Written by Samia Islam
Talk delivered by the guest speaker, Duha Elmardi, who is an education coordinator of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW)
Intro + Intention Setting
● CCMW is a non-profit organization working towards the equality, empowerment, and equity of Muslim women in Canada
● Some key statistics:
○ 20% of Canadians experience racism regularly, with higher rates (up to 50% or more) among the Black and Indigenous community
○ Between 2012 to 2015, there has been a 253% increase in hate crimes against Muslims
○ 73% of women are abused online worldwide
Privileges, Power and Oppression
● Oppression is a pervasive system of supremacy and discrimination wherein there is a socially constructed binary of a dominant group as being normal, natural, or superior ● Racism refers to a system that produces social and physical barriers based on the race and ethnic heritage of people, real or perceived; race is a social construct used to benefit the oppressor
● The wheel of power/privilege looks at a system of inequality as a coin ○ One side of the coin shows that people have privilege because parts of their identity is what is deemed natural in society
○ The other side reflects oppression where people will experience marginalization because their identities is not considered the superior
○ Reflects the existence of a system that either pushes us towards power/privilege or oppression
○ Ex. whiteness is always considered closer to superiority in our system and people who do not fit within this identity are pushed away from power
○ Positionality refers to where we are placed in a given place and time, which affects our experiences of racism and discrimination
■ Factors that can affect our positionality include access to education and mental health, wealth, language, gender, sexuality, citizenship, religion, and criminalization (ie. who is closer to being criminalized)
● Privileges does not entail that there is an absence of hardships in a person’s life ● This lens focuses on discrimination at three different levels:
○ Individual: consists of our conscience or unconscious beliefs and actions that we have acquired through our environment that serve to perpetuate oppression; can be externalized or internalized oppression
■ Externalization refers perceiving others in an oppressive, stereotypical, and prejudicial manner
■ Internalization refers to believing stereotypes and prejudices that they are inherent within ourselves
○ Interpersonal: we bring our misconceptions within our interactions between people; can include interactions within and across racial groups
○ Systemic: consists of two areas:
■ Institutional: we bring stereotypes and misconceptions into the institutions we are a part of, which may have lasting impacts on the creation of discriminatory policies (ex. Quebec’s Bill C-21)
■ Structural: how these effects interact and accumulate across institutions; can cause society to normalize social constructs
● Oppression can take the form of a cycle of perpetuation:
○ In our early years, we may experience misinformation through the media and missed/biased history through the educational curriculum
○ Through socialization, the cycle is reinforced in institutions and our homes ○ Through internalization, we may view misinformation as the truth ● The pyramid of White supremacy looks at how things can go from a level of normalization to genocide
○ Indifference: we think that marginalized experiences do not affect us because we are not directly involved and thus, do not require our attention
○ Minimization: experiences of discrimination tend to be minimized/not looked at/not believed/not legitimized
○ The pyramid further advances up to veiled racism (ex. Euro-centric curriculum, tokenism), discrimination (ex. Anti-immigration laws), calls for violence, violence (ex. Hate crimes, police brutality), and mass murder
○ It is crucial to interrupt these things at an early stage
Intersectionality and Anti-oppression
● Anti-oppression refers to the ways in which an individual, community, institution, or system actively prevents, challenges, and ends oppression against other people ● Question: What do you know about intersectionality and why is it important? ○ Alexandra said that intersectionality is important to avoid biases within cultures ○ Haranyaa mentioned that intersectionality refers to the different ways we hold power and oppression in our lives + the importance of complexity
○ Alison mentioned that intersectionality refers to the differences in the oppression that people face based on the multiple identities we carry
● Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, and interlocks and intersects; refers to how structures make certain identities the consequence for vulnerability
● The lens of equity looks at providing individuals with fair opportunities to achieve an equitable outcome; enables us to acknowledge that we do not all start at the same place ● The lens of liberation aims to remove the barriers that people experience initially ● Learning has different zones and phases
○ Fear zone: we may be in a place of fear when we are confronted with information that challenge our views
○ Learning zone: we constantly educate ourselves, address our own biases + recognize that these issues exist
○ Growth zone: we identify the ways in which we may benefit from these learning
Questions were asked for the audiences and discussed:
● How do you see oppression and discrimination show up in your communities?
● Based on what we learned about oppression and discrimination, how would you define anti-oppression?
● What are the ways that you can embody and practice anti-oppressive values, including anti-racism and cultural sensitivity, on a personal and institutional level?
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