As a child, most of what I knew about my heritage came to me from my white mother. As far as I am concerned, intermarriage is a non-issue. I think it’s dangerous to think of mixed-race people like myself as any less a part of this community: these types of discussions are alienating to people of mixed ancestry, and expressing anxiety about our community being lost through intermarriage can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t want to be part of a community that tells me that I only half-belong. The last thing I want for the Japanese Canadian community is for us to get caught up in the same racially-based ways of thinking that have contributed to our community’s oppression and so many other injustices around the world.
