Positionality Statement

Dr. Tony Verbora, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Windsor

Before we continue, it is important to discuss how my positionality and privilege impact my understanding and articulation of the world. Positionality is important because it affects the way we see and interpret the world around us, and consequently, how the world sees and interprets us (Jacobson & Mustafa, 2019). To begin, my mother was born in Ardore, Reggio Calabria, Italy and my father was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents left Southern Italy to move to Canada in the mid-to-late 1950s to provide a better life for their children. Italian emigration was fueled by dire poverty. Life in Southern Italy offered little more than hardship, exploitation, and violence. The soil was poor and malnutrition and disease were widespread.

I was born in the late 1980s and was raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I was raised in a middle-class family that placed the utmost importance on education and financial independence. Regarding the land I inhabit, I acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples are the modern-day descendants of the first human inhabitants of North America. As a white privileged man, I recognize that I hold inherent advantages based on race within a society marked by inequality and injustice. Acknowledging my white privilege is necessary, as it exists because of historical and ongoing racism and systemic bias. While I have family, friends, and colleagues from diverse backgrounds, I understand that I can never fully experience or comprehend their lived realities. I remain aware of this and strive, through my academic work, to highlight and challenge the social forces that perpetuate inequality whenever I have the opportunity to do so.