On Saturday, someone told me, in essence, that I needed to relax about social justice issues. They were specifically referring to feminism, and how I openly and publicly speak about things that bother me. This makes some people uncomfortable. Yeah, I get it.
Look within the pages of this newspaper this week, and pretty much every other week. There is going to be something that makes someone shift in their seats.
We have an editorial calling out members of council who send in email responses rather than take interviews.
The municipal council profiles include comments about the library’s location, which is a hot topic lately.
We have the Sisters In Spirit walk coming up Oct. 4, and the picture of red dresses lining University Drive just to my left, there. Each red dress, to me, not only symbolizes an Indigenous woman who has gone missing or been murdered, but the racism and bigotry that still exists today in our community and greater Canadian society. If calling people racists doesn’t make the record scratch and stop, I don’t know what does.
These are all examples of how we or other people are challenging power structures that keep us in check.
Those power structures include obvious ones – the justice system and systems of government – and in Canada, there are agreed-upon rules by which we can interact with those systems. When we deviate from the norm, such as calling out deep-rooted issues within the RCMP regarding treatment of Indigenous peoples or protest behaviours in council chambers or in a house of higher government, some people are going to see that as dangerous behaviour. It arguably challenges the very thing that keeps us from doing harm to one another.
There are also more subtle power structures that we adhere to every day without realizing it. For instance, we might tell a girl her clothing is too revealing, because we think she is conveying that she is a “slut.”
In reporting on these issues, this newspaper can be a double-edged sword.
One of our roles is to tell people what is happening as accurately and as objectively as possible in order to better inform the public in their decision-making, and record the first draft of history for our community. We try to be Athabasca’s mirror.
While more often than not , we are revealing the beauty – did you see our photos of fishers and the Northern Lights? – there are times we reveal the ugliness within that others try to hide.
