Orientalism and linguicism: how language marks Iranian-Canadians as a Racial ‘other’

Abstract

This study examines the social experiences of Iranian female immigrants in schools in Toronto, Canada. Drawing on postcolonial theory and critical whiteness studies, I interrogate the ways in which ‘Oriental’ subjects are Othered among their peers, and how whiteness is established as the invisible norm. This study observes the role that having an immigrant, English-as-a-second-language (ESL) identity plays in shaping the participants’ social experiences at school. The women in this study rejected racism as a plausible cause of their social exclusion. I suggest two possible explanations for this: (1) the ‘Aryan myth’, which still heavily circulates within Iranian communities, constitutes a subtle mechanism by which white supremacy is culturally inherited by many Iranians; (2) the participants’ ability to ‘pass’ as white acted as a privilege which made race a less salient marker of difference to them. Instead, their status as the ‘Oriental Other’ was most visible when language was concerned.

Keywords:

• Immigrants
• education
• whiteness
• language
• Orientalism
• passing privilege

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Dr. Margaret MacNeill of the University of Toronto for her selfless support and guidance, and gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) research grant.

Notes

1 ‘Othering’, a term coined by Gayatri Spivak (1985), refers to a process by which imperial discourse secures its own positive identity through stigmatization of those it colonizes, excludes and marginalizes (Ashcroft et al., 2013, p. 171).

2 The women all volunteered to participate in this study, and their informed consent was obtained prior to the beginning of interviews. All research on the participants in this study has been approved by the [INSTITUTION NAME] Research Ethics Board (protocol #33957), and the identity of the participants has been protected through the assignment of pseudonyms in this paper.

3 In Canada, the (physical) education curriculum is developed and implemented at the provincial (not federal) level. However, at times in this article, I use the term ‘Canadian education’ to refer to the geographic context (rather than policy) of education.

4 The possession of Eurocentric features among some Iranians may, in fact, reify the Aryan myth.

5 Social class intersects in important ways with racialized experiences of immigrants; however, because the study participants came from privileged socio-economic backgrounds which did not differentiate them from their Canadian-born counterparts, social class did not play a role in marking them as ‘Other’, Oriental bodies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council under Grant 752-2015-2294.

Notes on contributors

Bahar Tajrobehkar

Bahar Tajrobehkar is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her recent research focuses on the transnational experiences of Iranian-Canadian immigrants in education, particularly as understood through the lens of critical Whiteness studies, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory.