Nominated Practice-based Research Papers

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Open Access
“It Comes Across As a Slapped-On Band Aid”: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Therapy Experiences Shared by People with Borderline Personality Disorder
(2024) Mugford, Grace
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a highly stigmatized psychological label that is disproportionately assigned to cisgender women, LGBTQ+ persons, and/or survivors of childhood trauma. While current research identifies psychotherapy as the ‘first line’ treatment practice for addressing the needs of this population, several literature reviews have found that roughly half of those with BPD who attend therapy do not respond or continue to face significant levels of emotional distress following treatment. There has been very little research dedicated to understanding the lived experiences of therapy nonresponse among those diagnosed with BPD. As such, my paper has sought to address this gap by examining how people with BPD construct their personal lived experiences in therapy outside of formal research contexts. Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology, combined with theory from Mad Studies, I analyzed 60 discussion posts from one popular BPD-related group on Reddit. Ultimately, the results of my study suggested that people with BPD may experience therapy in a variety of diverse ways. In particular, participants’ descriptions of their personal therapy experiences fell into five major themes: Therapy is not meeting personal needs, therapy is invalidating, if not infantilizing, therapy is hard work, therapy is an individual responsibility, and therapy is masking. Situating these themes within Mad theory and the existing BPD-literature, the final chapter of this paper aims to both complicate and offer potential explanations for why people with BPD express such perspectives. Finally, my paper also concludes by highlighting some of the implications that my findings hold for future social work practice.
Open Access
Applying Critical Race Theory to Explore Services Needs and Pathways to Inclusion for African, Caribbean, and Black Youth in the Greater Toronto Area
(2024) Nembhard, Justin
Despite comprising a significant 8.7% of the Greater Toronto Area’s population and enriching the city’s cultural landscape (Statistics Canada, 2022), African, Caribbean, Black youths face a harsh reality of unemployment rates doubling the national and provincial average (City of Toronto, 2017). This underscores the urgent need to understand and address these systemic inequities. This research applies Critical Race Theory to investigate how systemic anti-Black racism shapes the well-being, service needs, and pathways to inclusion of African Caribbean Black youths in the Greater Toronto Area. Leveraging a virtual digital ethnography approach, this study analyzes secondary data to augment the voices of African, Caribbean, Black youths. The key themes that emerged from the analysis are centring African and Caribbean Black youth voices, dismantling institutional anti-Black racism, transformative change, Anti-oppressive approaches, and systemic anti-Black racism and its impact. This research aims to inform the development of anti-racist interventions and promote pathways to inclusion that aids in the dismantlement of systemic barriers which has the ability to empower ACB youth to thrive within the GTA.
Open Access
Bodies are not ‘Tools’: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on Embodiment in Social Work
(2024) Walker, Megn
Social work has historically focused on managing bodies without adequately addressing the implications of the mind/body split. As the social work profession is beginning to embrace embodiment practices, I was interested in learning how social work scholars understand the impacts of mind/body split, what practices are being suggested to re-negotiate this binary, and how certain discourses frame bodies as ‘tools’ for social work. Drawing from Foucauldian discourse analysis and genealogical methodology, I explore the roots of the mind/body split in white supremacy culture, settler colonialism, and neoliberal capitalism. By pointing to the history of social work's complicity in perpetuating the mind/body split and the need for a shift in theoretical perspectives around embodiment, I propose a critical embodiment theory to challenge existing paradigms and open new avenues for both micro and macro social work. While my research is focused on theory, it holds significant material implications. We stand at a pivotal moment where the integration of embodiment into social work practice could foster decolonial and resistance-oriented approaches, or continue to reinforce the mind/body split through perpetuating white supremacy culture and neoliberal practices.
Open Access
Family-Centred Early Intervention and Other Social Supports for Families with Children who are Deal or Hard of Hearing: A Critical Review
(2024) Ireullo, Stephanie
The deaf and hard-of-hearing communities have been commonly misrepresented, and their voices omitted within research. Thus, this critical scoping review begins with a literature review to capture the life experiences of deaf/hard-of-hearing children and their hearing caregivers/parents. I will dismantle the concept of audism, and particularly the trauma experienced within the community. The overall aim is to fill the knowledge gap regarding comprehensive, child-centred social services and interventions that offer holistic assistance, specifically considering families’ intersecting identities (e.g., socioeconomic status and race). This review will examine thirteen scholarly articles that highlight twelve different social services through an intersectional lens. Doing so will uncover whether current programs provide adequate support to deaf/hard-of-hearing children, regardless of their culture or family status. Important conclusions note that although there is an increased focus on programing that build on family’s strengths- such as family centred early intervention- there is a clear implementation gap in the widespread availability of holistic programs for deaf/hard-of-hearing children. This review also notes that families from higher socioeconomic statues are more likely to have access to more support than those from marginalized communities. It is considered how the programs' effects on families might be amplified through widespread implementation. Along with highlighting some study limitations, this review offers some ideas for additional research.
Open Access
Regulating Families into Compliance- An Institutional Ethnography of Supervised Visitation in Ontario
(2024) Singh, Vidita
Using ethnographic observation, this research paper investigates the work practices of a supervised visitation site in Ontario. Supervised visitation sites are used by families in high conflict divorces where children and their parents can meet for visits or exchanges under the supervision of “neutral” Staff who document their interactions in observation reports. These organizations are mandated by the Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services and use discourses that state the environment is safe, neutral, and child-focused. Using Dorothy Smith’s Institutional Ethnography (IE), the researcher adopts the standpoint of a Site Observer or worker faced with the problematic: how can we understand safety, neutrality, and child-focused in locked spaces that require high levels of documentation, surveillance and reporting? Through extensive field notes, I map out the spaces used, the forms workers fill out and where they go, and the reporting structure, with special attention given to the visitation centre’s Service Agreement. My analysis of the ruling relations, that link local activities to institutional power show that the agency is not as safe, neutral, and child-focused as it claims to be. Instead, I discover: (1) safety is synonymous with security, (2) neutrality is enforced through compliance (non-compliance is managed by Staff), and (3) “child-focused” is limited to micro-level interactions. The findings argue that workers engage in multiple, overlapping work processes, identified as documenting, observing, communicating, tracking time/movement, and enforcing/referencing policy. These findings emphasize the need for policy and program changes that are more trauma-informed, choice-based and psychologically safe.
Open Access
Traditional Muslim Social Workers in Secular Contexts
(2024) Wunir, Waseem
In the current context of social work that advocates for inclusivity and diversity, amidst the growing traditional Muslim population in the Greater Toronto Area, the following qualitative study addresses a pressing subject and provides insights that can promote meaningful change. By engaging in six in-depth semi-structured interviews, the following papers address how religious, traditional Muslim social workers navigate and reconcile their traditional beliefs in a secularized social work context. The traditional Muslim has a complex relationship with Western models of social welfare, as evidenced by critiques from scholars such as Azmi (1991), Rasli (2022), and Ali (1989). These scholars highlight the traditional Muslim worldview is grounded in divine revelation and accordingly perceives social science frameworks through a unique lens, being built on Islamic principles. Moreover, an interpretive phenomenological approach (Beck, 2021) paired with Edward Said’s postcolonial theory (1978) within the enquiry revealed rich themes that delved deeper into underlying structural oppressions beyond the participant’s personal experience. These themes included: ideological conflicts, a hostile context, and coping strategies adopted by participants. Despite the challenging context and emotional strain, participants note the value of social work skills and how they reconcile their religious worldview with secular social work practices. The study exposes the need for Social Work education to overhaul its anti-Muslim biases and assumptions to accommodate diverse religious perspectives within educational settings and the field.
Open Access
Breaking Barriers: The Impact of Peer Support on Mental Health among South Asian Youth
(2024) Malungu, Marthroot
Numerous studies have reported a steady rise in mental health concerns within South Asian Canadians that are often left untreated and unmet. South Asian Canadian youth (15+ years old) in particular have been reported as one of the least likely groups to access mental health supports that are readily available to them. This qualitative study sought to investigate the service access barriers experienced by South Asian youth populations in Canada and explore the potential peer support interventions may have on mitigating the barriers to mental health access. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with South Asian youth (16-25 years old) living in Peel Region (Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon), that is home to a significant proportion of Ontario’s South Asian population. Participants (n=19) shared their personal experience regarding accessing mental health support and peer support. The data was analyzed utilizing a thematic analysis approach. The study revealed how, despite obvious limitations such as adequate training, turning to peer support and mental health supports offered in school settings helped the youth to navigate their issues. They offered recommendations for how peer support programs could be structured and explained to South Asian communities in order to improve youth mental health. These findings suggest a potential role peer support interventions may provide through alignment with South Asian youth’s cultural identity to address the barriers that have arisen in mental health access.
Open Access
The Making of An Echo Chamber: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Educational Policies Across Public Schools in Greater Toronto Area, Ontario
(2024) Tam, Rachel
Under the legislation of Ontario Ministry of Education's PPM 119: Developing and Implementing Equity and Inclusive Education Policies in Ontario schools (2009), Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices and policies has been widely promoted across public education institutions in Ontario over the past decade. These policies and practices can be situated in Canada’s neoliberal and colonial context, where institutional antiracism work has been diluted as a celebration of diversity and multiculturalism, which has historically been a symbolic marker of Canada's nationhood and citizenship. These efforts led to the adoption of outcome-focused, individualized, performative policies. In wake of a recent tragic incident of a TDSB principal's suicide, its legal dispute linking the death to an antiracism training session in the workplace, as well as the consequent responses from media outlets and the public, this study presents a critical discourse analysis of the dominant institutional EDI culture and how it has led, or rather, impeded the development of antiracism across Ontario's public-school sector. Entering from a scan of the media responses reporting on the incident and its harshest critics about EDI programs, this study follows Fairclough's (1995) critical discourse analysis methodology in the efforts to trace back the lineage of today's institutional EDI programs from Canada's longstanding liberal multiculturalism agenda. Through analyzing documents of texts, images and videos detailing EDI policies and action plans, collected from the 4 largest public-school boards in the Greater Toronto Area, this study found an overwhelming echoing sentiment and neoliberal discourses with the state’s liberal multiculturalism and antiracism rhetoric. Last, this study attempts to reimagine the trajectory of antiracism work with a focus from a decolonial lens.
Open Access
Future of Freedom: How Activist and Organizers Re-imagine Rehabilitation & Reintegration from The Prison Industrial Complex Through an Abolitionist Philosophy
(2024) Hines, Cristal; Macias, Teresa
Abolition and reform discourses have long informed how criminal justice has been conceptualized and practiced for decades. Both schools of thought carefully seek to address issues related to the penal system. The focus of my research closely interrogates abolition and reform by looking directly at how activists, community, and organizers are re-imagining the future of rehabilitation and reintegration from the penal system. My research is informed by a Focouldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) as the central methodology to consider how words, ideas, and practices shape activism work. Additionally, Said’s Contrapuntal Reading (SCR) is employed to look at some of the underlying contradictions that appear in activist discourses to demonstrate how they are profoundly shaped by a colonial apparatus. More broadly, these tools will enable an analysis of how ideas of rehabilitation & reintegration are produced through discourses and how to determine who can be “free” from prison cells and the prison industrial complex.
Open Access
“Fuck Latino Illegal Aliens”: The Settlement Experiences of LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers in Canada
(2022-04) Reyes, Kiana
Upon their first year of arrival, do LGBTQI+ asylum seekers feel properly supported within British Columbia? This paper reveals the stories of community members who hold intersecting identities, and have taken unique journeys to migrate to Canada. This study utilizes Critical Race Theory, Transnational Feminism, and Thobani’s concept of the exalted subject to show how fleeing from persecution results in new forms of systemic violence and discrimination not experienced by other migrants. I interviewed three LGBTQI+ refugees who arrived in British Columbia, Canada over the last 10 years who described the multiple sites settlement violence experienced by them in the health care, housing, legal services, dating apps, the labour market and social support agencies designed to assist in their very settlement. Using a narrative analysis, I argue that this community needs a specialized focus to support their unique needs while at the same time acknowledging and challenging how border imperialism and settler colonialism shapes their experience. This study suggests that LGBTQI+ asylum seekers are not properly supported when they first arrive in British Columbia, and must navigate issues around settlement needs, geographical locations, violence and discrimination, migration timelines and waiting periods, code-switching, gratitude, and COVID-19. This paper recommends future research to be conducted around the settlement needs for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers.
Open Access
We're Here for Who? A Post-Structural Policy Analysis of Sexual Violence Policies on Ontario University Campuses
(2022-04) Casey, Nicole
In September 2016, the provincial government of Ontario required all publicly funded universities and colleges in the province to create standalone sexual violence policies through the introduction of the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act, formerly known as Bill 132: Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Challenging Sexual Violence and Harassment). Despite its rollout over 5 years ago, sexual violence on post-secondary campuses continues at an alarming rate. Through an exploratory case study of the Act and 5 Ontario universities, this research uncovers the gaps in current sexual violence policies by exploring what accounts for different campus contexts in relation to sexual violence and rape culture if publicly funded universities in Ontario are all mandated by similar policies? Findings focus on failure to adequately prevent and respond to sexual violence and rape culture due to the provincial government neoliberal framing and lack of intersectional approaches. Policies that work to prevent societal issues such as sexual violence must incorporate an intersectional approach that reframes current narratives, provide consistent and transparent responses across the sector, and hold individuals accountable for their actions.
Open Access
Mental Illness and the Use of Lethal Force in Canada: A Critical Policy System Analysis
(2021-04) Unkerskov, Sacha
The use of police lethal force is an unresolved and urgent critical social issue. Most recently, the deaths of those in mental health crises during police interventions have increasingly led to public controversy in Canadian society, especially in circumstances where the victim suffered from a mental illness. This study sought to locate policy that justified the use of lethal force by police officers on persons with mental illness (PMI) and provide recommendations to amend policy to uphold the sanctity of life. The primary objective of the study is to challenge our current policing and criminal justice systems and apply principles of restorative justice with the goal of obliterating police shootings and healing communities in the aftermath of state-sanctioned deaths. This study used an interpretive policy analysis framework to analyze lethal force policies at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government in Canada. The findings of the study revealed that the policies allow for police to uphold the social relations of power and determine whether or not to end a citizen’s life. The policies normalize state violence as an appropriate response to social issues and allow for police officers to hold vast discretionary power in determining to use force when they perceive a threat. A primary latent goal of the policies is to uphold officer safety at the expense of citizen safety. Accountability and lack of transparency of Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigations and lack of implementation of Coroner’s Inquest recommendations were found to reinforce underlying factors of this social issue. In addition, unclear and conflicting legislation pertaining to the roles of police in our society, specifically in mental wellness checks, is raised as a significant issue in citizen safety in encounters with police. This study contributes to the growing body of Canadian policing research and fills a gap in the lack of policing policy analysis. This study supports decolonization and democratization of policing in Canada and purports that applying restorative justice principles and values can be transformational in the healing of police and community relations. This study contributes to social work education by enlightening social workers to public policy that can have dire consequences for the populations they serve. This study supports the inclusion of social work knowledge and expertise in police interactions with persons in mental health crises. In the pursuit of social justice, this critical social issue cannot be overlooked.
Open Access
Raising Children with a Developmental Disability: Ghanaian-Canadian Parents Shed Insight
(2019-04) Awuni, Linda
Using hermeneutical phenomenology, this study attempts to answer the question: How do Ghanaian-Canadian parents of children with developmental disabilities understand their child’s disabilities, and what experiences inform this? By interviewing six Ghanaian-Canadian parents of children with developmental disabilities through semi-structured interviews, it was determined that these parents understood disability broadly. Their understandings were influenced by childhood and post-migration experiences. These experiences were marked by stigma, stress, frustration and joy. Subsequently, the experience of having a child with a developmental disability inspired faith and allowed parents to see their own strengths and abilities in reconceptualizing disability. This research has pointed to broader systemic issues when children are transitioning out of the educational system and the lack of resources to support parents. In spite of strides being made to create awareness, attitudes towards persons with disabilities and their caregivers continues to be a concern for parents. Social workers and the research communities are encouraged to form alliances with minority groups to promote awareness and address barriers that continue to limit these parents and their children’s participation in Canadian society.
Open Access
Diverse Political Women in Canada and Online Attacks: Experiences, Perspectives, and Insights
(2019-06) Skogberg, Jenna
Multiple academic disciplines agree upon the importance of women having diverse representation in politics because their unique perspectives are strongly thought to have positive implications on policies that affect the health and well-being of all people (Clayton & Zetterberg, 2018). Yet, abuse or harassment levied at these women both online and offline likely diminishes their voices or desires to remain politically engaged. Using hermeneutic phenomenology and intersectional feminism, I explored the experiences of a diverse group of political women in Canada with online attacks to gain their insights on potential implications and strategies for change. The findings analyze the participants’ complex relationships with social media, the unique challenges of each platform, the interlock of online and offline harassment, the women’s resiliencies and strategies to cope with online attacks, and their ideas for potential resolutions. The implications for critical social work practice are identified as: insight on the continued need to challenge Eurocentric heteropatriarchal colonial institutions, online and offline; the importance for Canadian social workers to (re)imagine their roles in online spaces; and, the need to develop methods with interdisciplinary teams to combat ideological radicalization on online echo chambers. Regarding future research, there exists much potential. One focus I recommend is that an interdisciplinary team of people, representing various socio-political positionalities, study how to perform community building projects on online echo chambers.
