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THIS BOOK social justice issues that will make you think
by Division 8
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Copyright © 2017 The Writers’ Exchange This book was created by Division 8, Ms. Sandhu-Paul’s grade 6/7 class, at Queen Alexandra Elementary in the fall of 2016. The Writers’ Exchange gets inner-city kids excited about reading and writing through mentoring and creative writing projects like this chapbook. All Writers’ Exchange programs are free for the children and families we serve, so we could not exist without the support of amazing donors, including Marily Mearns, the Waterbury Foundation, Social Venture Partners Vancouver, Megan Abbott, Bernard MacLeod, Linda Louis, telus Vancouver Community Board, Leo and Florence Helzel, bps Wealth Management, Nancy and Ted Maitland, Lynn and Gene Gerwing, the rbc Foundation, the City of Vancouver and the Wolrige Foundation. Thank you
881 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. v6a 1r8 vancouverwe.com Please join us in acknowledging that we live, work, learn and play on the traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and TsleilWaututh Coast Salish people. Writers’ Exchange mentors: Alysha, Alyssa, Brook, Erin, Eunice, Jorielle, Parm and Ryan Design and layout: Setareh Ashrafologhalai, setarehashraf.com Production coordination and editing: Melissa Edwards Editorial Support: Erin Creative lead: Haley Wells
supports Writers’ Exchange in-school projects.
Printing for this chapbook was generously supported by Hemlock.
INTRODUCTION These are essays about social justice. Our class used this definition of social justice, which we found on BusinessDictionary.com on the internet: “The fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.”
CONTENTS Poverty, by B.Q. 2
Job Security, by Iah 10
Cultural Diversity,
A Food Security Play,
by Cadence 2
by Isabella 11
Homophobia, by Cassidy 3
Homelessness, by Feruza 13
Education, by Chad 3
Ageism, by Jared 14
Homelessness, by Danny 4
Job Security, by Reina 15
Racism, by Destiny 4
Clean Water, by Priscilla 16
You Write Like a Girl,
Unfairness, by Jaykwon 16
by Ellie 5 Take a Stand Against Homelessness, by Farhin 6
Adequate Housing, by Kadyn 17 Shelter for Homeless People, by Kurtis 17
Cyber Bullying, by Yatalia 7
Sexism, by Sabrina 18
Homelessness, by Rynequa 7
Equality, by Unknown 18
Health Care, by Francis 8
Slavery, by Victor 19
Homelessness, by Hannah 9
Unemployment Comic,
Racism, by Hayden 10
by Tyler 20
POVERTY By B.Q. My topic is poverty. Poverty is an important issue because poverty is a major cause of social tension and threatens to divide our nation— in particular, the issue of income inequality. In African countries, there are extreme cases of poverty. Some kids don’t have access to education, water, food or shelter. What can we do to help poor people in Africa? We can donate to charities, like Me to We, that work to reduce poverty in African countries.
C U LT U R A L D I V E R S I T Y By Cadence The topic I chose is cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is related to social justice because social justice means you don’t have to be a certain someone or colour, you can be different. Because even if you’re different, you get opportunity and a fair share. Plus, being different is a good thing. If you think about it, what kinds of people do you see in movies? You usually only see certain kinds of people. People who make movies, including some producers and other famous people, aren’t really showing cultural diversity. But not all people are racist. Some people can be, and are, nice and different. Just imagine if everyone was the same. The world would be sooo boring. Everyone would have this, and like that, and so on. But anyway, I think social justice is a good thing, and can include everyone, and is something that will give everyone a fair share.
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HOMOPHOBIA By Cassidy For my topic I chose homophobia. Homophobia is a fear or discrimination against homosexuality. Homophobia is a global issue. There are still a lot of countries that have laws against LGBT+ people, and in some of them you would be punished by death. In 2015, the usa legalized gay marriage. In 2005, Canada legalized gay marriage, making it the first country outside of Europe and the fourth country in the world to make it legal. There are still lots of countries that do not accept people from the LGBT+ community. I think we can change this issue by educating people about it and learning about it in schools.
E D U C AT I O N By Chad Education means reading, learning, writing and playing. Not all children can go to school. In some countries, some children can’t have any education at all. Some teenagers who don’t have education do bad things, for example, taking drugs or smoking, and sometimes they become homeless. We can change this problem by donating money to help people around the world get an education. With this money, they can build schools around the community and help children buy things they can use, like pencils, paper, erasers and school books. We should treat everyone the same way every day. Everybody should treat each other nicer, and care more. We shouldn’t say bad things about others and judge other people.
