Reflection Paper: My Views on Violence
Violence in Canadian society is something many of us are concerned about. Our knowledge of violence requires us to think about its nature, what we are going to do about it and how to prevent it from happening. As we move into a new generation, there are more types of violence that we are now aware of. Violence is not just physical, but emotional, cyber, sexual, verbal, and hate crimes. These acts of violence can take place at any time and any place.
My views on Violence are pretty straight forward. I do not condone violence and believe it is wrong to bully or harm another human being without a sufficient reason. If I am to justify violence in anyway it will be to protect myself, others that I care about or people in need of protection. Even though I do not generally condone violence, it is allowed, in my books, if it is for self-defense purposes, or to protect the vulnerable.
The main types of violence I have witnessed the most in Canada are verbal, physical, and cyber abuse. I have known quite a few people who have been victims of these types of abuse as well as some famous Canadian cases where this has been taking place. I am a young adult and I believe that the youth are getting more violent when it comes to bullying others. Whether it’s online, at school or even at home it continues to be a major problem among our youth in Canada. One of the major examples I can think of that show’s the violence of youth was the Amanda Todd case in 2012. She was basically bullied for months by her peers and then was harassed, physically, sexually, emotionally, and verbally beaten down which eventually led to her suicide. This showcases how violence has extended its reach and gotten out of hand in someway and how we need to help prevent these things from continuing by education the youth.
There are many people, and many parents, who think violence in the media (video games, movies, and television) is another major reason why youth in Canada are acting out violently. I do not believe that this is a major issue as it is just a game and, even though they are killing people in video games, teens and youth should know the difference between what is real life and what is fantasy or fiction. Watching, or playing games where violence is condoned should not give them the right, or excuse, to think that this is okay in society.
Another major issue when it comes to violence is violence against women or hate crimes. Even though these issues have been going on for a long time there still are crimes occurring when it comes to women, race, sex, and gender. I feel like Canada is a very diverse country allowing people the right to be whoever they want to be and love whoever they want to love, but there is still resistance to accept them into certain workplaces and society. There are still people who believe women are inferior to men and that a woman’s job is to stay home and raise the children and do the housework, as well as give the man whatever he wants. There are also a lot of cases of domestic abuse and violence that occur, and woman are still often afraid of speaking up. This is an example of emotional and physical violence between spouses.
Another example of this type of violence is the hate that is put upon the LGBTQQIP2SAA community. It is great that Canada is celebrating things like Gay Pride and showing that they care about the community and are in total support of it, but there are still people who believe that being gay or trans-gendered etc… is wrong. I have witnessed certain people in certain situations be bullied because of who they are or who they love. A personal example for me was when one of my friends, who is a male barista, was serving a customer who then asked for a new server because they didn’t want a “fag” serving them. In my opinion, ignorance and discriminatory behaviour is a form a violence that is happening whether we like it or not and we to find new ways to teach people that this is not okay.
Racism is another form of hate-base, or ignorance-based violence that people may not be aware about, but it is happening. An example of this would be with the First Nation’s people. Many First Nation’s people in Canada get a lot of hate towards them due to their origin. I for one have seen many examples of this as I grew up in a First Nation’s community. Many people who don’t know their culture would call them discriminatory names and say they are all “drunks”, “stupid” etc… People need to recognize how stereotypes, discrimination, and hate contribute to violence, and can actually be forms of it. These beliefs and actions are not helping Canada grow. We need to learn how to understand each other in order to better get along if we are to become a happier and safer society.
In short, I believe that there are times such as in self-defense or in defense of the vulnerable, when violence may be unfortunate, but necessary. I also strongly believe that our greatest new concern is emotional and physical violence promoted by bullying which is now easier because of social-media and the internet. The old hate crimes and violence against women and minorities are still very much in existence. These are also part of the new cyber-violence. People and our laws need to start seeing hate, bullying and discrimination as promoting violence or being forms of violence. When people realize how very damaging these things are, behaviours might change.
