LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Embrace and be the change

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2023 (1224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last Tuesday, I attended the Brandon School Division board meeting at Vincent Massey High School. I was one of 31 presenters that spoke in response to the May 8 proposal that a committee be struck to review and remove certain books from libraries in the school division.

I stayed till 1:30 a.m. and I listened, learned, and was thankful that I got to listen to so many people share wonderful stories and personal experiences openly.

As I walked into the gymnasium at the beginning, it was really hot, it was uncomfortable, I felt it. If you attended, you felt it too. Not only was the sauna-type atmosphere uncomfortable, but so was the general aura in the gym. I’m sure I was not the only person wondering: is the person next to me for or against this book ban? This environment and the feelings I had took me back in my life to 30 or so years ago. It was a different fight at that time, but in essence, it was the same.

My parents immigrated to Canada in the 1960s from India. Canada, or at least where we were on the West Coast of B.C., was a predominantly white, British-settled area. I was born in 1979 and for as long as I can remember, I was different. If you have met me, you know I have dark skin. Not light brown, not mocha, I’m dark. Growing up, I stood out like a sore thumb. Different.

I was always the one coloured person in a sea of Caucasian faces. And that was the fight I fought for years to come, the one of being different.

Like many of us that don’t fit in, deep down we embrace and love being different and, lucky for me, I had amazing role models that nurtured this quality. My mother, a math professor, was the first female PhD in mathematics in her state in India. At a time when women in India were not being educated and would instead be expected to be housewives or homemakers, she was encouraged by her father (my grandfather) to get educated and became a university professor. So, she too knew what it was like to be different.

She spent her whole career at the University of Victoria lecturing in her traditional Indian clothing (a saree). My classmates would make fun of me for what my mother wore, and I’m sure so did others to her face or behind her back. She also dawned a bindi, a coloured dot worn on the centre of the forehead, which of course led to more jokes and more ridicule. But, she never wavered.

She never wore western clothing and to this day still does not. She was a proud Indian woman, and from her I learned courage, strength, and the knowledge that being different was not just OK but should provide you as an individual pride in who you are as a person.

And so, in the gym on May 23, I saw parallels to this. You see, what I have learned about discrimination is that we should not fear others for being different, but instead should all be proud of who we are. And that was the battle in the gym that night, trying to show the BSD trustees and those who support the book ban that it is OK to be different and that the literature available to our children in school libraries should be diverse and inclusive of everyone that wishes to pick up a book and read.

One of the trustees, Jason Gobeil, had a shirt on that read “We Are All Human,” and that is the change that we all need to embrace. That it is amazing that we are all different, and at the end of the day, we are all just human beings.

So, where do we go from here as a community? This is not about me or you, it is about all of us. One thing I know for sure is that hating each other and creating further divide based on sex, gender, race, religion or any other dividing factor will do nothing positive. We need to embrace our differences and share those with others: Be the Change.

Be proud of who you are and simultaneously be open to learning about other cultures, genders, religions and races that are in our wonderful community. Find commonality in others by talking to each other, and learning about something new.

I find myself in Brandon as a fairly recent implant (2014) and slowly have ascended to a leadership role at my employer, Brandon University, as the president of BUFA. I am different, but you know what? I have learned that so is everyone else that I lead and work with. We are all different, and our commonality is BU. Our commonality is teaching, research and higher education. And if you talk to others that are different than you, we will all find commonalities that bring us together.

When I think of change, one person has always motivated me. It was Ashoka the Great. If you do not know about Ashoka, I encourage you to learn about him. Ashoka was the Third and last Emperor of the Mauryan Empire. H. G. Wells, which many of you do know, wrote in his well-known work “The Outline of History,” that “Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star.”

But, this is not what I want you to know about Ashoka. I want you to know that Ashoka was a conqueror, a murderer, a divider, and for all extents, probably one of the most ruthless kings in history.

However, after the Kalinga War, known as one of the bloodiest battles in history, he changed. Upon seeing the devastation that his actions caused, he began to repent violence. He embraced Buddhism and began his change to create and remake the Mauryan Dynasty to be filled with tolerance and equity. His legacy is that of change, of spreading and educating a better world through the teaching of Buddhism.

And so, if Ashoka can change, after years of intolerance, then so can you. BE THE CHANGE.

GAUTAM SRIVASTAVA, human

President, Brandon University Faculty Association