My Little Girl

She is six years old. Sometimes she stands in front of the mirror and examines her body, her hair color, eyes everything. She rubs her open arms and whispers, “I wish I had white skin!” Other times she says, “I wish I had blond hair!” She examines her brown body and I read her mind quietly. 

She is my little girl who is now getting conscious about her own body. She finds herself different from others. One day she will grow up. She will see how skin color makes the society divided. I know she might be bullied for her skin color. If I hear that I will definitely be very upset. But I don’t want her to cry. I want to make her strong. I teach her to raise her voice if she is bullied. 

I teach her to respect others. It is true that life is very busy here in Canada. Many parents do not have time to speak with their children.They are not aware of what’s going on in their children’s lives.Their children could be bullies or be bullied by others. However, as a mom, I want my girl to share her worries and happiness with me. I want to make her conscious that skin color does not matter. I tell her to become a good human being. I wish my little girl would grow up in a society where no one would be judged by his or her skin color!

Violence Against Women and Protest on Social Media

In recent years Social media have become a revolutionary platform to raise voice against sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women. Although women tried to keep any incidence of such violence within the boundary of their family and friends, they are now sharing their stories in social media like blog, twitter and facebook.

 For example, when media released a video of former NFL player Ray Rice attacking her then girlfriend Janay Rice in a hotel elevator, media was buzzed with questions pointing to Janay Rice’s support to Ray Rice. Seeing huge public reaction, famous author Beverly Gooden created a hashtag #WhyIStayed, where women who were the victims of abusive relationship started sharing their own experiences of facing domestic violence. Later another hashtag # WhyILeft was created that shed light on factors that cause women to stay and that coerce them to leave.

Similarly, in the wake of CBC’s star host Jian Gomeshi story of sexual assault, media has again stormed with the issue of violence against women. Many victims are sharing their stories in social media explaining how they face sexual assault in their homes and workplaces.  

CBC Host: Jian Gomeshi.  Source: Flickr.

 Studies show that one in three women in the world face some sort of sexual violence during their lifetime. Yet, most women do not report it to seek justice. Both social stigma and unfriendly judicial system constrain them to come forward. Often women face backlash from the society if they disclose their harassment experiences; they are not believed rather they are claimed for it. On the other hand, if they report such cases to police, their claims often get dismissed. As Amanda Dale, executive director of The schiffer Clinic said in an interview with Global News that, “You are telling your story in an empowering way and you opened yourself and feel vulnerable and someone comes after you that can feel doubly damaging.”

Although women are making their stories of violence public in the social media, it is yet to be seen whether this will be effective to change the root causes of gender violence. Will it really change men's abusive behavior to their female counterparts? Obviously we need to reform our police and judiciary system to make them more women friendly. There is also a need for proper education and community effort to change men's violent attitude towards women.

My Digital Story

My Reflection on “Immigration: The Hate Stops Here”

Canada is a country well-known for its constitutional recognition of multiculturism. In his article Immigration: The Hate Stops Here, Michael Ignatieff draws our attention by pointing out the fact that multicultural Canada might be good in principle but not in reality. 

For Ignatieff, it is more like showing indifference to each-other’s values rather than sharing it which constraints them to become good citizens together. Throughout his essay he tries to shed light on the fact that diaspora groups are playing dangerous roles by perpetuating hatred and supporting violent activities in their home countries by taking advantage of multiculturism (Ignatieff:301).

Ignateiff wrote this article right after the incidence of nine-eleven when the whole world was seemingly divided into two parts- ‘us’ vs ‘them’. He carefully articulates his words by not taking any side. He thinks diaspora nationalism is more threatening because it is easier to hate from a distance as they don’t need to live with the consequences or punishments (Ignatieff:302-303).

In my view, Ignatieff overstates the role of immigrants and tries to paint all the immigrants with the same brush. He also uses some vague examples to support his arguments. For example, he says that in 1840’s the Irish brought their hatreds along with them in Canada on the emigrant ships (Ignatieff: 302). Yet, he does not explain how they brought it here and what the indicator was to prove their hatredness. 

He says, “My point is only to ask us to rethink our myths of immigration, particularly that innocent one that portrays us as a refuge from hatred. It is clear that this never entirely true: many immigrant groups that make their lives here have not been extinguishing, but rather fanning , the hatreds they brought with them” (Ignatieff: 303). I think, if he would have used some statistical data to prove which groups are financing and how many people are becoming the victims of the violence that they support; his arguments would have been more effective. 

After all, Ignatieff oversimplifies particular experiences to generalize behavior of immigrant groups in Canada.