By Cheryl Harrison
Back as a young female of color, I was not always taken seriously or listened to at first. At times, I was challenged with a lot of defensiveness from people who didn’t want to be there or hear other perspectives. I was subjected to comments such as: “That’s reverse racism,” “I don’t mean to be sexist so don’t take this the wrong way, but…,”, and the classic, “You’re too sensitive,” or even comments like, “Slavery was good because it gave people jobs.”
Prior to my first forays into facilitating diversity trainings I had just begun to work on undoing the knots of my own internalization of stereotypes, myths and sometimes unconscious negative feelings towards myself and other members of the marginalized social groups of which I am a member. Digging into long-ago buried old wounds and the out-of-site, out-of-mind feelings about our social groups can sometimes be quite painful and shocking when we first start investigating. However, that continual process of diminishing my own internalized oppressions has made it possible to stay more and more present with challenging ideas instead of shutting down, and has increased my ability to think more clearly and creatively. Over time, it became clearer and clearer that arguing is not so useful for social change and can, in fact, produce the opposite effect.
While I am far from perfect (whatever that means!), the inner personal work of looking very closely into the mirror at my own “stuff” continues to be extremely valuable. This “stuff” includes the lenses through which I view my own social identities and how others might possibly perceive me.
Along with that, I think it’s just as vital for me to be aware of my perceptions, feelings, and actions with regards to those social groups that I am in a position of systematic power over. For example: I am not a youth, I am not an immigrant to this country and I did have the privilege of graduating from college. In thinking about whatever groups you might possibly have more systematic privilege in relation to, did you ever ask yourself, “Wow, did I really say/think/do that?” In one of the “diversity” workshops that my longtime colleague, Marc Weinblatt, and I were co-facilitating, a young, black, male participant was absolutely shocked to realize that he actually carried systematic privilege in many areas (class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, etc), especially considering the historical and ongoing stereotyping and abuse he is subjected to on a daily basis as a black man.
I believe it is essential to deal with both our internalized oppression and our internalized entitlement, to really examine ourselves closely to be able to help create the world in which we say we’d like to live. Looking very honestly at ourselves, how much do we actually “live our talk”?
However, it is also important not to turn this examination of self into yet another exercise in guilt and shame nor defensiveness and apologizing for the circumstances we were born in to nor trying to appear to do the “right thing” (aka political correctness). Such responses may not be helpful and only serve to freeze us into inaction and so block true transformation.
I do not believe we are “good” or “bad” people. I do believe we are people who sometimes do unintentional and mostly well-meaning, but harmful actions out of social conditioning, ignorance and short-sighted self-interest. That said, it doesn’t mean we have no choice but to follow our conditioning, nor do we have to stay ignorant.
I challenge myself, and all of us who identify as members of marginalized social groups to not only look at our internalized oppression, but to also look at where we do carry systemic privilege and to use that privilege to “lift as we rise”. As we gain more systematic power, we can support others to also rise, as equals. Unfortunately I’ve witnessed groups gain a little systematic power then oppress others in the same way in which they were oppressed. There’s a “me first” attitude, “then we’ll get around to your issues.” We sometimes refer to this as a hierarchy of oppressions as opposed to all oppressions being linked.
I believe that an ongoing and deep personal examination of our innermost thoughts, feelings, views and value-judgements regarding our own and others’ social groups will help us to truly and continually bring our best selves to the table of transformation as “agents of change”!
Some definitions and Glossary of Terms used in this Blog:
Internalized Oppression, Intra-Internalized Oppression, Internalized Privilege, Internalized Entitlement, Internalized Entitlement to Privilege and Colorism are just a bit of the jargon I’ve heard and/or used in reference to the internalized, automatic and mostly unaware assumptions, stereotypes and feelings towards our own and other social groups that we may carry.
This refers to the internalization of systematic oppressions and/or privilege (aka the “isms” – racism, classim, sexism, etc.) as opposed to individual prejudices or personal empowerment / dis-empowerment.
There are many definitions of these terms (as well as a whole host of other terms I did not use), but here is how I’m using these:
• Internalized Oppression – internalized social messages that reinforce negative feelings, mistrust, distancing and stereotypes towards self and others in one’s own marginalized social group.
• Intra-Internalized Oppression – negative feelings towards other marginalized groups. This sometimes can manifest as competition (my group is more oppressed than yours and/or buying into stereotypes), I have used this mostly in relation to groups of people of color.
• Internalized Privilege/Internalized Entitlement – internalized social messages that reinforce feelings of superiority and entitlement for dominant social groups over marginalized groups.
• Colorism – Often a subset of internalized racism, this supports a hierarchy of color within marginalized ethnic groups. For example: the lighter the person’s skin and straighter the hair, the better/more attractive the person is. In my own family, half of my family is “lighter” and half “darker”. In the all-black schools my brilliant sister attended while growing up, she was often overlooked and not treated as well in school as her lighter-skin classmates. Due to my lighter skin and being considered “articulate,” I’m considered one of the “good ones” and approachable.
Cheryl Harrison is committed to facilitating self-awareness and empowerment for individuals and communities as a means to create a world which values equity, understanding and compassion for all peoples around the world.