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HOMELESSNESS By Danny People who are homeless deserve a home. It’s an important issue because some homeless people are soldiers who fought in a war and are now suffering more without a home. The issue is that once you are homeless, it’s really hard to get a job due to people judging your appearance, and if you don’t get a job, you won’t get any money, which will result you in having no house or food. I believe this isn’t right. To change homelessness, someone should start more homeless shelters to support homeless people by giving them food, etc. And then they would look better and it would help them get a job.
RACISM By Destiny Social justice means having laws that are proper and equal. My topic is racism. Racism is when some people are treated differently from others. Racism is an important issue because everyone should be treated the same. Donald Trump is racist to all the people in the world, like Mexicans and Muslim people, and that is why he is building a wall. Here are some things you can do to help stop racism: 1. Teach people to not be racist. 2. Make an anti-racist school. Like, for example, one where kids can read books and watch videos and learn to not be racist to other people and all that stuff. 3. Support people like social justice child activist Laura Hannant.
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YOU WRITE LIKE A GIRL By Ellie My topic is sexism. Sexism is where somebody is treated differently or unfairly because of their gender. Sexism is an important issue because everyone should be treated equally. There are a lot of sexist sayings that can be heard in everyday life. Some common sexist sayings are: 1. “You can’t hit a girl.” This can be a good thing but also a bad thing. Pro: It discourages abuse and fights that are directed at women. Cons: Girls can be abusive, too, and can beat up men, but a man will feel afraid to tell anybody because he will be told to “man up” or will be teased for being weak, so then he will be stuck in an abusive relationship. 2. “Like a girl.” This is a very common phrase. It’s used when, say, a boy says, “Ha ha, you kick like a girl!” or “You talk like a girl.” This is very sexist and sad to see because there should be nothing wrong with being a girl or a boy. 3. “You do ______ well for a girl.” This one is similar to “like a girl.” An example is saying, “Wow, you’re smart for a girl,” when women can do almost anything just as well as boys. 4. “Boys love video games.” Not all boys love video games. Also, the saying “girls can’t play video games” is similar because everyone has their own preferences about video games. In conclusion, sexism is everywhere, it’s just worse in some places. We are lucky we live in Vancouver because we are quite educated about social justice and how to treat everybody fairly. Some people aren’t so lucky because not everyone is as educated on these problems, so the problems are more common.
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TA K E A S TA N D A G A I N S T H O M E L E S S N E S S By Farhin My topic is homelessness. I chose this topic because I think it is really important. Homelessness is a social justice problem and one of the biggest. Homelessness is where people have no money and they can’t afford food or water or a home. Many people around the world, including children, are homeless. Children from the ages of 12 to 21 are already doing drugs. My idea of how people become homeless is that they drop out of school. I would say that this is a global issue. People all around the world are suffering to get food and water. In Africa, for example, some kids have to walk over two kilometres to get water for their own parents. And sometimes the water is not even that clean. In my opinion, homelessness is one of the more important problems. It’s global. We can help, but it would still keep going. There’s not a big solution. But we still need to help however we can. Between a quarter and two-thirds of homeless people have mental health problems. That can affect how they look, and some take drugs and smoke every single day. More than half of the people on earth are suffering to get food and water for their health. We can raise money for countries that have a lot of homelessness so that people there can be healthier and can get more food and water. By grouping up we can help more people and stay stronger. Homelessness is unfair because instead of giving food or water, some people just laugh and make fun of homeless people. The homeless have feelings, too. It makes them feel insecure. The law isn’t helping that much. It is involved in the issue as well. Society is not giving enough food and not accepting people for jobs. They don’t give them chances. Homelessness is a global issue and it’s happening all over the world. Even in the richest countries, people are suffering.
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I learned a lot about homelessness and thinking about these things makes me wonder how different my life is compared to the homeless. In the future, and maybe even now, I will help in any way I can. We have to take a stand for others and help everybody however we can, and we need to be fair to each other.
