19 minute read
Wonder Womyn
By Trevana Spilchen, CASJ LGBTQ2S+ Action Group and Delta teacher
I am wonder womyn, by which I mean people look at me & wonder... Woman? or man? Most accurately I’m trans, the in-between stuff the oh so queer stuff
And while I do not have a magic lasso that makes people tell the truth I do have the magical ability To make people stare at me awkwardly which in turn reveals the truth of their feelings about me Because 1 of 2 things inevitably happens when I stare back at them They either give me that Oh shit I was staring at you & now I feel like a douche bag kinda smile and I am relieved & know they are basically ok Or they give me that You are a disgusting human that shouldn’t even exist in this world kinda scowl and I tense up ready for an argument or maybe even something worse. As superpowers go, making people stare at me awkwardly would not be my first choice It does keep me safe sometimes & gives me hilarious stories to tell my friends but it also amplifies people’s transphobic hatred which often makes me feel like a disgusting human being that shouldn’t even exist in this world
Maybe if William Marston had created me I’d have the same bullet-proof bracelets he gave Wonder Woman & I could simply raise them up bouncing the searing sneers back at the perpetrators
Maybe if I had superhuman strength of character I could just carry the weight of their hatred without noticing But what people think weighs on me, And so some days I can’t bear to twirl into the superhero suit I wish I was just a woman without the wonder without the fear without the questions I don’t have the strength to answer today I hate myself for hiding & often feel I haven’t earned the term woman That I’ve fallen short of being she fallen short of being me
The other day I threw on a hoodie, shorts & flip flops with no bra to go to the grocery store hoping to hide within the binary only to remember that my legs were still silky smooth shaven & my toes still wore the pretty purple shine from my first ever pedicure a birthday present from my daughters No trouble to tell I was lying to the world & to myself No need to even use that lie detector test you also created William Marston You know I’m guilty You & I both know no matter what I put on there is a wonder woman underneath Just like Diana Prince, And I wonder… Does she hate herself for hiding? Are there days when she wishes she was just a woman? without the wonder just one of the girls in this patriarchal world simply trying to be normal whatever that means Me, I’m just waiting for the day when I can say I am wonder woman and actually believe it’s true.
iStock
To see Trevana perform “Wonder Womyn,” visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1HI_YGxr8.
Walking through a World Full of Microaggressions
By Trevana Spilchen and Kamaryn Willbond, CASJ LGBTQ2S+ Action Group members and Delta and Dease Lake teachers
Have you ever seen someone ask to touch a Black person’s hair? Have you ever heard a queer woman being told she just hasn’t found the right man yet? Or, if you are a mother, have you ever been asked if your husband is babysitting the kids?
Linda: I also think that when people stare at me, what they see when they’re looking at me is that I’m a Chinese woman. But there are all sorts of assumptions and stereotyping going on.
Ryan: One of the key points of microaggressions is that they’re constant.
These are microaggressions, which are defined as indirect, subtle, or unintentional verbal or nonverbal discriminatory acts against members of marginalized groups.
CASJ’s LGBTQ2S+ Action Group invited members of the Antiracism Action Group to participate in a discussion on microaggressions. We began by watching a video of Trevana Spilchen (also known as Spillious), a trans-feminine spokenword artist, performing their poem, “Wonder Womyn.”
Kammy: You are in this constant state of hyper-awareness, and you’re looking to see what risks are coming at you this moment and every moment of your life.
Sean: How safe are you? How safe am I here? Do I get to relax?
Kammy: What can I say? What can’t I say?
Sean: What do I have to hear?
Nimfa: You are always in that reactive mode, thinking, “I wonder if they really meant it that way or there is a subtle dig somewhere?” You are constantly analysing.
Ryan: I saw this quote once that said, “It is sometimes difficult to know the difference between your intuition guiding you and your traumas misleading you.”
We used this poem as a catalyst for our conversation about microaggressions. The following quotes were pulled from the transcript of our recorded conversation in order to shed light on the way marginalized people experience microaggressions.
Andre: You said in your poem that people give you two options, either “Oh, yeah! I shouldn’t be looking at this person,” or “You’re such a bad person and you shouldn’t be here.” Me, being a Black teacher, a lot of the environments that I‘m in…I’m usually the only person who is Black. And people think that I don’t realize they’re looking at me because I have dreads and I’m Black. But I totally do see it, and I totally do realize what people are doing.
