How Young People are Healing the World: An Activist Reflects on the Tikkun Youth Project

Abstract

Young people everywhere face prejudice and discrimination. They are targeted for the same reasons older people are – because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, or social status. They may live in societies where they face violence and deep personal strife. In addition to all of this, youth face the additional burden of discrimination on the grounds of their age. Most societies do not see young people as full citizens worthy of having a voice. Despite these barriers, the young people who participated in the Tikkun Youth Project, from five very disparate sites and demographics, demonstrated remarkable resilience, creativity, and willingness to engage with their communities. As an activist, I examined the civic engagement and rights-awareness of the young activist-researchers who appear in the international media, as well as those participating in the Tikkun Youth Project. I conclude, with some optimism, that young people are not waiting to become leaders: they are taking the reins and are making a positive difference – today. 67 | How Young People are Healing the World A young man named Aphiwe, who was from the community called Khayelitsha, an informal township in the South African city of Cape Town, told me a story. He was out for an evening with his friends. They were drinking beer (perhaps underage) in a hot and crowded venue when he decided to step outside for a breath of air, bringing his drink with him. As he was standing in front of the building, he was approached by several police officers. They told him it was illegal for him to be outside with his drink. He asked them why. They responded by beating him and breaking both his arms. “Did you complain to the authorities?” I asked him. He looked at me as if I had not understood what he had told me. If asking the simple question “Why?” of a police officer could result in a severe beating, did I not understand what complaining about police would do? Aphiwe was cared for by his friends who were also activists. They helped him get medical attention and kept him in the group while he recovered. This young man knew his town and understood the likelihood that a police complaint would result in further injury, or even worse consequences. Unlike some of us from more privileged communities, Aphiwe understood what it means to live with violence. As I was writing this chapter, I received the dreadful and tragic news that Aphiwe had been murdered. While I do not know the details, I was given to understand that his death was the result of a robbery gone terribly wrong. Aphiwe had only just learned that he had been accepted into a special program for talented young artists, likely the first person in his family to attend a post-secondary institution. His loss is immeasurable for his community, his family, and for his fellow activists. In all of the Tikkun study sites, we will continue to think about Aphiwe and mourn the loss we all feel for the brilliance he brought into our lives. I am an activist. I have spent much of my life enraged about injustice whenever and wherever I have seen it. Fortunately for me, I have been able to take action. I spent much of my life working for a non-government organization, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Education Trust, that gave me the opportunity to create programmes for teachers, studentteachers, and for students from kindergarten through university. These programs encourage people to participate in their democratic communities. I believe that by asking pertinent questions, thinking critically, engaging in dialogue, and facing conflict, we can all learn to make a positive difference in our societies. I joined the Tikkun Youth Project as an activist and educator How Young People are Healing the World | 68 who wanted to find out more about the young people who have already learned to make a difference. What do they know about their rights? How do they experience their communities? What do prejudice and discrimination mean to them, and how do they approach injustice in their communities? I wanted to learn how the researchers and participants in the five sites of study would interact with one another, and how they could learn from their own research as well as from the experiences of others. I am a researcher in the sense that I learn from my observations and my readings, and while I am a teacher in that I engage with students, I am not an academic. I do not have a university appointment even though I have taught thousands of university students and teacher-candidates. My focus over the last three decades has been on citizenship education. I believe that as soon as a child is able to express an understanding of fairness (or of injustice), he or she is ready to take part as a citizen. I believe strongly in rights-based education and seek to identify strategies and information that can assist learners at all stages in seeing themselves as rights-holders. What follows below are my own observations and reflections on some of the stories reported and performed, and on research completed by the Tikkun Youth Project researchers and participants. We learned many poignant stories from the young people who participated in the Tikkun Youth Project’s Artnote. Below I share just a few as examples because there are so many such amazing stories. A young woman in Windsor told us that she became pregnant while still in school. She was faced with some deep and difficult choices: Would she be able to continue with her education? Could she manage motherhood and schooling at the same time? What would her family think? What kinds of stigma would she and her child face? What resources, if any, would be available to her in her community? Did she have the right to make demands on “the system?” She described how each of the choices open to her could lead down very different paths. Her acknowledgment of this conflict could be seen as the turning point where she moved from being acted upon by external forces, to being an actor – an activist who began to engage in her community at many levels. During the Artnote, we met a family that had fled for their lives from wartorn Syria. They shared their experiences about landing in Canada, knowing little or no English or French. These families had very little expectation of what, if any support their new community could provide. The children did not know if they would be able to go to school and whether they would be 69 | How Young People are Healing the World welcomed or rejected by other children. What would happen to the family if the adults were not able to find work? How would they live in this new land? While their English language skills are still limited, these young people have the courage to tell their stories to both newcomers and people whose families have lived in Canada for generations. As they shared their poignant stories of fear and uncertainties that have plagued their lives for many years, we learned about the effects of war and loss on youth and their families – and we could observe their determination to engage in positive ways with their new friends and community. So many times children and young activists are told by more senior members of their communities that they will be the leaders of the future. This chapter will demonstrate that young adult activists are at the forefront right now; they are not waiting to become more experienced or more educated – they are leading their communities now in ways that their seniors cannot even understand. What do these young leaders have in common and what are their differences? We will explore examples and stories about their involvement with what they identify as needs in their own lives and the lives of others. How have they done this? How do they facilitate change? Let’s see what their community participation and leadership look like on the ground. Identifying “Them” and “Us” One of the critical triggers that motivates youth to activism is the polarization of communities divided by strong social factors such as race, ethnicity, social class, and the lack of opportunity for employment and/or education. The manner in which a young person chooses to identify him/ herself is a significant contributor to the choices they make when faced with injustice. The civic engagement/pedagogy literature demonstrates that when young people learn to consider dissent and disagreement in a positive light, when they can listen to the views of people who think differently, they are better prepared to engage as citizens (Osborne, 2005; Sears, 2018). In each of the five Tikkun study sites, and in the wider context of their personal experiences, the young researchers have identified and come up against societal barriers to change. They have found that they themselves or How Young People are Healing the World | 70 others they know have faced unfairness and discrimination on a variety of grounds (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.). Among the barriers faced by the young researchers in our studies are sexism, racism, bias against their religions, social class, the community with which they identify, and the neighbourhoods where they live. Most of the young people faced intersectional barriers because they are discriminated against on more than one ground. While the barriers are unique to each situation, the young people in our study share an optimism and an understanding that they are powerful. Their response to inequity has not been to sit back in fear; it has been to take charge. They believe Malala Yousafzai when she said, “When the world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful” (Yousafzai, 2013). Firstly, it must be said that young people throughout the world face discrimination and prejudice (Giroux, 2003; Pinker, 2012; Young-Breuhl, 2013; Youthism, n.d.). The very fact of their young age means that many adults believe a diminished number of years of experience makes young people less than competent to act in a responsible and capable fashion.