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Thanks for posting this. I was trying to make a similar point but restrained myself for fear it would not come across the right way.
The thing is that life in Toronto works out tremendously well for young people of many different origins, but for some reason it doesn't always work out well for Jamaican (and to a broader degree it seems, Afro-Caribbean) youths. Why is that?
As you point out it's easy to blame Jamaicans or the culture of Jamaica itself as many in Toronto do, but it seems to me that Jamaican/Afro-Caribbean people may even have better outcomes in the U.S. where the danger of their lives dovetailing with some of the serious problems of the native African-American community seems even greater than similar temptations in Toronto.
I have no idea why that is but it's a legitimate question that few people seem to be asking.
It is important not to broad brush stroke the experiences of all Jamaicans or Afro-Caribbeans in Toronto. We also have to look at things in a 2018 lens and not one 22 years ago. Anecdotal but I do know a lot of successful members of those groups in the city so they are absolutely not excluded from making a better life for themselves. There are employers including my own in the city that will hire them and i'm not just talking in lower rung jobs - i'm talking about on a Director level.
It isn't uniquely Torontonian and I didn't claim that. What I am saying is that the most important thing is that people with differences work and play together. Of course that isn't just a Toronto thing but the better we can do towards integration I think is a noble goal as a city. For me it starts in the workplace. It is the one area people are forced to be in where they have to make things work with those who are different. This spills over to other areas. Integration happens and even in situations where people aren't obviously a cultural or societal match - connections happen. It is a good thing!
You keep relentlessly hammering Toronto and English Canada as a whole for lack of culture. Do you really think that English Canadians and the immigrants in English Canadian cities are sitting here going OMG we are so jealous of French Canadian culture we are just going to melt. Really? Seriously what is the deal with you and this stuff. Don't you think people in Toronto actually enjoy eating at its restaurants or participating in a number of different cultural experiences the city offers? Do you think only Indonesian people eat at Indonesian restaurants in T.O. Of course not so there are absolutely positives in food, music and culture for people who live here and enjoy the variety. Do you have a poster on the ceiling above your bed that has French Canadian culture rules or what? You come off as really arrogant and smug about all this tbh AJ.
I've tried to be respectful and appreciative of your culture here. Perhaps you should extend some respect for the differences in approach and values we have regarding multiculturalism. If what you contend is so important to you was so important to us, we would have probably figured that out by now. Perhaps we just have different priorities and values and appreciate different things....
Every once in a while you get all hot and bothered by my comments.
Keep in mind that I live in a place that gets accused of being racist, xenophobic and backward on here, often with subtle ethno-racial insuations. (Though not by you I recognize.)
Surely if I can take that, someone like you can take my occasional comments about Toronto not being exceptionally special or unique in terms of culture and identity. I don't think it's that bad.
Especially when they are counter-balanced by my comments that, warts and all, your city is probably the world's most successful and harmonious diverse metropolis.
Not including Haitians yes but indeed Haiti is a Latin American country so in this the Haitian's saved BK's/QCOpec's Bacon.
As for the Latin American presence being more palpable - don't forget Toronto is a significantly larger city than Montreal so you could get a more dispersed effect. Especially in a community that isn't that large relative to others. Montreal has less large immigrant diaspora's than Toronto so Latin's are more lost among the Euro's, East/South Asian and Caribbean communities in the city not nearly to the same degree as Latin's have to contend with in YUL.
Also makes me think regardless of city what the number of undocumented is...
I wasn't including Haitians. Though many of them do speak Spanish, I think it is clear the OP was talking about people from Spanish speaking Latin America. I am willing to bet that most illegals in Canada are not Latin American.
I wasn't including Haitians. Though many of them do speak Spanish, I think it is clear the OP was talking about people from Spanish speaking Latin America. I am willing to bet that most illegals in Canada are not Latin American.
I get you buddy but it is what it is, Haiti is a Latin American country so therefore BK can continue smiling and gettin giddy with excitement that Montreal is the most Latin American/Hispanic city in all of Canada. YIPPIE... WOOHOOO <backflips>
I know most illegals in Canada are not Latin American - I just am personally connected to the latin American community here more than others so that has touched me more through friend of friend type of thing.
Every once in a while you get all hot and bothered by my comments.
Keep in mind that I live in a place that gets accused of being racist, xenophobic and backward on here, often with subtle ethno-racial insuations. (Though not by you I recognize.)
Surely if I can take that, someone like you can take my occasional comments about Toronto not being exceptionally special or unique in terms of culture and identity. I don't think it's that bad.
Especially when they are counter-balanced by my comments that, warts and all, your city is probably the world's most successful and harmonious diverse metropolis.
Take it all in stride, I say!
lol whatever you were in your prosecutor stance in this thread when it came to T.O. going on and on about puny crime rates and mumbo jumbo about culture and identify zzzzzzzzz as if having a monotonous and pervasive local culture/identity is really critical to a city like Toronto anyway - for real. I think you got triggered by that Anglicization of Montreal suburbs thread
So... is BK = Bostonkid? He hasn't posted on here in a couple of months.
Unless you think Bostonkid and QuebecOpec are the same person. I don't see any similarity in their posting styles at all.
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