I eat whale blubber and club baby seals...

[Flames9_RN 358]

[Sprailenes 47]

It wasn't insulting, it was the continuous contradiction.

Oh I'm not typical. Hey guys what's typical? I'm don't feel typical. There's no typical.

And now I am tired of the word "typical"

[Mephys 2]

[DeadPoolX 9]

its easy really. We have Labor Day in the US, and Labour Day in Canada. What's so confusing about that?

And I totally understand what Ant means by not looking like a typical Canadian. Outside of Canada, most folks would think a Canadian either is an Eskimo (Inuit to be proper), or a WASP (white, anglo saxon protestant...ie: English looking). But to we Candadians who know better, and know that Canada is the only really and truly multi-cultural country on the planet, where we don't have to hyphenate ourselves (ie: we're not African-Canadians, or Irish-Canadians, or Egyptian-Canadians, we're just plain ol' Canadian). In the US, its totally different. If you don't look like you're from here (ie: your skin is brown and you have funny lookin eye sockets lets say), then you have to hyphenate, and you can't possibly be "from here". You have to be "from somewhere else". I get that all the time here. People tell me I can't be Canadian, they just think I kinda look American, because I'm white and have blue eyes. Until I say "eh" they won't believe that I'm Canadian, because that's all they know about Canada. They know we say eh, and they know Bob & Doug McKenzie. And maybe John Candy. And unfortunately, Celine Dion and Tom Greene

I have lots of Canadian friends who look foreign. Until they open their mouths to speak, then you know without a shadow of a doubt that they are indeed Canadian. I have a friend whose parents are Chinese. He was born in Columbia, but grew up in Canada, and knows no other way of life. He's Canadian. His parents are Chinese though. And he looks Chinese obviously, but he's never even been there. His wife is Canadian, but she only just got her citizenship a couple of years ago. She looks more Canadian than he does, but she talks funny because she's originally from Latvia and has a funny accent. My dad's side of the family are all English, but they "look Canadian". Until they speak, then you can tell they're originally from England. Or sometimes they may be mistaken for Australians or Kiwis, but only by people who have no clue, and think Australia and New Zealand are just so much more exotic sounding that just merry old England. I can even affect an English accent when I want to ** with people's heads. I did that once in a bar in Denver Colorado, just for kicks n giggles, because our server said he though everyone in Canada sounded the same as people from England I stole my beer glass. It said Alcatraz on it. Very un-Canadian of me of course, but it was a cool looking glass. It broke a couple years later.

Unfortunately, Reba is right. Many -- perhaps even most -- Americans prefer to segregate themselves rather than "belong to one group." I find that interesting, considering the U.S. was supposed to be a melting pot. Perhaps this is in reaction to that stance.

Whatever the case, you'll find plenty of hyphenated individuals running around the U.S., all of whom will thump their chests at being American, but only when it suits their purposes. At other times, they'll divide themselves up into their own groups, based upon culture, race, language or more recently, legal status (which is insane, but for some reason tolerated), usually in an effort to point a finger at some other group or the government for being "racist" or "exclusionary" in some other form.

This is a sore subject for me, because my brother's best friend, who was born in Africa, and has two biological American parents had some problems due to this. My brother's friend has white skin, red hair and freckles. When he and his parents moved back to the United States, he was a little confused. On the forms for school registration where they asked for his race (I know they don't do this in Canada, but this is considered "standard operating procedure" in the U.S.), he wanted to write down "African American." That seemed logical -- after all, he was born in Africa, has two American parents and is an American citizen himself. He was told he couldn't check that box since "he wasn't black."

So let's recap here: In the U.S., you're not considered an African American if you have two American parents, you're a U.S. citizen and you were born in Africa itself so long as you're white, but... if you're black and an American citizen, you're automatically referred to as an "African American," even if you've never stepped foot on that continent and you never will. I suppose this could be extended even further to include legal immigrants (who're black) from any countries except those within Africa, as well.

Just to clarify, this example isn't about hatred or any sort of animosity towards blacks. This is about how idiotic I feel the whole "hyphenated American" situation is at the moment and how it's affecting policies that may seriously impact our lives.

[Sprailenes 47]

Oh at the wedding last weekend I got this from my husbands cousin (the groom) about his wife:

"Deirdre is half french Canadian, thats why she's so dark"

#######?

Umm Deirdre is dark because she lives in a tanning salon on her off time. ####### does dark have to do with anything???

He said that she's native french Canadian.

