Vancouver is often labeled one of the most diverse cities in Canada. Are we ever lucky! Our multicultural coexistence provides us with exposure to a plethora of different cultures, cuisines, lifestyles and languages that ultimately enrich our daily lives. Our city allows us to feel like global citizens in our local environment and provides us a humbling home of heterogeneity.

We all see Vancouver’s diversity on a daily basis. This diversity can manifest itself culturally, ethnically, politically, socially, economically or otherwise, and every day you are a part of it. But how often do we genuinely experience this diversity and multiculturalism, rather than act as a bystander to it? How often do we take a moment to learn and understand each other’s cultures on more than a surface level?

kite flown flags in Vnaier Park illustrate Vancouver’s unique diversity. | Photo by Proggie, Flickr

In my opinion, many in Vancouver see the diversity and multiculturalism around them, but do not seem to make much of an effort to engage with it. In other words, although our city boasts extensive pluralism, we lack meaningful cross-cultural understanding and connection. You may sit next to someone of a different ethnicity on the Skytrain, but do you strike up a conversation? Do you make an effort to learn about their unique experience?

Oftentimes living in a multicultural environment can invoke a strong sense of pride in one’s own culture. People want to celebrate the uniqueness and the importance of their beliefs, their history and their traditions – or in the case of my Dutch heritage, justify the practicality of wooden shoes and prove that the tulip really is the world’s greatest flower. People want to feel a sense of inclusion. They want to be a part of a like-minded group of individuals with whom they can share this cultural patriotism and relate to a common identity. The desire to transcend individualism in order to form a collective is, arguably, only natural.

I believe that a celebration of one’s culture and pride in one’s identity is absolutely wonderful. I believe that it is important and simply enjoyable to celebrate your shared identity with others.

I do, however, think that our city’s residents have a tendency to turn blindly inward to their own cultural collective. Not unique to Vancouver, this phenomenon seems common in multicultural environments. We see mutual tolerance and peaceful coexistence, but we also see a wariness of difference or an indifference towards understanding it. I often hear our city’s residents tossing around stereotypes of those in different groups than their own, regardless of how those groups are defined. This stereotyping seems to be a reflection of our lack of understanding for one another and the subsequent assumptions that we apply to the “other.”

I think that there is a place for other cultures or other collectives, though I believe it is important that these collectives do not exist like oil and water. I think our city has more room for cross-cultural learning, for conversation and for appreciating peoples’ true identities that exist between the lines of stereotypical labels. We are blessed to live together in a city with such an extensive culmination of uniqueness, and we should seize the opportunities for learning and understanding that come with it.

We need to remind each other of the beauty of difference and the opportunity it presents to disrupt the mundane. Attempts to understand one another’s experiences can only serve to better them, reducing the discrimination that arises as a consequence of ignorance. In my opinion, this is our mutual obligation.