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I've been thinking a lot about the hollowness of "unity and healing" & wrote about why it feels like the ultimate micro-aggression for @HillReporter
I interviewed a number of folks about this & I want to share some quotes that got cut for length. 1/ https://hillreporter.com/opinion-the-microaggression-behind-demands-for-unity-and-healing-92647
I interviewed a number of folks about this & I want to share some quotes that got cut for length. 1/ https://hillreporter.com/opinion-the-microaggression-behind-demands-for-unity-and-healing-92647
From @reappropriate "There’s a focus on anti-racism is still filtered through interpersonal relationships, racism is still framed in overly simplistic terms, about interpersonal bias. This framework’s idea is that if we could fix interpersonal bias we can fix racism." (cont.)
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"It’s a very nonstructural, nonsystemic framework of what racism actually means, and because of that, there’s this idea that if I don’t perceive myself as the racist, then my role in anti-racism is to encourage teachable moments for worse racists." (cont.)
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"Self-perceived non-racist white people do not examine their own complicity in white supremacist system, and sidesteps the much more complicated question about how to tackle and dismantle white supremacist systemic racism." (cont.)
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"They fixate on redemptive qualities in victims of color, they think, how can we defend POC who aren't civil? The framework is centered on fixing white racists & creates caricatures of POC who don't *deserve* negative treatment & this is a form of infantilization." (cont.)
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"It’s not to downplay how there’s work to do as a white person who wants to be anti-racist, but that's not the whole picture and still focuses on how do we make white people better, and doesn't include how to de-centering themselves. " 6/
From @MistressSnowPhD: “What ‘unity and healing’ means is shut the fuck up.
It plays on this neoliberal idea that individuals deserve some level of civility unrelated to the institutions they represent and uphold and through which they enact violence." (cont.)
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It plays on this neoliberal idea that individuals deserve some level of civility unrelated to the institutions they represent and uphold and through which they enact violence." (cont.)
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"Other problems w/ unity and healing: they’re not actually moving towards unity or healing. Nothing even resembling reparations, we still don’t have the fucking $2000 (cont.)"
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"The only example of ANYTHING actually being done that I can think of is the homelessness initiative in Austin, TX that came out of the police budget."
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From @wagatwe: "I understood what [Biden] was saying, healing is important, I understand unity, but I didn’t like his framing because he posited unity as the solution and that’s a gross simplification (cont.)"
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"Especially with white liberals following up talking about unity and healing in a way that feels like a way to gloss over things."
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"For me I think the right way to reassure abused people about healing and uniting is making sure you talk about accountability and also centering us and making sure we’re being heard (cont.)"
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"Make sure there’s transparency and give us some power in the process because right now it feels like a conversation amongst white people and amongst very powerful people."
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"I worry that they just want to be comfortable again and not have the tough conversations, that people don’t want to make the tough decisions and acknowledge that abusers are fascists and white supremacist and unity is not the solution and move forward."
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From @HelenHsuPsyD: "I’m all for reconciliation but if you look at other countries, they have to have truth & reconciliation, there has to be hearings & trials & the truth had to come out & people have had to do things like apologize & have all their crimes be put out there."
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"Healing can't happen without work, without someone being remorseful for what they have done.
There really isn’t remorse so far, no one has apologized except for a few people that got arrested, and even then they made excuses, like heat of the moment."
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There really isn’t remorse so far, no one has apologized except for a few people that got arrested, and even then they made excuses, like heat of the moment."
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"A lot of families would say, 'Oh my god, this would rip the family apart, so your uncle molested you, or he beat his wife, but can’t we just move on?' Which allows trauma to fester, which allows abusive behavior to continue."
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"If you look at the data, people who are abusers have a pattern, and everybody else who is 'nice and normal' wants so badly for us to be OK, and this is what allows the abuse to live on for generations, facilitated and enabled by nice people."
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"What we need is for people to go, 'OK America, family, this is what actually happened & someone responsible & for people apologize sincerely & change their ways. It’s good to look at restorative justice, which isn't just locking people up, but making up in a healthy way."
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