superpowers for transforming oppression

“Lib­er­a­tion from op­pres­sion and lib­er­a­tion from suf­fer­ing re­quire trans­for­ma­tion in two spheres: 1) the cre­ation of a so­ci­ety based on jus­tice, democ­ra­cy, and equal­i­ty and 2) the trans­for­ma­tion of our­selves and our re­la­tion­ships based on au­then­tic­i­ty, in­ter­de­pen­dence and compassion.”

Came across this today. 

You ever read some­thing that feels like it gives you su­per­pow­ers? Like it gave you lan­guage for some­thing you’ve in­her­ent­ly known but couldn’t explain .…

This is a MUST READ for organizers:

“For the last 50 years, so­cial jus­tice move­ments have tried to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly or­ga­nize peo­ple to op­pose this sys­tem and to fight for a more just al­ter­na­tive. While op­pres­sion man­i­fests in the lives of in­di­vid­u­als, it is in­her­ent­ly sys­temic. It is struc­tured through the po­lit­i­cal sys­tem, the econ­o­my, and civ­il so­ci­ety. Thus, while in­di­vid­u­als can be shel­tered from abuse and ex­ploita­tion, op­pres­sion is a sys­tem-wide phe­nom­e­non. It can, there­fore, only be trans­formed at the sys­temic lev­el through chang­ing the struc­tures, prac­tices, and cul­ture of a whole society.

“Suf­fer­ing, on the oth­er hand, is a way to de­scribe the anx­i­ety, fear, stress, dis­ap­point­ment, self-loathing, and oth­er psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al con­di­tions that show up in people’s lives.

“The so­cial jus­tice move­ment is not gen­er­al­ly well-equipped to deal with suf­fer­ing. The key dis­tinc­tion be­tween op­pres­sion and suf­fer­ing is that suf­fer­ing is an in­ter­nal re­sponse to the ex­ter­nal con­di­tions that we face. Some suf­fer­ing is a re­sult of op­pres­sion; oth­er suf­fer­ing is not. In many cas­es, the suf­fer­ing that poor and work­ing class peo­ple and oth­er op­pressed groups ex­pe­ri­ence is di­rect­ly re­lat­ed to the op­pres­sion that they face. Ex­ploita­tion, po­lice vi­o­lence and oth­er forms of op­pres­sion can be phys­i­cal­ly in­ca­pac­i­tat­ing (even dead­ly), and they can be psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly par­a­lyz­ing. The fear, doubt, self-ha­tred, and in­ter­nal­ized op­pres­sion that can come from these ex­pe­ri­ences are a form of suffering.

“While suf­fer­ing can be root­ed in op­pres­sion, it can also be gen­er­at­ed from oth­er life ex­pe­ri­ences. For ex­am­ple, a per­son who has an ‘over-achiev­ing’ old­er sib­ling can have a con­sis­tent feel­ing of self-dis­ap­point­ment and al­ways feel the need to play catch-up. That person’s par­ents may have dis­cour­aged or ig­nored their achieve­ments while show­ing greater sup­port and en­cour­age­ment for their sib­ling. This can lead to dis­il­lu­sion­ment and a par­a­lyz­ing lack of confidence.

“These kinds of ex­pe­ri­ences and trau­ma, and the feel­ings that re­sult from them, may have lit­tle to do with sys­temic op­pres­sion. But whether these emo­tions are caused by op­pres­sion or not, the in­ter­nal re­sponse can take the form of suf­fer­ing. Suf­fer­ing be­comes a bar­ri­er to peo­ple bring­ing their best selves for­ward, par­tic­u­lar­ly in in­ter­per­son­al re­la­tion­ships and in their re­la­tion­ship to themselves.

“Al­though op­pres­sion and suf­fer­ing are re­lat­ed, they are not the same thing. Op­pres­sion is im­posed from the out­side while suf­fer­ing is gen­er­at­ed from the in­side. The dif­fer­ence between
op­pres­sion and suf­fer­ing is im­por­tant be­cause it means that dif­fer­ent ac­tions are re­quired to trans­form them. The abo­li­tion of op­pres­sion re­quires that we en­gage society’s structures,
where­as the ex­tin­guish­ing of suf­fer­ing re­quires that we en­gage ourselves.

