In the last few posts, I wrote about strategies to cope with the anxiety brought up by COVID19. The reality is that the pandemic is unsettling beyond the drastic lifestyle changes and the uncertainty about the future.
COVID19 is highlighting painful economic, health, and social disparities—all manifestations of the longstanding work of oppressive forces that have shaped our laws and policies since the beginning. While white supremacist ideology wasn’t born in the United States and its impact is global, we are still tangled in its web from coast to coast.
I know, I know…that’s heavy…and this is why it’s essential that we understand how to lighten that load! In fact, we must lighten the load that white supremacist ideology creates to thrive in our fight for justice.
And psychology has wonderful tools that help us do just that! But psychological tools are not automatically justice tools.
They can be deployed to blame the victim (e.g., by asking “what’s wrong with you?” instead of “what happened to you?”) or to make us tolerate the untenable. As Dr. Martin Luther King said in an address to the American Psychological Association:
“…there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will.”
What does it mean, then, to use psychological tools to remain empowered while not numbing our compassion or appropriate outrage? How can we maintain a sense of wellness while keeping our eyes wide open as we strive for justice?
The answer is found at the very core of ourselves. So let’s dig!
White supremacist ideology would have never been so effective and long-lasting if it relied on “bad people” to do its work. There are not enough “bad people” to go around (“badness” is just not in our nature)! The reality is that
white supremacist ideology needs most of us to participate if it is to democratically enact programs that are harmful (to varying degrees) to most and that truly benefit only a few.
How in the world does it do that? By enlisting good people. What? Yes.
White supremacist ideology is instilled into each one of us from birth via core values. It’s a very effective method, as we care deeply about our values, we take pride in them, we work hard for them. And we carry these values everywhere, including in our activist communities.
Ask yourself, “who does [insert specific value] benefit?”. For example, having “good work ethics” (for the common person) often means working hard, day in and day out, without complaining or asking for much—all characteristics reminiscent of indenture servants. The value of being “independent” encourages us not to rely on or join with each other—which not only keeps us separate, but also makes the efforts of innumerable workers “invisible” and thus exploitable.
The status quo effortlessly reproduces itself by socializing us into “the way things are”, telling us exactly how to fit in and play the appropriate role. These roles, of course, are based on our identities, so the values we are taught are not “equally distributed” and do not necessarily mean the same thing for everyone. For example, some genders are encouraged to be dependent on, or cater to, others. Being “independent” for someone with class status might mean making money by any way possible, while for someone who struggles to make ends meet might mean “don’t ask for ‘handouts’”.
What does any of this have to do with COVID19? Everything!
Times when “life as usual” is disrupted create precious opportunities for radical change.
Many of the folx we think of as our ancestors took advantage of those moments for our benefit; this is our time! We are the ancestors of future generations. And white supremacy knows that it’s our time, so it’ll fight hard to reinforce our roles (read: values around productivity, materialism, independence, individualism, nationalism…) to exhaust us, make us cynical, squelch our imagination, keep us fearful, separate us. So we must be discerning about
what empowers us and what disempowers us, what allows us to envision a more just world and what shuts us down, what inspires us to join with each other and what separates us.
Remember the key question: “who does [insert specific value, the way you have been taught it and internalized it] benefit?”
Use the tools of psychology to “keep calm and carry right on”, but not in the service of the status quo, rather in the service of resistance and liberation. How? Soothe your nervous system enough for creativity to override tunnel vision, for hopefulness to defeat cynicism, for love and compassion to overcome fear and separation, for rest and healing to relieve burnout.
Because this moment needs us, each one of us (essential workers everywhere are showing us that). And this moment needs us fully empowered to