A class act : how East Vancouver working-class youth perceive racism and economic inequality ...

• Main Author: Orlowski, Paul Michael
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0064513; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0064513

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 ...