So I joked back: "Oh metis?"

and he didn't get it.

[trailmix 77]

Oh at the wedding last weekend I got this from my husbands cousin (the groom) about his wife:

"Deirdre is half french Canadian, thats why she's so dark"

#######?

Umm Deirdre is dark because she lives in a tanning salon on her off time. ####### does dark have to do with anything???

He said that she's native french Canadian.

So I joked back: "Oh metis?"

and he didn't get it.

ummm yeah, he sounds like a great guy

Edited September 24, 2008 by trailmix

[MsZ 6]

"I had one guy at my old job say: "So we beat the Canadians at their own game""

You should have said, "Basketball?" And he won't know what you're talking about. (For anyone else who doesn't, basketball was created in Canada.)

I'll admit that my daughter's friends ask my husband to say "out and about" but he enjoys the attention. They treat him like a rock star.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!

I had someone say to me 'Oh, so you speak french?' Just the way someone had asked an earlier poster! I was so pi$$y. Funny because I said, well all Canadian's don't speak french, but as a matter of fact I do, but because my parents were both language teachers. Her eyes glazed over.

Silly Canadian, I should have just said yes. I miss French CBC and other random french stuff

[JillA 2]

Glen's aunt ACTUALLY asked me if Canadian women shaved their armpit hair, because she heard "those French women" don't shave

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Glen's aunt ACTUALLY asked me if Canadian women shaved their armpit hair, because she heard "those French women" don't shave

My husband read this and shook his head........on his behalf, he apologizes for the naive comments we have suffered at the hands of his people.

Here's a good one........my boss works virtually from Minnesota, but comes here to VA occasionally. So we're in a 1:1 and she says, 'yes, we're not happy with Canadian's right now, we got a new ladder from HomeDepot and no sooner did we get it home, but it fell apart. We noticed that it was made in Canada'

There is no answer to that........I cannot apologize for a shoddy ladder made in canada and neither am I allowed to beat you until you come to your senses because you've made a dumb comment.

I do not meet someone from China and say...OMG, everything you export is #######...........that would be insensitive and just DUMB

/rant done

[trailmix 77]

Glen's aunt ACTUALLY asked me if Canadian women shaved their armpit hair, because she heard "those French women" don't shave

My husband read this and shook his head........on his behalf, he apologizes for the naive comments we have suffered at the hands of his people.

Here's a good one........my boss works virtually from Minnesota, but comes here to VA occasionally. So we're in a 1:1 and she says, 'yes, we're not happy with Canadian's right now, we got a new ladder from HomeDepot and no sooner did we get it home, but it fell apart. We noticed that it was made in Canada'

There is no answer to that........I cannot apologize for a shoddy ladder made in canada and neither am I allowed to beat you until you come to your senses because you've made a dumb comment.

I do not meet someone from China and say...OMG, everything you export is #######...........that would be insensitive and just DUMB

/rant done

Your Husband apologized for his people, I think you owe the ladder woman an apology

[Reba 2]

My husband always makes me put that #### together when it comes with the "Made in Canada" label. We've got an office chair, a couple of bookshelves and I can't remember what else that he got it home and said "ah geez, here, you do it, its written all in Canadian"

[Emancipation 2]

My husband always makes me put that #### together when it comes with the "Made in Canada" label. We've got an office chair, a couple of bookshelves and I can't remember what else that he got it home and said "ah geez, here, you do it, its written all in Canadian"

oh that's great... thanks for the giggle

[Mephys 2]

It's like at work, everybody likes to make jokes about Canadians, but then I gently remind them that half of the products we use are Made in Canada

Sooner or later, we WILL assimilate

[cherylc522 0]

I also get the whole: "Do you know a so and so from Vancouver?"

YES AS A MATTER OF FACT I DO. WE'RE BFF'S!!! WOW WHAT A SMALL WORLD EH!?

Bzzzzz. I'm sorry. The correct response is:

"Oh! So and so! Why yes, I do! She's dead."

Are we really that foreign to people? I mean, I never saw the USA as a super foreign country. Its soo strange when I hear some people ask about Canada and they really have NO clue at all.

Lets just set the record straight:

We're born with ice skates on, and wear parkas year round. Our mail comes by dog sled right to our igloos front door. We don't have malls, we just have the Hudson Bay. We can ALL speak French and yes we ALL hate Quebec. We don't celebrate any of the same holidays as the rest of the world, and our "president" is the Bonhomme.

ahhh i havent heard anyone think that bonhomme is our president but thats too funny i forgot about him