Take It to the Group Chat, Ep. 6: What It’s Like to Belong Everywhere—But Also Nowhere

Here’s an interesting demographic shift that’s currently happening in Canada: according to the Globe and Mail, the population of multi-ethnic people in this country has grown by almost 4 million people over the past 20 years. What’s more, the paper notes, “the longer an immigrant group has been settled in Canada, the more likely its members are to report multiple ethnicities.” This group now makes up 35.5% of Canada’s overall population, per the 2021 Census.

In media and pop cultural representations of race, being mixed is sometimes portrayed as a diversity ‘win.’ But the reality of being multi-ethnic, especially when you are the product of more than two ethnicities, can be complicated. So, in our final episode of Friday Talks: Take It to the Group Chat, we’re exploring feelings of cultural connection and disconnection, as well as what it feels like to not truly belong to any one ethnic group with writer, editor and culture critic Katherine Singh, and actor and Morningside star Orville Cummings.

Is there anything more immigrant coded than the group chat? More than just a way to stay in touch with far-flung family and friends, group chats are a social space where things get complicated, nuanced and even a little heated. And season 3 of Friday Talks, Take It to the Group Chat, is bringing some of that energy to your computer screen. Hosted by Friday Things founder and editor Stacy Lee Kong, Take It to the Group Chat is a six-part video series that tackles different aspects of the immigrant experience through thoughtful conversations with a panel of experts.