Growing up African Canadian in Vancouver: Racialization, Gender and Sexuality

Abstract

Vancouver is one of the most diverse cities in North America, with 49% of the population identifying as people of colour. However, residents who are racialized as Black or claim an African ethnic origin make up just over 1% of the population. These residents may constitute a hyper-visible minority in the local context, but they are firmly embedded in discourses about Blackness that transcend local geographies. Based on interviews with 35 adult children of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, this paper explores some of the ways that gendered and sexualized discourses of Blackness shape the lives of men and women in metro Vancouver. Interactions in public spaces include challenges to competency, honesty, and respectability, while private lives are marked by differences in heterosexual desirability that enhance the romantic prospects of men and limit those of women. The following discussion illustrates that processes of racialization are simultaneously gendered and sexualized.