Jeremy Dias is the Director of Jer’s Vision, and let me tell you, he has specific ideas about the direction of his organization’s Youth Diversity Initiative. This is not surprising, considering the breadth and depth of what this Ottawa-based project has achieved in the past 9 years. The program information provided on their website mentions numerous workshops and presentations, and over a dozen Dare To Stand Out conferences this year alone. As it says there, "Customized, youth-led, and intersectional, Jer’s Vision workshops engage youth in a dialogue about diversity, and understanding the impact of discrimination, bullying, and hate."
And not for the first time, Canada’s most famous pseudo-news humourist, Rick Mercer, is involved with their annual Day of Pink Gala in Ottawa:
"(Rick) has been incredibly supportive of our organization for a long time now. It’s amazing that someone in his position is so in-touch with Canadians and the work that people are doing across the country. It’s an honour to pair up with him, but what I think is really cool is that at Jer’s Vision, we run the gamut of people that we work with. We work with everyone, from Allison Redford, to former premiere Gerald Baxter. It’s incredible, and I love the work that we do.
"For example, today, a bank manager and branch in Montreal: one of the fastest-growing groups of people wearing pink is business executives. People in offices are finally recognizing that this is not just a problem in schools, but in communities and workplaces."
Of course, it’s no surprise that ‘bullying’ is not restricted to the schoolyard, but it is surprising to hear about a large organization getting support for directing their gaze into that more independent community. However, Jeremy isn’t afraid of wandering into unexpected alleys of need, and he begins describing the intent of their mindset by pointing out that in every occurrence of this dynamic, there are common factors:
"You have to kick out the bully; you have to convince the bystander to stand up; you have to convince the victim to talk and get help. It’s really problematic because, the truth is, we’ve all been bullies, victims and bystanders in different aspects of our lives. And that’s really important to recognize, because we all have the capacity to hurt people, whether it’s intentional or unintentional. ...The power of our shared and connected humanity is really relevant, particularly if we’re going to tackle something like bullying."
He goes even deeper as the interview goes on.
"This problem is so complicated, and it’s rooted in queer culture politics, and queer social justice, and trans rights. They’re not mutually exclusive concepts, and I think that’s what a lot of mainstream organizations struggle with.
"It’s one thing to say We need to stop name-calling, (while also saying) We don’t need to have queer identity in the curriculum. Do you know what? You do."
And then, Jeremy gets going: we discuss the socio-politics of the origins of bullying, how that dynamic is created and impacted by one’s class origins, race origins, wealth origins, and not always in the manner that wider society would expect.
"You need to address the homophobia, the biphobia, the transphobia. We need to look at the gender lens, the race lens, the immigration lens, the intersection ... urban ... and rural lens (that we see through). The low-income and poverty lens.
"Our campaign theme this year is Everyday is a day of pink, because, let’s be honest here, a pink shirt does not stop bullying. But you know what does?" A teacher teaching a math class using the classic example of travelers on trains going in opposite directions at certain speeds, except that they are a same-sex couple. And that, Jeremy claims, is social justice. When I suggest that such an agenda is too broad for a single organization, that it must be overwhelming, he is unfazed:
"No, Social justice isn’t overwhelming! Making a difference in the world is not overwhelming: that’s the smoke and mirrors. The reality is that the work we do at Jer’s Vision is not rocket science. Social justice is not easy, it just requires you to stretch yourself. The hardest part of the work we do is to look introspectively. I, Jeremy Dias, the director of an anti-bullying charity, acknowledge that I have been a victim of bullying, a bystander of bullying, and a bully myself. Now I’m going to do something about it: now I’m going to make a change. That’s the critical point. When we go to schools, we find half a million anti-bullying posters on the walls, but I’m pretty hard-pressed to find a kid that says, I’m a bully! And I would challenge you in the workplace to find a (self-proclaimed) bully."
Jeremy then makes a point about the prevalence of non-intentional bullying, describing how a student in a recent workshop said that he felt bullied when he had to go get a late slip. It’s sounds opportunistic, but Jeremy points out the powerlessness of the student after the initial infraction, that he misses chunks of class time chasing down the appropriate signatures for the late slip, that a few of them incur school time detentions which can further impact his learning chances, and that he really has no recourse to defending his situation, which may have causes also outside of his control, either at home or in the schoolground; the bigger picture of why the late slip occurs.
"Where in this system is the solution to the student’s lateness? Where is the place to say How come you’re late? ...The teacher, who is part of the system, doesn’t think she’s bullying; the secretary is also part of the system.
"That’s the critical lens the Day of Pink tries to bring to the table. If we’re going to look at Bullying, we need to re-examine some of the institutions that we’re in: we need to examine the ways we work with people... It’s about making small changes that will fundamentally alter the workplace and the world we live in."
"It’s not something that will just happen overnight, of course. But it’s not difficult, either."