Open Access
‘Drink a Nap. Take Water.’ and Other Self-Care Advice A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on Self-Care Posts on Instagram
(2020-04) Blumenfeld, Stephanie
In recent years, self-care has become a qualification for many social work organizations. At the same time, mental distress has been receiving significant attention. Through this period, government policies have decreased funding to social services while increasing surveillance. As well, social media has increasingly become a source of governmentality as a useful tool for perpetuating dominant narratives, surveilling each other and the self. The purpose of this study is to explore these connections through a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on self-care posts from Instagram. My analysis uses post-structural literature on mad studies, neoliberalism, whiteness, and feminism. A major theme of my analysis regards evidence of reification of the neoliberal state as self-care becomes the qualification for worker-citizen-subjects. The implications of self-care discourses for people struggling with mental distress are that those experiencing it are blamed for their individual choices. The paper concludes by exploring subjugated discourses, relevance for social work and suggestions for future research.
Open Access
‘I Just Need to Get to Know You’: A Foucauldian Genealogy of Health Care Assessments of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth
(2022-04) Seburn, Kaeden
Despite the importance of transition related health care (TRHC) for many trans and gender diverse (trans) youth, there are many barriers to accessing this care, including assessment protocols that limit youth’s autonomy. This research seeks to interrogate how and why current assessment practices in pediatric TRHC in Ontario have come to be. Drawing on the theories of (trans)normativity and governmentality, the project applied a Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyze interviews with five clinicians currently practicing in TRHC in Ontario. Analysis identified six sources which influenced clinicians’ assessment practices: clinical guidelines, more experienced clinicians, other experience in pediatric care, evolving research and evidence, perspectives of youth and families, and external legal and social pressures. Additionally, analysis interrogated the evolution of mental health assessments from the realm of psychology and psychiatry to an embedded part of clinical care; the oft-repeated intention of clinicians to “get to know” youth; and the conditional decision-making authority, granted to some, but not all, trans youth. Findings discuss how these discourses obscure the ways in which power is enacted within the clinic. Finally, this project explores the implications of these findings for provider training, clinical practice, and theory. This research is put forward in the hope that, in the future, all trans and gender diverse children and youth will have access to the affirming TRHC that they need and deserve.
Open Access
The Advocate Self of(f) Beaten Paths: Travelling Colonial Roads in Neoliberal Times
(2020-04) Koziorz, Dorothy
Social work often conceptualizes advocacy as synonymous with social justice and critical praxis (Smith, 2011), which seemingly affirms the heart of the social work profession. Though many claim an advocacy role or agree that advocacy is essential to social works cause, little is known about how the advocate self is constructed, understood, and practiced. 6 self-defined, Ontario-based child and youth advocates were interviewed in this study to explore how they engage in their own self-making processes; specifically advocates for children and youth who are involved in the child welfare system. This research is informed by post-structural, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and other critical theories and worldviews. It deploys a narrative approach and an analytic framework of Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore how child and youth advocates are shaped by, and in turn, shape dominant relations of power that work against, or in solidarity with children and young people towards social justice. Findings reveal that the roads travelled by child and youth advocates in their self-making processes are complex and ever-changing. The narratives of child and youth advocates reveal that they are both co-producers and disrupters of dominant discourses and power-knowledge systems. Additionally, it is argued that the advocate self is not a bounded self, but that it is “discursively mediated and politically situated” (Macias, 2012 p. 10). Finally, the research concludes with an argument for the necessity to historicize social justice imperatives in order to gain insight to the current tensions experienced by social justice advocates and further, opportunities for resistance.
