Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Reflection #1
September 30, 2010
This video forced me to raise several questions concerning the amount of racial poverty that exists in Ontario’s capital, Toronto and Canada in general. When reading the statistics that were posted on the screen throughout the video, I found myself constantly rewinding and pausing to make sure that I had read them right – concepts including “how racialized poverty rates went up 361% between 1980-2000” (“Understanding the Colour of Poverty in Ontario – Part One,” 2007) anywhere in Canada seemed so shocking I figured I must have misread the fact. Why are people in racialized groups at a higher risk for poverty? The only suggestion I thought of that could even begin to answer this question is circumstance. The only real difference between people who immigrate to Canada and those who don’t is where we were born. It does not mean one group is more highly skilled or harder working than another, some people are born into privilege and some are simply not. It is a common stereotype that immigrants or specific racial groups are poor because they don’t work at jobs that require intelligence that is adequately paid for. It was stated in (“Understanding the Colour of Poverty – Part One,” 2007) that “the hardest part of settlement for immigrants is getting a job.” It is the thinking of many that the majority of Caucasians and Canadian born people simply have the work ethic to get hired for skilled jobs and maintain them and that is why our poverty levels are less than other racial communities. But if this is the case, why in this video did we see an immigrant who was a qualified accountant driving a taxi because the reality was that he could not get hired to work at the accountant job he wanted to do. It is unlikely that he has not been employed for the job he is primarily qualified for due to any other factor than his race. As I watched him explain how he sometimes feared for his life while working I wondered, is the Canadian governments idea of resources for immigrants really as pathetic as offering them safety for dangerous jobs such as being a cab driver in the form of a camera that can only do as much as aid in the capture of a potential murderer that enters their taxi?

In class we discussed the reality of how open to the idea of immigrants Canada actually is in comparison with the perception of how we are seen to view those who come to our country to live from other areas of the world. Canada has a reputation that includes the idea we welcome multiculturalism and diversity however, documentaries like (“Understanding the Colour of Poverty – Part One,” 2007) bring forth the inconvenient truth that several racial groups are suffering treatment of inferiority in silence. How can Canada ever expect to evolve from this disgusting behaviour if we do not even admit it happens and recognize how much change still needs to take place? I suggest that although poverty is an extremely difficult problem to find solutions to, and it is inevitable that it will always exist – it should not be categorized by a discriminative ways of thinking such as racism. The geography of where someone was born and their skin colour should have nothing to do with what occupations they attain in the country of Canada.

Living in poverty, in my opinion, is not living at all – it only existing. People who require the governments resources for those living with little to no money are not a burden on “the system,” they are “the system.” Canadian immigrants are just that – Canadian. They are entitled to the same equal treatment and opportunities as any Canadian born individual and one racial group being more acceptable than another is a ridiculous concept that forwards nothing but ignorance and negativity. I believe strongly that occupations should not be reserved for only those who are “worthy” to have designated roles in society because of the circumstances of their birth or specific opportunities they have been given in their lifetime. Working unreasonably long days in order to make enough money to barely support oneself or family is unnecessary suffering that undoubtedly affects the quality of life of many people living in this Canada. I suggest that this video’s main objective was to educate people about the shocking level of poverty in Toronto (which is a place that I assume was chosen to accurately represent other areas of Canada as well). The visuals of people facing this discrimination is meant to both shock and evoke compassion among those who did not understand this conflict to the same extent prior to watching this video. It is my understanding that the elements in the documentary the (“Understanding the Colour of Poverty – Part One,” 2007) are meant to generate a change – if not in action at least in thought and recognition. This video creates discourse concerning racial poverty providing altercations of the perceptions surrounding the issue of colour in relating to how occupations and economics in Canada are distributed in actuality. The tolerable and generous impression the country of Canada commonly has strongly contrasts the stereotype that perception is reality.

No comments:

Post a Comment