{"id":10187,"date":"2015-02-04T06:52:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T14:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=10187"},"modified":"2015-02-02T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T19:55:05","slug":"new-camosun-social-justice-club-sheds-light-on-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2015\/02\/04\/new-camosun-social-justice-club-sheds-light-on-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"New Camosun Social Justice Club sheds light on discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discrimination against minorities in Canada is something that is echoed on the country\u2019s postsecondary campuses. Luckily, the Camosun Social Justice Club has emerged to combat these issues, and in doing so has created a space where students can safely tell their stories on campus.<\/p>\n

The Social Justice Club holds a community roundtable meeting every other Tuesday in room 132 of the Alan Batey Library and Learning Commons at the Lansdowne campus. There, a group of students meet, share their experiences, and discuss problems happening on campus.<\/p>\n

Camosun student and staffperson Andy Chen is at the forefront of this new club. For Chen, social justice encompasses issues of inequality, and with this new club he hopes to bring these issues to light.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a>
Andy Chen of the Camosun Social Justice Club (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe definition seems to change all the time,\u201d says Chen. \u201cFor me, social justice is raising awareness about issues that disproportionately affect members of society, and it\u2019s pretty broad. It includes, but is not limited to, racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen has heard firsthand the struggles of students on campus. Working in the English Language Development department, he has listened to countless stories of struggles that new immigrants and citizens have gone through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started hearing more stories of adversity, and it actually started to mean something,\u201d says Chen. \u201cWe have students there who\u2019ve experienced torture and imprisonment. They were fleeing their country and coming to Canada because it\u2019s a safe haven.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even Canada still lacks the equality it desperately needs. In October, government cuts to funding on postsecondary ESL programs ignited a desire for justice in Chen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re experiencing a different kind of oppression,\u201d says Chen about ESL students. \u201cWhere they\u2019re being taught about equality, and human rights, at the same time our systems are denying them access to services we take for granted, like English language training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen says we need to hear these stories. According to him, Western media doesn\u2019t adequately represent these visible minorities in society. His hope is that the Social Justice Club can help others shed light on these issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never seem to get a full picture,\u201d says Chen. \u201cPersonal stories broaden that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

But finding people who wish to speak up about discrimination can be hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people just don\u2019t want to talk about it,\u201d explains Chen, \u201cor feel they don\u2019t know enough to engage someone in that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some students are speaking up. One student says her experiences in the club have been positive so far and that she appreciates the space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a safe place,\u201d says Sula Brown, \u201cto edify our minds with the freedom to release the greater voice within.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discrimination against minorities in Canada is something that is echoed on the country\u2019s postsecondary campuses. Luckily, the Camosun Social Justice Club has emerged to combat these issues, and in doing so has created a space where students can safely tell their stories on campus. The Social Justice Club holds a community roundtable meeting every other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-february-4-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10189,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions\/10189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}