The continuity of racist rhetoric over time
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While reading Ward's piece, I repeatedly noticed similarities between the anti-immigrant rhetoric he describes, and that which I have heard in my lifetime. The idea that Asian immigrants were raised in a way that is "totally opposed to the civilization and environments under which we of Western civilization are born and reared" is not a relic of the 20th century (Ward, 84). The efforts of racialized immigrants to maintain community in the West is still regularly misunderstood as an inability to assimilate to their new home. These immigrant communities are still met with a hostile reaction from their white countrymen in some cases, and violent outbursts, like those described by Ward in British Columbia, are not unheard of nowadays either - especially in the context of Islamophobia.
I also note the peculiar nature of Canada's desire for a white national identity. White Canadians are, of course, settlers on this land. In the context of Ward's piece Canada was not yet an independent country, but its settler inhabitants were clearly extremely threatened by the presence of non-white individuals and their impact on national identity. I wonder if the country's anti-Asian reaction also had to do with Canada's attempts to assert its legitimacy as a Western nation.