ABSTRACT
In Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America, Thomas Ferraro speaks of the process of ethnicity-making in the US but the process is largely parallel in Canada.
In the 50s, sociologists were certain that ethnic attachments would fade naturally as groups learned the pleasures of assimilation: middle-class incomes, suburban homes, and intermarriage. However, even with these changes, white ethnicity has not disappeared. Racialized immigrant groups have come to occupy the centre of such debates even while some (e.g. Steinberg 2007) claim they cannot be assimilated precisely because they will never be white. But the appeal of ethnic hybridity in which individuals can purportedly choose components like commodities in a shopping mall, “ethnic” music, cuisine, style, or membership in community organizations, the resilience of white ethnicity remains to be explained.
