The Impossible Glass Ceiling

A couple of years ago, I was the keynote speaker for the annual Canadian Heritage breakfast in Ottawa. This is taken from the talk.
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In the past and still in some circumstances today, there was the invisible glass ceiling of racism – it was unspoken but understood that a Chinese could only go so far. To a great extent, that ceiling is no more. We are finding Chinese in every part of society and at all levels of government. However, the ceiling today is not one of racial intolerance but of cultural misunderstanding. If you ask most Chinese in Canada if they have accomplished as much as their Caucasian counterparts with similar backgrounds, most will likely say no. To achieve the same goals, Chinese have to work harder and smarter and they still may not get there.

I do not blame this on racism.

The core of the problem is that the Caucasian decision makers don’t understand the Chinese or really understand cultural diversity because they evaluate needs, people and situations from their own cultural perspective. This is only natural and I do exactly the same thing. I’m a fourth generation Chinese Canadian and do you know something – I still really don’t understand how white people think and if I don’t have a good idea, then I’m sure that they really don’t understand me either.

How does that look in real life? What happens is that when you evaluate things solely from your own cultural perspective, you wind up with results that are remarkably similar to what has always been. In order to affect sea change that is more inclusive, one does not hire workers who look only like the captain. Key members of the governing and decision-making group have got to come from outside the norm of the comfort zone. I can’t tell you how many broadcasters and public funding agencies I’ve met with where the Chinese are the accountants or the clerks but never a key decision maker in terms of programming or policy. This is in Vancouver, where almost half the population is non-white. (And often when they do make decisions in favour of the “ethnics,” it is so clear that the decision is not based on real understanding.)

If we are to have a Canada that reflects a true multiculturalism, you must involve the Chinese, the First Nations people, the Indo-Canadians, the Filipinos - you have to bring us onboard the ship in a very meaningful way. Tokenism is not enough – we need to be able to have decision making abilities.

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After I gave his talk, then Secretary of State Jason Kenney introduced himself to me and his staff – a virtual United Nations with Canadians of many different heritages. I thought to myself – here’s a guy who gets it, in word and action.

Next Week – we start exploring the facts and myths of Hollywood North.