C Y B E R B U L LY I N G By Yatalia Cyber bullying is a huge problem. Every day people get criticized for being who they are, simply because they’re different. Getting bullied through a screen hurts just as much as getting bullied face to face. We can help people who are struggling to learn to ignore the behaviour and to stand up to the bully. We can help by telling them they aren’t what the bully says they are, they are their own person and they should choose who and what they are. That’s nobody else’s choice, it’s theirs. I believe that everyone is special in their own way, and that they are amazing, and shouldn’t be told otherwise.
HOMELESSNESS By Rynequa My topic is homelessness. Homeless people have no warm place to sleep. And people who aren’t homeless sleep in nice warm beds. Once, my mom tried to give this homeless man in Gastown spaghetti and he didn’t want it. I think he just wanted money for drugs! But maybe he just didn’t like spaghetti. I wouldn’t pass on spaghetti even though I don’t like spaghetti. Maybe some homeless people are on drugs because they are stressed.
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H E A LT H C A R E By Francis My topic is health care. There are people in other countries who can’t afford health care. In the usa they spend lots of money on health care. They might be forced to get their family members to work to earn money to pay for it, or who knows? Health care is really important to us. It keeps us safe from viruses and other deadly stuff. We are lucky to live in a country where health care is free. You need a prescription to get medicine and drugs. So you need to talk to your doctor about it, get the prescription and go to the nearest pharmacy, then wait for 15 minutes or more to get your medicine. It’s a long process, and it could prevent people who have to work from getting their medicine, because people who really need money can’t get their prescription in time and instead they have to go to work. So health care is important. Because it keeps everyone safe!
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HOMELESSNESS By Hannah People around the world are homeless. They don’t have a job, food or even basic needs! Homelessness relates to social justice because homeless people get treated differently and get yelled at on the streets. Teens and adults go homeless in Canada every year. Many homeless youth in Canada are lgbt+. A lot of homeless people have mental health issues. When homeless people get yelled at or ignored, I think it makes them feel worthless and less confident. When they get offered money, their spirits rise. I think they think about how they got homeless and what they should have done instead. Something we can do to help is to donate food and clothing. Try helping them with their situation. You don’t know what they went through. Instead of yelling or giving them a weird look, try to respect them. Try a kind word or a smile. When you see a homeless person on the streets, try to help them with housing so they have somewhere to live. Helping them with job security could help them a lot. Homeless people have a hard time finding a job because of how they look. When homeless people don’t get accepted in a job because of how they look, they may feel like there is no hope. You never know how homeless people feel. Have you ever thought about it? Here are some examples: When they get yelled at they feel worthless. Some people don’t want to be around them, so they feel insecure. Thinking about all this makes you realize what good you could do for homeless people. Try doing at least one thing that is written about here and see what difference you can make.
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RACISM By Hayden Racism is a problem and a social justice issue. When people are racist, they get mad at other people who are not the same race as them. That’s bad because everyone needs to be nice to each other and to not be racist. What can I do as a kid to make this problem better? I can play with kids who are from different races and not choose my friends just because they are the same race as me. I have seven good friends. Three of them are the same race as me, four are not. We play soccer together. Sometimes we play basketball. We play PS4 games together when we’re at home. We’re all different races but we all have fun together.
JOB SECURITY By Iah My topic is job security. Job security can relate to social justice because people can be judged on their race, gender, religion, disability, etc., and being judged on any of the above is technically a social justice issue. Job security is important because without a job you won’t be able to progress in life—for example, buying food, clothes, personal needs, medication, etc. We can change this problem by training people. The government can also give individuals the opportunity for jobs, and that’s where job fairs come in. Job fairs give individuals the opportunity to specifically choose a job for themselves.
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A F O O D S E C U R I T Y P L AY By Isabella
IN THE LUNCHROOM nellie: I don’t like this cafeteria food. I want to throw it away. lucy: I wish my mom would pack me a lunch. ruby: Really, who eats ham with Brussels sprouts? samantha: Let’s throw this out. narrator: The girls throw out their lunch and head to class.
IN CLASS ruby: Hey, teacher! teacher: Hello Ruby, Nellie, Lucy and Samantha. Class, take your seats! Today we will be learning about food security and world hunger. samantha: What is food security? teacher: That’s why I brought in two people to speak about it. Class, welcome Ian and Cadence. (Ian and Cadence walk in) lucy: They are children! (The class shifts uneasily) ian: Hello. My name is Ian, and this is my sister, Cadence. cadence: Hello. ian: My sister and I suffer from hunger. Some nights, we go to bed without eating. We wake up in the morning without breakfast. It’s a miracle if we can live one more school day. cadence: This year something called food security started, and that means we can now have food for breakfast and food for dinner. ian: But that doesn’t mean hunger is at its end. There are over seven billion people in the whole world, and food security only feeds North America. We hope they can feed the whole world.
