When it comes to conflict, most people try to avoid it. But Aftab Erfan, UBC’s first Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement in the Equity & Inclusion Office, views it as an opportunity for growth and change.
A Discussion on Cultural Appropriation
This Halloween, remember – culture is not a costume. Join us and the UBCO Intercultural Development Program, UBCO Indigenous Student Association for a discussion on cultural appropriation.
Come by, share your experiences, listen, and learn. Refreshments provided.
Date and time: Wed Oct. 25, 2017 | 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Location: UNC 211-12
Image credit; shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This Halloween, Take Care in What You Wear
Halloween gives us an opportunity to get creative, dress up, and have fun. However, some costumes cross the line and are racist, sexist, and just plain offensive.
Some dress up to honour or spoof familiar characters – from witches and vampires to otherworldly creatures – others take a more serious approach and use this as an opportunity to reflect on prevalent themes in our society.
However, some costumes cross the line and are racist, sexist, or just plain offensive.
This Halloween, create a respectful and inclusive environment for all.
Some costumes can be seen as cultural appropriation or as propagating stereotypes, racism, and sexism. Be thoughtful in choosing what to wear. It’s a matter of respect.
Learn more about what to consider in regards to choosing a Halloween costume from Professor Mona Gleason (UBC Faculty of Education) who also shares the following tips:
- Use common sense. If you’re not sure if a costume is offensive, don’t wear it.
- Remember that just because it’s Halloween, it doesn’t mean that all the rules of respectful social interaction go out the window.
- Ask yourself: Does this a costume belittle the wearer or is it a belittling reference to someone else? Remind people that is not what our what our society is about.
- Don’t be disingenuous about particular things in history.
Do your part to create and sustain a respectful environment wherever you are. Share this message with your friends.
Best wishes for a safe and respectful Halloween.
Community Dialogue: Strategies for Navigating Our Differences
How do we better engage with and respond to conflicting ideas?
Join us for a facilitated community dialogue session and explore strategies to better navigate differences. Open to students, staff and faculty, the dialogue will touch on the right to free speech in the context of our community’s commitment to civility and respect.
Event Details
Title: Community Dialogue: Strategies for Navigating Our Differences
Date and time: Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 | 4:00-6:00pm
Location: UNC 334
This workshop is hosted by the UBC Okanagan Equity & Inclusion Office.
Second Annual Queer Orientation
In order to foster community for LGBTQIA+ students, staff, and faculty, several campus partners have come together to plan the second annual Queer Orientation. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to everyone. If you want to get involved or have any questions please email equity.ubco@ubc.ca
Pride at UBC: Anne Fleming
Anne Fleming is the author of five books, most recently poemw, a book of poems shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes’ Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and The Goat, a novel for children. Her non-fiction has been published in a raft of anthologies, including Queers Were Here, Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, Great Expectations: Twenty-Four True Stories About Childbirth, and You Be Me. She teaches Creative Writing at UBC’s Okanagan Campus.
The first pride celebration I went to was in Toronto in 1986 – and it was very much a march, not a parade. It was celebratory, for sure, but there was a strong sense of transgression, of taking back the streets, of a really delicious openness in public affection, in looking dykey, of being both out and out there. It mattered deeply to me. It felt brave to be there – important and powerful.
Vancouver’s Pride Parade—parade, not march—when I moved here in the early 90s felt weird to me, I think because I just find parades weird — smiling people with Vaselined teeth waving and trying to get people to buy their stuff.
“It felt brave to be there – important and powerful.”
The parties felt weird to me, too, like I was supposed to be having more fun than I was actually having.
But the artfulness, the inventiveness of drag queens, was and remains a joy and a delight. And the various political groups and community groups — the Rainbow Band, Pinoy Pride, gay water polo players, Proud Anglicans, Dykes on Bikes, Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Two Spirit Society, PFLAG, random leather daddies, random semi-naked people — remind me how big our community is and how much variety exists within it, how many lives, how much life. Of course, because the LGBTQ2SIA+ community encompasses so many individuals in so many communities, one size does not fit all. There are problems, divisions, deep disagreement, as there are bound to be.
“One size does not fit all.”
Turns out I like being in the parade far more than watching the parade (which, I confess, I often brought a book to, finding a place on the sidelines to read). The first time I was in it was with Out West Performance Society, a queer theatre company in the 90s. And then, when our kid was a baby in the early 2000s and up until age 5 or 6, we walked with the Queer Families group. The kid loved giving out candy along the parade route. When the daycare asked if there were any holidays our family celebrated that they should know about, we said Pride.
But I realize by writing this piece that I have become complacent about Pride. Is it important? (Honest, unthinking answer: I guess). Do I go? No, not for a while now.
“I need to not be complacent.”
Robin Stevenson recently won an American Library Association’s Stonewall Honor Award for her children’s book, Pride. In the speech she gave for the occasion just a few days ago, she reminded me how important Pride is:
When I launched this book, just over a year ago, I said that I wrote it because I wanted LGBTQ youth to know that they have a history that they can be proud of and a future that looks better all the time. But since then, the political climate has shifted, fueling racism, transphobia and homophobia and bigotry in all of its forms.
So I can no longer say to young queer people with any sense of honesty that the future looks better all the time. What I say instead is that they have a history they can be proud of, and a future that is worth fighting for – and that their generation is picking up that challenge and often leading the way.
Is Pride important to you? Share your thoughts with us by tweeting our multi-campus accounts @EquityUBCV / @EquityUBCV.
Eid Mubarak!
On behalf of the Equity and Inclusion Office, I would like to wish all members of our community a Happy Eid al-Fitr!
Marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is a time for families to come together, strengthen friendships and show compassion towards those in need. Today, Muslims attend special morning prayers, exchange gifts and greetings and celebrate with their first daytime meal in a month.
As members of our community break their fast today, we celebrate this opportunity for time with family and friends.
Sara-Jane Finlay, Ph.D.
Associate Vice President, Equity & Inclusion
University of British Columbi
