Harming Canada’s reputation
4/7/10
Before I came to Canada in 2008, the reputation I knew Canadians to have was of a culturally accepting people. For the most part, this reputation has held true throughout most of my in-Canada experience. However, one incident that came to my attention recently made me question the veracity of this reputation.
In my Creative Writing class, a student wrote a short story that took place in São Paulo, Brazil. As a Brazilian, the amount of cultural and geographical inaccuracies verged on offensive. It was clear from the first two lines that the author had done no research into Brazil whatsoever before writing her piece. For example, the character drives from São Paulo to somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest—which in reality would be a drive of well over 1,000 kilometers. The author also refers to “Brazilian aboriginals,” not only using the wrong term, instead referring to all Brazilian indigenous tribes as a single cultural entity, when there are in fact hundreds if not thousands of culturally distinct peoples.
To give you close equivalent to these inaccuracies in terms of Canadian culture and geography, I am sure any Canadian would feel at least slightly offended if a foreigner wrote a short story where a character from Winnipeg drives to the Canadian Rockies; the feeling would be similar if I described a character as a “Canadian Indian.”
My intention is not to completely bash this fellow writer. What I mean to say is that their needs to be a better understanding of foreign cultures—and I don't mean only among Canadians. We Brazilians are also prejudiced, as I'm sure are the people of any country, in some way or another. What made this issue so prominent was the complete lack of knowledge about the culture at hand; most errors (which were not few—I wrote half a page of notes pointing them out) were not minor, such as common misconceptions. To refer to tourists buying beach supplies in São Paulo when it is not a coastal city is not so bad; but a Paulista taking a “drive through the Amazon rainforest” is evidence of a clear and unforgivable lack of concern for the accuracy of what you write.
Please, people. Check your facts. Do your research. Make sure what you are writing won't offend people of the country or culture you are writing about, especially when there's someone from that country in your class who will read your story.
1 comment
B. Savage on Apr 11, 2010 at 2:33pm
I was witness to this. I agree with you for the most part Shed. I don't agree that this should in anyway affect your impressions of Canadian Identity. Although you state that the "beach" problem was rather minor in nature, there are plenty of beaches in Sao Paulo.
http://www.sao-paulo.info/beaches-in-sao-paulo.html
Nice beaches to boot!
Also, while the drive to the Amazon in the time depicted was completely impossible, the story was magic realism, and is in no way non-fiction, and so, especially being magic realism, the confines of non-fiction/reality were not of any importance. Now while the state of indigenous peoples in Brazil, and South America as a whole, is very much dependent on the cultural identities of different tribes, I really see nothing wrong with referring to them as Brazilian aborignals. I mean, in actuality, if this offended you to this extent, I'd hate to see your reaction if she tried to be more specific with tribe names and got something wrong.
As s Canadian, I am a fervent believer that we are currently one of the most mis-understood and understated countries in the western hemisphere. I've been privy to stereotypes and accusation(growing up on the American border in Windsor) that make the errors in this story look like nothing more than that, errors.
I think one of the greatest qualities Canadians acquire as a result of growing up in this country is their thick skin.
As a newer, and from what I've seen, very productive member of our society (especially the CRWR dept. at UBCO) I'd suggest you consider thickening your skin too!
Have a good summer Shed.
Add a comment
Comments published on this website are the opinion of the commenter and not the Phoenix Newspaper. The Phoenix reserves the right to withdraw submissions from publication for any reason. Any reason could be material deemed to be sexist, racist, homophobic, or of poor taste or quality.