Sean: People think that I don’t notice that they’re staring at me. Of course, I notice. I just don’t want to deal with noticing. Linda: Sometimes it brings down your self-esteem, and you’re constantly feeling that you are being discounted. I’m really tired of it. You almost have to prove to others who you are.
Andre: For me, it’s kind of like, when that happens, it’s either I am quiet and their behaviours keep going on, or if I say something, it’s kinda like, “Oh well, he’s just being the angry Black guy who’s going to find everything he can to play the race card.”
Sean: A lot of the microaggressions that happen to me happen because people are flattening my identity. And then for people with intersectional identities, 1 the idea of having a flattened identity often makes them feel like they can pick only one or the other.
1 Intersectionality is a term coined by Black civil rights activist and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. It describes unique forms of oppression based on overlapping aspects of one’s identity, such as gender identity, race, class, indigeneity, and sexual orientation. BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2020 Nimfa: It takes me back to an experience I had. We had this gathering, and somebody said, “Where are you coming from with that kind of idea? Are you speaking like you are a Canadian now, or are you still speaking like you are Filipino?” Do I have to now preface everything I say by saying, “I’m coming from this angle. I am a Canadian speaking right now and not an Asian”?
Andre: My brother, he’s half Chinese. He looks like he could be Chinese, but he doesn’t feel like he is accepted when Chinese people see how he acts or how he talks. Then, when he’s with his Black friends, they’re like, “You’re not Black enough because you don’t do this, or you don’t do that.” You have to be one or the other. You can’t be both.
Trevana: What you said about not being Black enough really reminds me about the same gatekeeping that I’ve experienced. I’m not trans enough. And it’s really interesting that this happens with racial issues as well as with queer issues.
The following CASJ members participated in the discussion of microaggressions with authors of this article:
Antiracism Action Group: Ryan Cho, Nimfa Casson, Linda Frank, Andre McDowell LGBTQ2S+ Action Group: Sean Moores
As you can see from the stories told here, it is exhausting to walk through the world constantly bombarded with subtle jabs based on misconceptions and stereotypes. Further, it is incredibly overwhelming to have to respond to all these situations day after day. This is where you can help. Hopefully some of these lived experiences resonated with you and encourage you to speak up when you see others experiencing microaggressions. 23
Exploring the Green New Deal: Lessons learned from COVID-19
By Sarah Newton, CASJ Environmental Justice Action Group and Revelstoke teacher
As home learning teachers—as School District 19 calls us—we developed a window into the lives of our students. Videoconferencing lets us see who lives in a household with distractions, which children have bedrooms without pillowcases or sheets, which students join our class meetings chronically late or not at all, who doesn’t have technology, which families are forced to use their neighbour’s internet service, and which students appear to be less cared for over time.
The even playing field that we all aspire to create in our classrooms became a distant memory in the world of COVID-19. Many of our at-risk families now have the added burden of the pandemic. Added to what? To the landlord demanding rent that they can’t pay, or the parent’s two part-time jobs suddenly having winked out of existence, or the abusive partner who is now permanently in a foul mood, or the lingering illness that never really heals. These are just some of the challenges that our at-risk families were dealing with on a good day before COVID-19. I am sure you have seen evidence of these experiences and worse during some heartwrenching Zoom or Teams meetings.
It is imperative that as educators and members of a powerful bargaining organization, we take advantage of our budding awareness of the need to find better ways to exist as a society. As people with privilege, we need to stand up for our students to address the poverty trap that is their daily life. The Green New Deal offers a paradigm shift that isn’t risky, isn’t cutting edge, and isn’t even untested. The principles of the Green New Deal have been de rigueur in Scandinavia for many years. Do you recall how cranky we get when people tell us to aspire to Scandinavian educational standards? Well, it is thanks to government policies resembling the Green New Deal that these countries have achieved such inspiring results! They have created a society for the people, by the people.
Since March break, our students have been through a great deal, some far more than others. Our most vulnerable students need us to take advantage of this disruption in “business as usual” by jumping at the opportunity to assess the source of the growing chasm between the haves and the have nots. We are capable of working together to address our shared problem of wealth inequity. The answers are out there. The Green New Deal is old news in many countries around the world. As Canadians, we need to be focused in our desire to effect positive change for our students. We can do this by demanding that, as we reopen the economy, we don’t rush back to the old normal, but move forward to rebuild with a greener, more equitable, and stronger Canada.
