The Blind Men and the Elephant

By Maria Nguyen

Our reporting class began the semester with little to no understanding of Regent Park. Some didn’t even know where it was. We spent the next 11 weeks (somewhat) embedding ourselves in this mysterious place. This week we wrap up our stories and get them ready for publication.

Yet our collective understanding of Regent Park is still kind of like the proverbial elephant. We plunged into our assingments, as blind as the blind men in the ancient story. Each of us quickly established some facts mixed with thoughts based on our impressions. Since we've started, some misconceptions and prejudices have been cleared, but standing near the finish line, we’re only beginning to grasp the complexities of this special community.

An eyeopening moment happened to me this weekend. When I asked my interview subject how serious is the racial divide between North and South Regent Park, she laughed in my face.

I told Nadine Lewin, a teenage girl who’s contributed immensely to the mural project, that I heard about it from the Regent Park Film Festival director, and she looked at me with stunned eyes. “Who is this woman? Where did she get her information from? Does she even live here?” was Lewin’s reaction.

Sure we got some facts right, that more South Asians live on the north side of Dundas upward Gerrard St., and Shuter and Queen Sts. house more residents from the Caribbean. But we didn’t get the whole story. According to her, some people clashed, became territorial, and identified their turfs. But Lewin said the idea was so ridiculous it soon turned into a joke. Many Regent Park residents like Lewin cross Dundas St. everyday to get downtown. It would be dangerously chaotic if this big divide was actually true. She was shocked but amused.

As we walked through Sackville St., she pointed at a graffiti tag and laughed. “Look at that. Regent Park South Side Exit.” She called the tagger facety, a Jamaican slang for cheeky or rude. “I’ve never even seen this tag before,” she said. And thought nothing more of it.

I felt embarrassed for mentioning it. But I am glad she cleared it up for me. She's been there for 15 years, and me two months. I'll take her word for it.

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Part of the cause of this blindness is the community's reluctance to open up to outsiders. It’s been extremely difficult finding sources even though the community is small and even when the story I’m chasing aims to shine positive light on the community. The disappointment, distrust and dissatisfaction many community members feel towards the media and its portrayal of their community have made my job very challenging. I have received more hostile reactions from individuals in Regent Park than anywhere else I’ve attempted to make contact with. I’ve had them all: from getting nonchalantly ignored to getting yelled at and having the phone violently hung up on.

Regent Park might be a culturally diverse place, but towards outsiders, it behaves like a homogenous, elitist society. Old walls might be physically coming down but we’ll have to beat down many more walls if we ever want to see the heart of Regent Park.