I'm sorry I missed class, here's a cyclical flow chart.

Sorry I wasn't in class today, my cat had to wake me up at noon because my phone's alarm didn't go off. I was looking forward to class too, so I guess I'll start this week's blog posts instead.

This week's readings really mesh with my CSL work, I'm helping to edit the SAC manual and my section specifically is the Diversity section, which means I'm dealing with sexual assault in LGBTQ*, Disabled and Racial/Ethnic minorities.

The biggest section of these is the section on Aboriginal communities, so this week’s film and readings were right in that same area. So I'm going to talk about the intersection between the article about Pamela George's murder and the SAC manual.

As we all know, context is important so the first thing the SAC manual does is place sexual assault against Aboriginal people in a historical context. Before the arrival of white settlers there was little to no sexual assault*. But when the settlers arrived and primarily with the introduction of residential schools rape became a much bigger problem for the Aboriginal community.

This actually fits well with what Razack was saying about racialized and Othered spaces. These reserves and residential schools created by the government (for the benefit of the settlers) are unquestionably racial spaces. And like The Stroll they are hives of abuse and violence.

This got me thinking about how this is a cyclical pattern, and how that pattern repeats and reinforces itself. So I made this chart, which I will explain.

Here’s what each number means.

1.      Settlers and the Government create reserves and residential schools.

2.      These spaces are racialized and Othered.

3.      To show their power and further create the Other, violence is enacted on the people in these spaces.

4.      This violence inflicts trauma, fear and instills a desire to escape the violence.

5.      This trauma harms the community overall and the people try to separate themselves and distance themselves from the traumatic place and the enactors of this violence (can be to reserves, the city, new cities etc).

6.      The spaces these people create are still full of problems, the trauma repeats itself and the move often leaves people impoverished and desperate.

7.      In order to prove themselves and assert their power, powerful people (White men) enter these spaces.

8.      Ineffective government policies exacerbate already poor conditions (anti-prostitution laws, removing children from reserves, reserves being poorly treated).

I think the last two are very important, since they are crucial to keeping the cycle going and worsening. There is a distinct outside force that makes these cycles continue and get progressively worse.

This also has something to say about the idea of “high risk lifestyles” and how the people who live them get treated. The judge telling the court that Pamela George was a prostitute was relevant (but the men using racial slurs wasn’t) speaks to the idea that this is a choice the person makes and that it speaks to their deservingness of protection. But the cycle is actually fueled by outside sources. Yes, Pamela George made a choice to become an occasional prostitute, but her choices were made in the context of a cycle fueled by men like her murderers.

*The manual says none and there are multiple sources that back this up.