“Many peo­ple in the world – in­clud­ing many or­ga­niz­ers in the so­cial jus­tice move­ment – are caught in the grips of suf­fer­ing. The suf­fer­ing shows up as non-pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior and as moods and mind­sets that can ham­per ef­fec­tive­ness. These be­hav­iors can cause dif­fi­cult re­la­tion­ships, and they can even de­rail whole or­ga­ni­za­tions. At times peo­ple un­con­scious­ly play out their trau­mas in or­ga­ni­za­tion­al and move­ment spaces, lead­ing to dam­aged or­ga­ni­za­tion­al re­la­tion­ships, iso­la­tion from al­lies, and ul­ti­mate­ly stagnation.

“The ex­pe­ri­ence of Nel­son Man­dela is in­struc­tive. The South African gov­ern­ment im­pris­oned him for op­pos­ing the racist apartheid regime, a clear ex­am­ple of op­pres­sion. He was pow­er­less to stop this op­pres­sion; it was im­posed on him by the apartheid po­lit­i­cal sys­tem. His op­pres­sion was ex­ter­nal­ly gen­er­at­ed. His 27 years of im­pris­on­ment were un­doubt­ed­ly bru­tal and de­hu­man­iz­ing. Yet he nev­er let the ex­pe­ri­ence take away his dig­ni­ty or his sense of self. He ex­pe­ri­enced op­pres­sion and pain, but he re­fused to let his ex­pe­ri­ence be one of suf­fer­ing that erod­ed his in­ter­nal in­tegri­ty or his whole­ness. In the end, Man­dela left prison seem­ing­ly more bal­anced and poised than many of his com­rades who had not been jailed. Draw­ing on his vi­sion and com­pas­sion, he ul­ti­mate­ly led his coun­try into a new era.

“Trans­for­ma­tive Or­ga­niz­ing be­lieves that both op­pres­sion and suf­fer­ing are im­ped­i­ments to people’s abil­i­ty to live whole lives, reach their po­ten­tial, and find ful­fill­ment. True free­dom is in­com­plete with­out both lib­er­a­tion from op­pres­sion and lib­er­a­tion from suf­fer­ing. Be­cause ex­ter­nal op­pres­sion and in­ter­nal suf­fer­ing work to­geth­er in a vi­cious cy­cle to keep each oth­er alive, it is es­sen­tial to en­gage both of them through an in­te­grat­ed process. When peo­ple are op­pressed, their re­ac­tion can of­ten be to in­ter­nal­ize the op­pres­sion by tak­ing on the nar­ra­tive of in­fe­ri­or­i­ty pro­mot­ed by the op­pres­sor. This in­ter­nal­ized op­pres­sion is a form of suf­fer­ing; it is con­di­tioned by ex­ter­nal op­pres­sion, but it is an in­ter­nal­ly gen­er­at­ed re­sponse that de­grades a person’s whole­ness, in­tegri­ty, and sense of self. This in­ter­nal suf­fer­ing can im­pede peo­ple from tak­ing ac­tion to end ex­ter­nal op­pres­sion. Stress and self-loathing hin­der them from bring­ing their most ef­fec­tive and clear selves to the task of lib­er­at­ing them­selves from ex­ter­nal op­pres­sion. This in­ac­tion then al­lows the ex­ter­nal op­pres­sion to con­tin­ue and to be­come nor­mal­ized, in turn caus­ing even more suffering.”

—Trans­for­ma­tive Or­ga­niz­ing: To­wards the Lib­er­a­tion of Self and So­ci­ety, So­cial Jus­tice Lead­er­ship, via Rad­i­cal Equal­i­ty Tools

FULL READ HERE.
 

—an­dru defeye

Flom­mist An­dru De­f­eye is the Guer­ril­la Poet Lau­re­ate of Sacra­men­to. Copy­right © 2018 An­dru De­f­eye. Top im­age: Orig­i­nal pan­els from Su­per­man vs. Muham­mad Ali, 1978.

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