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teacher: That is the reason for your assignment. You will get in groups of four, and come up with a way to raise awareness for hunger outside of North America. You will raise money for food security, and all money will go to food security. Try to raise over $50. The group with the most money wins! (The bell rings) samantha (taking her bag): Wow! This will be a hard assignment. lucy: We should meet at my house. See you at 4 p.m.! nellie, samantha and ruby: Ok.
IN LUCY’S BEDROOM AT HER HOUSE samantha (sitting on a chair): We could put up a stand and beg for money. lucy: Really?! ruby: We could do door-to-door selling, like the Girl Scouts! nellie: But I don’t want to do all that walking! ruby: I got it! I got it! nellie: What’s your plan? ruby: We can do a bake sale! All the money we raise goes to food security! lucy: Where would we sell? samantha: We could sell at Goodway Park! Everyone goes to that park! nellie: Let’s get baking!
IN THE KITCHEN ruby: Those cupcakes smell good, Nellie! nellie: Thanks! How’s the icing going? ruby: Good! Nice job, everyone! lucy: Now we can sell brownies, banana bread and cupcakes!
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TWO WEEKS LATER, AT SCHOOL teacher: Good job to Nellie, Samantha, Lucy and Ruby! You guys raised an outstanding $10,250. You guys get the prize! class: What is it? teacher: You four get to go to Norway! With your parents! (Class gasps) (Lucy and Nellie faint. Samantha tries to wake them up) ruby: omg! Wow! nellie (waking up): Let’s go! Norway, here we come!
HOMELESSNESS By Feruza My topic is homelessness. I’m interested in this issue because I want to have more facts and learn ways that we can help homelessness to end. Homelessness is an important issue because there are people on the streets who don’t have food and shelter, and it’s not fair for these people to have less. Lots of people worldwide are homeless and many of them die due to cold, rainy or snowy weather. People can become homeless from family problems and rough childhoods, and from drugs, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and a lack of affordable housing. Some solutions include providing welfare, clothes, food and shelter. The way we can help is by donating money and donating food to homeless shelters. The federal government announced that they would make more homeless shelters, so that’s another solution for the homeless people out there.
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AGEISM By Jared My social justice topic is ageism. Ageism is when young people and old people are not treated equally. Young people can work in a place, and old people cannot work there and they have to go into a retirement home. And young people are treated better. Ageism is a global issue because we have young and old people in our country and in Asia. A specific example of a way to help is that older people could be allowed to get new credit cards, travel insurance, benefits and protection from losing their jobs. I think that’s fair to older people. We could help young people at work help older people to do their work and to treat old people with patience because they’re getting old.
This is my comic about ageism. The old man is working at his job and then his boss walks up to him and says, “Sorry I have to say it, but . . . you’re fired.” old man: What? boss: Because you’re getting too old and you’re getting slower. old man: But I’m an old man and need money for food. boss: We will put you in a retirement home.
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JOB SECURITY By Reina We all know we need a job for living, but sometimes it is hard to find a job because of your appearance or a lack of education. Sometimes you get frustrated and you really need some money to buy things like food. We need money to buy water, food and shelter, and those are the three things that you need in life. But you can’t have those if you don’t have a job.
WRITING A RESUME Searching for a job is not easy, like writing an essay. And you need to have good resume, but if you have a bad appearance then you have higher chances of being unemployed. You want to look good so you can get the job. They ask to meet you, and you go there to talk to the boss. They say mean words and you get kicked out. So you want to fix yourself up. They won’t accept you, then you try again and they give you a second chance.
STARTING THE JOB You start the job, and you’re pretty good. You want to be promoted to a higher level and higher money payment. Then you try to ask the boss, but you come to work late and you get fired. Being on time and having a good appearance are some of the things you need to do when you go to work because you have to be presentable. Like when you go to school.
