When Lukayo Faye Catherine Estrella, a speaker from the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, a support group that specializes in educational workshops and training, hosted a workshop on oppression, they referenced a quote from actor Morgan Freeman to make a point.
“I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an asshole.”
As part of Algonquin’s Pride Week, the Queer Student Alliance held an anti-oppression workshop for all students to attend on March 18.
“Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner,” said Faye, quoting Wikipedia at the start of the workshop. “It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions or people and anxiety.”
The event focused largely on oppressed groups and the origin of oppressive behavior. And of course, as part of Pride Week, there was a lot of talk on oppression towards the LGBTQ community.
“Some people call forms of oppression aimed towards gays or lesbians, and transsexuals “homophobia” and “trans-phobia,” said Faye. “But I have to agree with Morgan Freeman here and say that these forms of oppression should instead be addressed as hetero-sexism, and trans-misogyny.”
Therein lies the problem: oppression continues to be a phenomenon, which we continue to see in every day life.
“There’s a lack of education material and effort from the student association and college administration on oppression,” said Dmitri Melnik, a member of the QSA who attended the event. “Educating students on the issue of oppression helps them become more understanding of other groups who have been facing oppression for a long time. The way this workshop puts things into perspective, its easy to see how everyone can fight to overcome oppression,” said Melnik.
Zachary Gifford, first-year community studies student and QSA member agrees.“Lots of schools have programs on things like oppression, or at least some form of course. I think it is necessary for all people to have access to this information,” said Gifford. “And its not only LGBTQ people either. It’s everyone. The workshop happened in the format of Pride Week, but we aren’t just focusing on oppression towards gays. Islamophobia is something the school has been facing lately too.”
Many other forms of oppression were also addressed throughout the workshop, such as sexism, ableism, racism and classism.
Because of his orientation, Gifford sometimes finds himself having problems connecting with others. He explains that without the QSA, and Pride Week, he would feel alone and isolated. By hosting the event, he feels he has access to help in order to connect with people, and that others do too.
“It takes some effort to organize something like this, but in the end, it’s totally worth it,” said Melnik.