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Happy International Human Rights Day.
If there was one insight that I would give to prospective human rights defenders is that it is important to learn how to process and make peace with being hated.
You cannot challenge power properly without vitriolic backlash and reprisal.
If there was one insight that I would give to prospective human rights defenders is that it is important to learn how to process and make peace with being hated.
You cannot challenge power properly without vitriolic backlash and reprisal.
Know the difference between a critic and hater. The former will try to point out a shortcoming with an ethos of psychosocial care. The latter will blow up any tiny point of contention to attempt to destroy you and your self-worth. Self-protection is okay, close-mindedness is not.
One final thing is be patient with people, including yourself. People generally do not do things without any underlying reason or interest. Oppression does not occur in a vacuum.
Documenting human rights violations tells you nothing about *why* something is happening.
Documenting human rights violations tells you nothing about *why* something is happening.
It's a strange and reflective day for me because as many of you know, I quit my job at the @IHRP_UofT - one that I thought was substantively important - because our school was precluding research into human rights violations foisted upon Palestinians.
But reflecting on the situation, I do understand *why* it happened, which has really helped me to move on. And it has really helped me make peace with the inevitable messages of hate and threats that you get by engaging in this line of work.
I remember the first time I received a death threat over human rights work. It wasn't even particularly contentious. I was helping to organize a 10 year anniversary event in commemoration of the Canadian government's apology for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act in Toronto.
I received an unsolicited email telling me that I was a white-hating Chink and that if the author ever saw me on the street he would have my head on a pike.
Knowing this was part of a long and sordid heritage of legalized and extralegal racism made me feel proud, if anything.
Knowing this was part of a long and sordid heritage of legalized and extralegal racism made me feel proud, if anything.