Open Access
Co-Creating Ethical Understandings Through Outsider Witnessing
(2020-04) Mulloff, Mark
This research project seeks to examine ethical dilemmas faced by practitioners who work with men who have used intimate partner violence (IPV). The study is informed by a Foucauldian conception of power. The research explores how the workers’ reflections on power and ethics give them insight into the journeys towards accountability that their clients undertake. Methodologically, the study adopts narrative inquiry combined with outsider witnessing methods, which allow an audience of participants to listen to one participant be interviewed about an ethical dilemma, and explore what things resonated with them in the story; what accounted for this resonance within the life or practice of the witness; what these things indicate about the values, ethics, or politics of the storyteller; and where the witness has been transported as a result of hearing the story. Findings indicated that this process contributes to a relational understanding of ethics through soliciting shared experiences, feelings, and values; by causing participants to reflect on past experiences differently; and by descriptions of values, ethics, and power as active and relational processes. Insight into the clients’ pursuits of accountability arose through reflections on the experiences of clients, the process of change, and an understanding of shared navigations of power relations with clients. The study recommends that those working with men in IPV intervention consider building a regular practice connecting with others doing similar work in order to co-create shared ethics and mutual support around the pursuit of those ethics.
Open Access
Exploring Polysexual Experiences within Mental Healthcare and the Negotiation of In/Visibility: A Qualitative Arts-Based Inquiry
(2020-04) DeAngelis, Alyssa
Contemporary research has found that polysexual people (who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to multiple genders) report poorer mental health when compared to monosexual people (Arnett, Frantell, Miles, & Fry, 2019; Bostwick, Boyd, Hughes, & McCabe, 2010; Brennan, Ross, Dobinson, Veldhuizen, & Steele, 2010; Flanders, Gos, Dobinson, & Logie, 2015; Steele, Ross, Dobinson, Veldhuizen, & Tinmouth, 2009). Furthermore, data from the 2003 and 2005 Canadian Community Health Surveys found that, “Bisexuals were more likely to report unmet [physical and mental] health care needs, compared with heterosexual Canadians” (Tjepkema, 2008, p. 62). Thus, this study explored the research question: “How do polysexual identified individuals wish to be seen, understood, and/or engaged within the specific context of mental healthcare?” The framework for this study was based on Daley’s (2013) theory of “negotiating in/visibility” in psychiatric service spaces. In the current study, six people participated in a semi-structured interview and four participants additionally completed a reflexive photography exercise (which included photographs and text). All mediums of data were brought together to discuss the following four themes: intersectionality; relevance; physical, online and community presence; and resistance. Findings revealed (respectively) that polysexual people wish to be seen as intersectional bodies, for their sexuality to be understood through their own perspectives as it relates (or not) to mental healthcare, to be engaged with through queer politics, and for therapeutic services to not be yet another space where they must resist oppression. While these results are not revolutionary by any means, they convey – often unmet – needs of polysexual people, from which service providers can reflect upon their own practice.
Open Access
Silence as Protection: Construction and Deconstruction of Violent Subjects in Media Portrayals of South-Asian and White Incidents of Domestic Violence
(2019-04) Sodia, Jasmine
This paper focuses on the ways the West silences South-Asian women experiencing domestic violence in the diaspora. My literature review illuminated a gap in the dominant literature where the phenomenon of silence is focused within the South-Asian community and rarely contextualized within the power system of racism in the West. Through a review of critical literature, it was clear that we must shift our gaze to how the West silences South-Asian women, due to the presence of the ‘White external gaze’ onto the community. This literature suggests that the members of the South-Asian community do not have control over how an issue within the community is taken up by the West to perpetuate racism once the issue is publicly talked about. This research paper includes an analysis of this ‘White external gaze’ in regards to how exactly it contributes to the silencing of South-Asian women. Western news media was selected as a form of the ‘White external gaze’ due to the influence its ‘talk’ has over the public and its context in the West, where White superiority exists. I conducted a comparative Foucauldian discourse analysis of news materials discussing three incidents of domestic violence involving South-Asian subjects and three involving White subjects. Each set included one incident from Canada, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). Through my analysis, I found domestic violence being generalized within the South-Asian community and individualized within the White community as well as the subject production of the violent South-Asian man and the distancing of the White man from their perpetuated violence. This research paper has proved the racism that is perpetuated by the media, a form of the ‘White external gaze’, when speaking about incidents of violence within the South-Asian community. As a result, this project provides insight into how the silence of South-Asian women is a means to protect their community from the racism perpetuated by the ‘White external gaze’ within the West.