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Sophia Khan's avatar

Nice. I feel like your colleague who made that comment felt like she was more in on the culture than she really was.

People need to accept that there’s going to be a spectrum, of accents, of American or Canadian -ization of non-white residents.

When I was at university my Indian friends would always ask me why I have such a good accent - I would simply say, and I wonder why you guys don’t. The Brits left us literally the same day.

I absolutely detest ‘compliments’ about my English or my accent by non-Pakistanis for this reason.

Zahra Haider's avatar

lol yes exactly! like please don’t applaud me for being a colonized subject against my own will

Dr Ruben Thurai-Rajah's avatar

Failure of multiculturalism has been a theme in the U.K. for a longtime now. It seems Canadians are coming to terms with the same failure.

May be it is time for integration… https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-09-05-expert-comment-if-multiculturalism-has-failed-then-what-about-integration

Zahra Haider's avatar

An interesting read, thank you. I’d argue that the 'failure' often isn't in the mixing of cultures, but in the failure of the state to support people across class lines — something I touch on in my recent writing. Integration is a complex word; if it requires scrubbing away the 'mother tongue' to be legible to the state, is it success or just a different kind of erasure?