themselves as middle-class. Consequently, they were unable to articulate many class concerns nor how economic power works in our society. Ethnicity seemed to be important in shaping their views toward people of other ethnic and social class backgrounds. By the participants' accounts, parental views toward the Other were very influential in shaping their own views, although there was evidence of changing perceptions, sometimes positive, in the younger generation. All of the groups seemed to hold racist attitudes toward other people. Material concerns appear to be at the root of many of these racist attitudes. White attitudes toward Asian immigrants and First Nations' land claims, Indian parents' discouragement of friendships with White youth, and Asian parents' opinion of Native people are some examples. The study concluded with progressive views toward other ethnic groups and the poor being presented to the participants. Suggestions for curriculum reform that aim to reduce racism by increasing Class awareness are included in an appendix.
Item Metadata
Title |
A class act : how East Vancouver working-class youth perceive racism and economic inequality
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1997
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Description |
This critical ethnographic study had a two-part general problem statement:
1) How do east Vancouver working-class youth locate themselves in terms of ethnicity
and class?
2) How do east Vancouver working-class youth perceive racism and economic
inequality?
Twenty-five working-class adolescents from a senior secondary alternative school
were interviewed and observed over a six-month period in 1996. The youth belonged
to the following ethnic groups: Chinese, Vietnamese, First Nations, White, and Indo-
Canadian. Almost all of the participants felt that racism was increasing in Vancouver,
although most were only able to recognize more overt forms of racism. The data
suggest that all of the participants were very aware of their race or ethnicity. Most of
them, however, were unclear about their social class: 22 of the 25 participants
described themselves as middle-class. Consequently, they were unable to articulate
many class concerns nor how economic power works in our society. Ethnicity seemed
to be important in shaping their views toward people of other ethnic and social class
backgrounds. By the participants' accounts, parental views toward the Other were very
influential in shaping their own views, although there was evidence of changing
perceptions, sometimes positive, in the younger generation. All of the groups seemed
to hold racist attitudes toward other people. Material concerns appear to be at the root
of many of these racist attitudes. White attitudes toward Asian immigrants and First
Nations' land claims, Indian parents' discouragement of friendships with White youth,
and Asian parents' opinion of Native people are some examples. The study concluded
with progressive views toward other ethnic groups and the poor being presented to the
participants. Suggestions for curriculum reform that aim to reduce racism by increasing
Class awareness are included in an appendix.
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Extent |
11060382 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-03-25
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0064513
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1997-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.