March 07, 2012


Humanity is at odds with itself 

On march 1st, together with a group of students, I helped organize a forum on the topic of "Representations in the Media". 

The purpose of the forum was to provide an insightful panel discussion, engaging presentations and motivational and articulated speakers to open discourse on the topic of representation and its effects in all forms of media. We hope to deconstruct information and critically analyze knowledge created through representations of marginalized and privileged groups. Our purpose was to combat recurring discourses of colonialism, privilege and oppression that perpetuate discrimination and violence against marginalized groups in society. We also had two guest panel speakers; one being the award winning sports reporter for Canada's biggest newspaper the Toronto Star, Morgan Campbell and the executive director of the non-for-profit organization Black Pearls, Kim Tull. I was very surprised to discover topics so prominent in the past were still very significant until this day and time. Such topics being underlined with messages in advertisements, shows, and movies. One particular topic that arose a discussion was the topic of racial skin tone and how it is still relevant in a time where racism has supposedly been eliminated. Sad to say that there is still racial discrimination in the media. Lighter girls 'shine' on the screen where darker girls are in the shadows.  Darker girls are categorized to be the 'casts offs' only used for sexual purposes rather than their personalities, or appearance per say. The main blame of this is the media. Why do we allow the media to justify beauty? We are told every day, subconsciously, through the media how we are supposed to look, act and eat. What’s bad is that media is forming the views of the upcoming generations of young susceptible people. These younger generations grow up to being adults who believe these impossible standards that are enforced upon them and other people around them. The issue not only lies in one race but in numerous troubling perceptions worldwide. Humanity is at odds with itself because we forget how to celebrate and respect our differences. Instead we are constantly struggling to prove who has the better race, sex, religion, class etc.

- Duaa Mohamed

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