Our problems, including COVID-19, stem from a way of doing business that exploits resources and people with little regard for the future. We use up and mess up the Earth’s gifts without giving a thought to the fact that there isn’t enough to go around now, let alone last into the future. If governments are going to spend billions of dollars on the recovery from the pandemic, why not do it right? This is an opportunity that simply cannot be wasted. We have a moral and ethical obligation. It is our job as teachers to help our students.
The “old normal” is not the way to go. It is reckless and criminal to even consider going back to what was normal. The Green New Deal is the stepping stone to a new Canada where people feel valued, the environment is respected, and the notion of growth has less to do with capitalism and more to do with preserving nature and our very souls. We owe it to our students and to all creatures on this planet to find a new way forward.
At their June 2019 meeting, the BCTF Executive Committee carried the following motion:
That the BCTF encourage members to participate in meetings and information sessions regarding the Green New Deal.
The Pact for a Green New Deal is an expanding movement of Canadians calling for government response to global warming and societal inequities through investments in green energy sources, free public transit, affordable housing, a just transition for workers, and an end to fossil fuel expansion and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
To learn more about the Green New Deal, visit the following websites:
Pact for a Green New Deal: www.greennewdealcanada.ca LEAP Green New Deal web page: https://theleap. org/portfolio-items/green-new-deal.
By Myles Hulme, North Vancouver teacher
At the 2020 Cross Border Social Justice Conference— a regional social justice conference hosted by the Surrey Teachers’ Association in partnership with several locals—a group of six students took to the stage and shared their thoughts and actions on climate change. Supported by Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg, a professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, these teen climate activists expressed their wealth of knowledge and experience around growing up active and aware amid a climate crisis. As a spectator in the audience feeling the wiry grey hairs now filling the base of my beard, I was filled with the concern they felt. I also felt admiration for the extraordinary journey they had taken on, a journey that only the wisdom of youth can properly undertake. This is the wisdom of a new generation of students who want to be informed, who want to act, who want to forge a better future, but who are coming of age in a climate crisis.
As a teacher, it is always helpful to hear or to call upon the wisdom of youth. I have a responsibility to frequently drop the lecture tone, listen to children and teenagers, and figure out how to best help students in my classroom and beyond navigate a complex world. I need to know what these powerful minds are thinking before I can make connections between them and the curriculum and then do my utmost to move everyone forward together. This is what the profession of an educator calls for. This is what I signed up for.
It was therefore both relevant and opportune that Dr. Ruitenberg opened the teen climate activists’ plenary session with a series of questions the students could wrestle with to elucidate what youth have on their minds when it comes to climate change. These questions included, “How can teachers meet their responsibility of helping to preserve and restore a world that they are helping to unlock for youth?” and “How can teachers act in solidarity with teen climate activists?”
The teen climate activists Before launching into the responses provided to these questions, it is worthwhile to draw a portrait of just who these teen climate activists are. It is a lesson in itself for teachers to learn that there are students in our classes with incredibly impressive resumes. At the time this article was written, these activists had not yet graduated and two of them would still be in elementary school in most school districts. Yet their vigour and thoughtfulness could fill a page, and it certainly filled a rather large auditorium.
It is also worthwhile to note that those tired eyes we sometimes see on Monday mornings in our classrooms look that way for very good reasons. We should feel encouraged when we figure this out. We should feel excited to find out what these kids are up to on the weekend because it will enrich our connections and our classrooms.
Alongside Dr. Ruitenberg, we heard the voices and arguments of Arshia Uppal, Julia Zirnhelt, Ella Kruus, Rebecca Hamilton, Emma-Jane Burian, and Zoe Schurman. Arshia is a Grade 12 student from Surrey. In the background, as she introduced herself, was the projection of an online climate clock ticking down to the point where the world will have warmed up by 1.5 degrees Celsius and hit a point of no return. According to the climate clock, approximately 12 years from now the warming climate will have tipped the Earth’s ocean and land ecosystems over a point of no return. This will engage a process of change that will throw established equilibria out of balance and wreak havoc on animal and plant life and the connections between them. Drawing on her experience growing up in a climate crisis, Arshia codeveloped this climate clock. She is also busy organizing Surrey’s youth in climate action and is active in a youth climate justice organization called Sustainabiliteens.
