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.