Being “Brown” in a Canadian Suburb

Abstract

This article considers the construction of a “brown” identity among Punjabi young men living in Surrey, British Columbia. The meaning of brown for these teenagers is discussed to illustrate how conceptualizations of ethnicity/race are tied to those of masculinity and how brown has evolved as an alternative way of “doing male.” Brown, as articulated by a group of Punjabi teenagers at a public secondary school in Surrey, is shown to not only contest their White peers’ masculinity but also to confronts their fathers’ version and the media's portrayal of the typical Indo-Canadian man or “Surrey Jack”—a form of protest masculinity (Connell, 2005).