When I started my high school journey, I had no idea what to do in life. To be honest, just entering high school is a big step for most of us. When we are in high school, we have this pressure to know our future: what we want to study in college or university, and what career path we want to pursue.
Growing up as a Sikh, a visual minority here in Canada, I have been attacked by racist slurs and physical aggression because of my Dastar. I can only imagine how it could be worse in other countries. Throughout high school, I remember I took this class where I learned how to do media work. I fell in love with the art of taking photos, designing the yearbook, and writing short stories. In fact, it was the time I started working on my book, an autobiography talking about my life and my struggles.
A great deal of pressure had accumulated in my mind about what I wanted to do with my career after four years of high school. Since I liked the combination of writing and content creation, I applied to one of the best journalism schools in Canada, but I did not have any hope of getting into any of the programs. During my high school career, all my Indian relatives made discouraging comments like I won’t get in anywhere and it was not only them: my high school teachers and counselors contributed to this pressure. Due to all this, I applied to both universities and college programs with no hope of getting into any of them.
However, I got accepted into every program I applied to include the best universities for criminology, public policy, and political science. My top choices included Ryerson’s journalism program because I really enjoyed taking photos and telling stories through different mediums of media.
I was thrilled to start my post-secondary studies as a journalism student at Ryerson University. When entering the program I knew quite little about how small-minded Canadian newsrooms are in Toronto. During our Orientation week, I discovered that there were very few people who look like me in this industry, as I was the only Dastar-wearing Sikh in the class.
I have always been a part of the minority since my early childhood when I lived in India, and I am still a visual minority now that I live in Canada. Being a Sikh, I was oftentimes subjected to bigotry jokes and name-calling. Throughout my life and including my time at the university, I was attacked because of my identity. This includes everything from directly targeted verbal attacks to sometimes physical and hate-related attacks. On the first day of classes, I was the only Dastar-wearing Sikh in the class and I had mixed feelings about it. As a Dastar-wearing and bearded Sikh, I thought I would be one of the first to graduate from this program because looking at how the program is structured I really didn’t see anyone who has a turban and a beard in my class. I also questioned my abilities as, if it was the right program for me since there are not too many people who look like me in this field. This was the case because there are only a few proper Sikhs in the mainstream media. Since there is this ratio of not having the right amount of Sikhs representing us and issues that representation. In order to see yourself doing something that you want to do, you need someone to look up to because no matter what you do, you need some sort of motivation and inspiration to get things done.
I had the opportunity to shadow Pooja Handa at CP24 Breakfast which was made possible by Gurdeep Ahuliwala and Manjot Singh, lead volunteers at Experience Sikhi: a charity dedicated to the growth and prosperity of Sikhs across Canada. When I saw the newsroom staff and the backend programming of broadcast media, the realization hit me hard. Diversity is lacking in Canadian newsrooms, and this isn't just my opinion, it's a fact. Following my experiences at CP 24 Breakfast, I created a blog called Sikh Journalist. I thought that it was important to highlight the fact that there are nearly half a million Sikh Canadians but there are barely any Sikh journalists to represent the values of our community. Thus, why I became a journalist. Being a Sikh journalist: it’s different in the sense that we are born to stand out.
About the Author
Kuwarjeet Singh
Kuwarjeet Singh is a journalism student at Ryerson University and a freelance Sikh Journalist with various media organizations.