Caribbean Pop Culture in Canada: Or, the Impossibility of Belonging to the Nation

D eborah Cox, one of the current divas of rhythm and blues music, is a black Canadian. Such a statement about Cox is clearly not transparent in that it does not say much about her or Canada. Cox, whose parents are from Guyana, grew up in Canada listening to various African American musics played at home. Cox spent her formative years working the Toronto music scene and eventually had to give up on Canada to secure the kind of pop culture stardom that she currently enjoys. She was recently featured on one of Canada’s leading news magazines, Macleans, as “Canada’s Queen of R&B”. Cox is also featured as a model for one of Canada’s leading clothing companies, Roots Canada, and numerous entertainment shows have done televisual and radio segments on her career. The dynamics of Cox’s move to the United States are deeply implicated in her newfound fame at home in Canada. This belonging to Canada and not, lodged between Guyana and the United States, is a symptomatic condition of Canadian blackness. As a symbol, Cox represents the networks of black