Connections of Pamela George and An Internship Experience.

I spent the 2012/2013 school year working at Boyle Street Education Centre (BSEC), a high school for students aged 14-19 which is located in the downtown area. This school supports the educational needs/pursuits of students who have dropped out or have been kicked out of other forms of schooling. About 90-95 % of the students at this school have some aboriginal heritage. The students are able to work on school work through completing modules at their own pace because some students have extreme difficulties being able to attend regularly, or be engaged due to what is going on in their lives.

This school does many great and positive things for its students like helping them stabilize their lives, which includes overcoming addictions and finding housing. BSEC’s mandate describes the students to be living a “high risk” lifestyle. Throughout my placement at BSEC I “forgot” about how problematic that term is because that was how where students live, and their activities are described.   I want to engage with the notion that colonialization contributes to the racialization of space and the “class” of the students impacts their treatment in society. I have witnessed many of the students be pushed to the side when they are requesting help and be spotlighted when a crime or an event is consistent with racial prejudice.  Students who attend BSEC who are white also have difficulty in accessing services or are viewed to be undeserving of help, which gives evidence to Razack’s (2000) argument that class is a determining factor.  These “white” students would be considered to be “not white enough” due to their class or economical constraints. Perhaps one could argue that students at BSEC are denied services due to their personhood also being denied (Razack, 2000).  Razack (2000) argues that Pamela George was viewed as less of a person due to her where she was living, in the inner city and her economical constraints. I would argue that many of the students who attend BSEC are also viewed this way, as evidenced by the students being looked over when they need to access services.  As Lise mentioned in class, Edmonton is a very segregated city regarding areas of the city that are considered “bad” or “dangerous”, downtown is one of these areas and BSEC is located downtown. A second area of the Razack (2000) that I find to be further evidenced by the students at BSEC is where they live. Razack (2000), states that due to colonization many aboriginal people “find themselves living in places like the Stroll” (pg. 95).   From my experience working at the School and getting to know the students, many of them live in the downtown area or in the “north side”, both areas are considered to be the “undesirable” or “sketchy” locations.

Razack (2000) argues that we need to “unmap” (pg. 95) the naturalness of the relationship between bodies and space. We need to interrupt and analyze how the hierarchies are constructed that some people are protected from violence and others are believed (by society) to be living in a space of risk. While I agree with Razack’s arguments, I think these are some huge social structures to bring down. How do you propose we follow through with what Razack proposing?

Works Cited:

Razack, H., (2000). Gendered racial violence and spatialized justice: The murder of Pamela George. Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 15(2), 91-130.