"Race" has been used to identify difference among people of different origins. In early twentieth century Canada, a British ideal for civilization dominated and it was into this archetype that new immigrants were thrust. The remarkable progress of this society, heralded by western expansion, can be seen in the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Prince Rupert was created as the western terminus of the GTPR and was designed to fulfil the needs of a rapidly expanding Canadian frontier. Prince Rupert was a wholly planned community and firmly embedded in the dominant mores and norms of a British Canada. Prince Rupert, however, was not settled solely by people of British descent. Many continental Europeans, "Asians", and Native persons contributed to the emergence of this new city. "Race" was a common tool to differentiate peoples and define their experience of one another. The dominant British discourse excluded many of the new settlers. Interestingly, what was meant by "White" should not be conflated with British, because the boundary of "white" shifted to encompass continental Europeans if threatened by and obviously non-"white" other. Similarly, other groups s hould not be considered homogenous and treated as having had a shared common experience in Canada. Exploring how these diverse peoples co-existed in Prince Rupert means shifting the focus away from individual experiences and instead putting the emphasis on the process of racialization. Simply put, racialisation is the act of racialising people -- determining who they are based on race as a system of classifying human difference. It is a process because it involves the transmission of ideas over time and in a specific place; engaging people on many different fronts. This thesis will utilise the idea of "sites", ephemeral moments, and places -- real or perceived -- where exchanges took place regarding ideas concerning race. These sites are physical, spatial, economic, cultural, social and ideological. How the process of racialisation developed over time will be demonstrated by the use of sites in Prince Rupert British Columbia. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/4302 |
| Date | 17 October 2012 |
| Creators | Greer, Karla |
| Contributors | Roy, Patricia |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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