Rich in Inequality Coins - A Positionality Statement

I am a straight, able-bodied, Central Asian man born in a middle-class family outside of Canada and migrated here as a teenage boy to call Canada home. I am 36 years old and a father of two beautiful girls. As a child, I was born in Afghanistan's immediate post-Cold War era, where Russia's involvement was still quite profound. In the following nine years, I witnessed civil war and several regime changes, including the U.S.-supported Taliban takeover in 1996, which forced us out of the country.

Living in exile for the following three years in Pakistan, my family and I had to adjust to a new culture, language, and way of living. This indeed posed its challenges and opportunities. However, oblivious to the inequalities in the West, we had no choice but to endure this transition period while we waited for our permanent residency application to be processed for Canada – the dreamland.

Living in these three countries, like many of you, I have participated in this social construct throughout my life, including my clinical role. I have witnessed, experienced, and participated in a buffet of inequalities, or coins, as Nixon (2019) frames them. While on top of some coins and the bottom of others coins, I have stashed coins of different currencies throughout my life. To the extent that I would have been very wealthy today if these coins had any monetary value. While some stashes have become irrelevant with time, others continue to impact, influence, and affect me and my judgement both personally and professionally. However, what has changed is my perception, position, and identity concerning these systemic inequalities. I hope that through learning activities in MHST631, I can increase my awareness of these coins and learn strategies to abolish such systemic barriers to health promotion and accessibility.

Reference

Nixon, S. A. (2019). The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: Implications for health. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-13. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9.pdf