Video: Critical self-reflection

With Aseefa Sarang (Executive Director, Across Boundaries)

+ display video transcript

It's really important for us to be able to question our opinions, our values and beliefs because if we don't, we may continue to maintain the standard, the status quo and continue to be a part of the problem rather than be a part of the solution. Critical self-reflection gives us the opportunity to question all those things. It also gives us the opportunity to work toward eradicating any disparities that exist. Some of us may take for granted that we have a stable home life, a good job, employment, housing, etc. However, the realities of the people we work with, who may be immigrants, refugees, racialized communities, those may not be their realities. And unless we recognize the privileges, the powers that we carry as individuals, we really won't be able to have a solid interaction with our service users. I would say that privilege is very seductive. Sometimes we don't even know the power and the privilege we carry. We take it almost as our entitlement. Let me give you an example. I was on this board and I was one of the fewer voices of marginalized communities. When the opportunity came to have some more subcommittees, I thought this is great, we'll have a process where we will be able to invite other voices to the table. Unfortunately, what happened was that before we could get to a process, different people around the table started offering staff to support those committees and because the work needed to be done very quickly we moved on. I called it and I said, “This is really about privileged access.” We didn't have a process. We were not able to bring those voices that needed to be at the table to bring different viewpoints and different ways of doing things. It was very appreciated that people were able to offer those staff support. We did pat each other on the back and said, “It's wonderful that we were able to do this, that we're able to move the agenda forward.” But we didn't recognize as a collective, as a group, that in fact we created a barrier to access for other voices to be there. That's what I mean when I say privilege is very seductive, it kind of sucks us in and we don't realize that maybe what we're doing is not necessarily productive in the long run or more accessible for people to be at the tables.