Julia and Ella are Grade 7 students from Williams Lake. In a part of British Columbia where climate activists are confronted with more than the usual dose of climate-change denial, they helped organize the first ever climate strike. They are also members of the Greenologist Club in their school. One of their teachers facilitated their attendance at the Cross Border Social Justice Conference, which was held in the Lower Mainland, far from Williams Lake.
Rebecca is a Grade 12 student from Vancouver. Over the course of several weekends away from school, she helped organize the Global Climate Strike in Vancouver, which was held on September 27, 2019. In one of her first comments during the teen climate activists’ plenary session, she stated that the panelists “want to leave the climate clock up because we want our teachers to see what we’re thinking when we’re in the classroom.”
Emma-Jane is a Grade 12 student in Victoria. She has also devoted herself to organizing climate strikes. With Our Earth, Our Future, she has contributed to bringing together youth for several of these events on Vancouver Island. Attending an alternative school where interactions between students are prioritized, she feels that she has been given a leg up in understanding how collective action works.
Last but not least, Zoe, a Grade 8 student from Seattle, brought the “cross border” to the Cross Border Social Justice Conference. On the other side of the 49th parallel, she is involved with Climate Action Families and Fridays for Future. She is also a weekly climate striker. These were the teen climate activists. Are they average students? Let’s just say they are active students. They have much to teach us, but as teachers and educators, we can still help them.
What the teen climate activists would like teachers to know and do How can teachers act in solidarity with teen climate activists? Conscious or not, there was incredible unanimity in their response to this question. It can be broken down into four core lessons provided by students for teachers.
First, they want us to feel what they feel. This will require conversations between teachers and students and the building of intergenerational solidarity. Many of our youth are suffering from eco-anxiety. They are growing up in a climate crisis. They want us to know that as they sit in class, the climate clock is ticking, and they can hear it.
Second, they want us to teach climate science. Climate science is a real issue, not an opinion. There was a sense that if scientific facts are not being taught in our schools, then the entire infrastructure of truth—whether it be in math, natural science, or social science—is being ignored and downgraded. Why should students focus on anything if one of the most important scientific facts of our time is being left on the sidelines?
Thirdly, they want us to teach them how to organize. Personally, I think that they may be a few steps ahead of us in this regard. However, we can help by encouraging more connections within the classroom, between classrooms,
between schools, and beyond. Schools are in fact the optimal places to build connections, learn how they work, and learn how to extend them.
Finally, they want us to teach them how to be heard. Rather than simply talking about government structures, it is time to discuss how to make contact, apply pressure, and make peaceful change happen at a time when change is absolutely necessary. It is time to discuss how to lobby.
The climate clock is ticking. Let’s not wait any longer to bring these six brilliant students’ lessons into our classrooms.
Resources • Climate Clock: https://climateclock.net • Sustainabiliteens: To be placed on the Youth Action Updates list serve, contact Emma at sustainabiliteensunions@gmail.com • Our Earth, Our Future: www.ourearthourfuturevictoria.com • Climate Action Resources document: BCTF Environmental Justice
Resources web page • Teaching Green: Taking action on Climate Justice workshop module:
BCTF Social Justice Workshops listing web page • Videos of the Cross Border Social Justice Conference: BCTF Social
Justice Conference web page.
At the 2020 Winter Representative Assembly, BCTF Local Representatives passed the following motion:
That the BCTF develop a campaign to encourage all teachers to incorporate climate change action into their teaching.
As the world’s leaders focus their efforts on surviving the pandemic, those engaged in the struggle for climate justice are concerned that the urgent need to address global warming may be forgotten. The construction of megaprojects connected with fossil fuel extraction continues, yet physical distancing measures make it impossible to continue participating in protests and student strikes.
But just as teachers are finding new ways to support their students’ learning, we are developing new strategies to engage in climate action. People have pulled together and made sacrifices to protect themselves, loved ones, and community members from COVID-19. We can all be inspired to take similar collective action on climate change.
The BCTF Climate Action Resource document provides contact information for local, national, and international climate action groups that are taking action virtually. The resource also provides links to information on global warming and climate justice teaching resources.
