Anger boils in Toronto as School Board acknowledges “Labelling and stigma are an issue" over a proposed new "Somali Task Force"

[Khayr]

Blind optimism is a liability. Approaches have to be Totalistic and not partial nor fragmented.

Do you know how many unemployed Somali grads that are out there that are either unemoloyed or severly underemployed?

 

Do you know that the hood that you are from makes all the difference? When Jenny was in the Bronx, she was just a dancer. Sara lived in Manhattan and was a dancer too but she was called a Performing Artist and thus got in to Julliard School, the top school for dance. Do you see the differnce and the stigmas?

 

No task force is going to change that stigma unless societies stop deeming Somalis as the lowest of classes.

[ElPunto]

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@Safferz

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Inane. The CSC has a particular narrative about Somali Canadians, almost assimilationist in its understanding of Somalis in Canadian society, and they have a need to mold us into a community that can be perceived by dominant society as successful, respectable and responsible citizens. It makes perfect sense that someone like Ahmed Hussen sees Jewish Canadians as a model for Somalis to aspire to. The problem here is that they are willing to sweep issues like the high dropout rate under the rug to focus on the "successes" of Somali Canadians.

 

Honestly I wish I still lived in Toronto right now, I'd offer my services to the Somali task force to manage their optics in the Somali community and beyond in the short term, as well as launch a longer term project of annihilating the CSC lool

 

I'm not sure the mandate of the CSC is to tackle the social problems faced by Somalis at the nittty gritty. It is to project a positive face for Somalis in Canada given all the negativity surrounding our community and to be an advocate for the general interests of the community. So I"m not sure your critique is entirely fair.

 

Quite frankly given the stereotypes and the negative image of Somalis - I support anyone who wants to highlight our successes and change the narrative.

 

 

[Safferz]

^ I do, I also know about half the task force members. They're all remarkable people who have done great work in the community, and I'm well aware of the work they've put into the task force and its recommendations, so it's been frustrating to see the misinformation circulating in the Somali community about them and the recommendations they've made. Just before leaving TO a few weeks ago, I spoke to a Somali lady who said she was told that the task force is made up of white people and she was surprised to learn that wasn't true. That's what they're up against.

 

Re: the CSC, I've been following them and their president for a number of years now, and I don't like them. But that's a topic for another thread I think, I was just responding to DK's earlier suggestion.

[ElPunto]

^Remarkable people doing great work in the community? Hmmm - but they're having trouble communicating their positive agenda to members of the Somali populace that is most impacted by failure/drop-outs in school. Clearly - they're doing something terribly wrong. I would have assumed they'd get counter demonstrators in support of the taskforce to present an alternate picture. Instead they seem really flat-footed and caught unawares.

 

I've been following the CSC too - I know Ahmed Husseien. There are plenty of Somali run NGOs - each of them has its share of criticisms. I'm not sure the CSC has done anything that singles them out for a disproportionate share of the blame.