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C L E A N WAT E R By Priscilla My topic is clean water. This relates to social justice because not everybody has clean water. This is important because everybody needs water to survive and everybody should have clean water. For example, in Afghanistan, many people don’t have clean water because of the war. The places where they clean the water were destroyed. Also, in Cape Breton, some First Nations communities don’t have clean water because old pipes make the water dirty. When you don’t have clean water and you drink dirty water, you can get really sick and you could die. To help, we can donate money to give away more water out in the world. The government could also give money to workers and the workers could build new water pipes.
UNFAIRNESS By Jaykwon My topic is unfairness. There are many different kinds, like homelessness and not being able to bring soda to school. If you bring soda to school the teacher will take it away. When you are homeless you are poor and can’t have soda. Both are unfair, but being homeless is worse. People have different types of unfairness in their lives. An example is not being able to go off school grounds. Some people think you should be able to leave school grounds. I don’t. You could go somewhere bad. You could get lost, robbed or kidnapped. Or you could get hit by a car. If some people can leave school grounds and some can’t, that is unfair. Homeless people should have a place to live, and that is also unfair.
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A D E Q U AT E H O U S I N G By Kadyn My topic is adequate housing. Prices in Vancouver are unfair and not enough people have access to adequate housing. Adequate housing is related to social justice because social justice is about treating people equally and inadequate housing is unfair and does not treat people equally. Some issues related to adequate housing are homelessness, stimulating the economy, government assistance, more jobs, access to education, food security and health care. These issues are related to adequate housing because they all concern possible solutions to inadequate housing. One way we can change inadequate housing is to stop building big, expensive houses and build affordable housing or co-ops instead. Also, I think that providing more jobs, food security, health care and access to education will help stimulate the economy. Additionally, government assistance could provide welfare funding to help provide adequate housing.
S H E LT E R F O R H O M E L E S S P E O P L E By Kurtis My topic is shelter for homeless people. Shelter for homeless people relates to social justice because it is unfair that some people have shelter and some people do not. This is important because there are homeless people living on the streets of Vancouver. We can change this issue by having the government buy shelter. Individuals could also build little treehouses for homeless people. Groups could donate to shelters.
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SEXISM By Sabrina My topic is sexism. It relates to social justice because it is unfair that people are treated differently just because they are different genders. Sexism is a very important issue because people think that girls are smarter than boys, but that is not true at all. People can stereotype other people without even knowing that they do. Sexism is affecting girls differently than it is affecting boys in school because the expectations on them are different. Girls are expected to be smarter, quiet and good/nice. Boys, on the other hand, are expected to be loud, impatient, athletic and stronger. In conclusion, I think that if you hear something sexist you should stand up to it by telling the person to stop, and/or telling an adult around you that you know.
EQUALITY By Unknown Equality and respect are things many cultures agree on. We agree that there are many problems at the moment, like inequality because of culture, skin colour, gender and many more things. This is a problem we need to change, so we can help make people who face inequality feel safe. Gender—what’s wrong with that? Well, there are people who are born and feel they aren’t the right gender. And when people change their own gender, other people can be against it. Also, there are people who want to love people of the same gender, but other people would say, “Gross! Eww! You can’t do that!” But people are allowed to choose who they want to love and what gender they want to be. This doesn’t just happen in real life, it can happen online, on social media, etc.
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Some people might always feel ashamed of themselves, un-unique or different. But I say, “It’s good being different, you get a chance to be you,” and people with other skin colours shouldn’t feel shamed. Don’t be insecure, be proud of who you are today. Every day we can help children achieve the goal of being who or what they want to be, and to have what job they want. Some people think a nurse’s job is meant for girls, and same with a janitor or maid, etc. We need to help kids and support them to be who they want to be and help them achieve it. Make gender equality training be a part of helping them to achieve it for sure.
S L AV E R Y By Victor My topic is slavery. I’m interested in this topic because slavery is unfair and affects a lot of people, causing them to fear others. People shouldn’t be able to buy other people. They should be treated equally. Slavery is the state of being owned by someone more powerful and wealthier than other people. An example is someone who has money and power in the government who owns other people. We think that it’s in the past now, but slavery is still happening in some countries today. Here are some ways to stop slavery: 1. Help the affected people migrate to Canada. 2. Find places with slavery and try to stop it. 3. Raise awareness.
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UNEMPLOYMENT COMIC By Tyler rotate to see!
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YOU T HINK
THE WORLD
IS UNFAIR?
THEN READ THIS BOOK