I have been thinking a lot lately about the trauma in our communities. I believe that our communities have the right to make decisions and create solutions for our communities. I do not believe that people outside the communities should be trying to implement their own solutions to our problems (even if they created the problem). I do however believe that they can provide us some advice and training, though both should ad to out knowledge not brainwash us.
What concerns me is the legacy of trauma. Oppression and colonialism have left their marks much deeper than infrastructure. Our families are or can be seriously fucked up.
Drug Abuse: Pick your favorite: Alcohol, Crack, Cocaine (less often), Meth, Heroin, and Weed. Anyone addicted to a these substances (I'm talking real addiction-life consuming) is going to have a difficult time, creating solutions to problems within our community. The harm of drug addiction is not necessarily the altered state of mind as much as the lack of love, for oneself, and ones community and family. Why are we addicted to drugs?
Well there is the introduction to our community through various contact with the oppressor, and then there is the issue of self medication. We are self medicating for the fucked up shit that happened. We have lost our family and friends at alarming rates from the beginning of colonization until now; due to genocide, slavery, disease, poverty, abuse, addiction and suicide.
Any combination or by themselves these things will harm your perception of yourself, how you treat others, and how you raise your children. Once you are messed up in the head its hard not to pass on that messed upness to your children, and have it mess with your relationships and friendships. Not to say this is a barrier to productive and positive social change but how do we combine the services NEEDED and the organizing NECESSARY to create change? If we have been hurt by others, why will we want to help them? I'm not talking in the broader since, like forgive white supremacy, but just within our own communities. Sometimes we hate and i mean hate some of our community members, because they abused or caused pain to us or someone we know. We think they DESERVE what they got (ie prison, addiction, poverty etc) How do we deal with the hate we hold for each other?
all of these are so intertwined....
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
"Personal Responsibility"
Personal Responsibility is probably the worst debate to befall the American people. The philosophy of personal responsibility seems to arise from the formation of the United States by rich white men. The rise of Western Society, and American society forced people to identify as Individuals. Negating the fact that we are all members of a larger community. This societal change was forced upon Native peoples forcing us quickly into a society we did not know how to function within. Personal responsibility within the realm of our capitalistic nation seems nothing other than words that are used to oppress peoples, an attempt to blame inequity on the poor choices of those who receive inequitable outcomes. The debates around social forms of health care, prison, education, welfare, etc are all based in, does that person "deserve" to have these things because of their "personal decisions". Decisions and Responsibility imply choice. So the debate should be about the choices rather than the decisions and responsibilities to make the correct ones.
* Why should I have to pay for health care of someone that doesn't take care of themselves? What if they smoke? That is their decision. If they don't contribute to society and have a job, why should they get health care?
* They made the choice to go to prison and become a criminal. Why should they get any social services or help? They need to take personal responsibility for their actions and get a job and be a contributing member of society.
* That 16,17,18 or younger kid CHOSE to drop out. They CHOSE not to go to class and get bad grades. Why should we invest in kids that don't care about school? They should not blame the bad teachers, or lack of books, or lack of bathrooms for their decisions. They need to take "personal responsibility for their actions".
* Welfare- Those women chose to have those kids, they are lazy, they need to get a job, we should not be responsible for supporting them, when they chose to do all the above.
***Lets stop pulling the race card or complaining about the choices people make. People need to just take responsibility for their actions. Lets stop excusing, Murderers, Lazy people, and Welfare mothers, high school drop outs, etc.
This whole line of thought makes me, SICK. If anyone points out a systemic failure, that causes some people to make bad choices, all of a sudden that person is making excuses for what should be considered "degenerate" members of society. Gary R. Ryan wrote an article on Lovelle Mixon entitled, "Did Lovelle Mixon Get Any Respect?" . The commenters went wild, with anger at the audacity of Gary to imply that Mixon deserved respect. A rapist and murderer, how could he ever deserve respect. One of the many points that seemed to escape the commenters was that the choices that Lovelle had to make throughout his life, should never even have presented themselves. The reasons these "choices" existed for Lovelle is due to the structural racism and inequity that he was subjected to throughout his life. YES other people made other choices that were in his exact situation, but that is not the debate we should be having. Some kids chose to stay in schools with bad teachers, and bad books. Some people reformed themselves after their first stint in prison or jail. Some people never made the choice to engage in crime. Some men, despite having confused understandings of power and sexuality, due to a history potentially starting at a very young age(during developmental years, or maybe not) do not in fact rape little girls. This is absolutely true. BUT should those "choices" be forced upon young black men EVERYDAY throughout the country in the first place?
We can all agree that people make bad decisions. But the fact that:
* many students are never forced to be in schools without working bathrooms, without enough books for students to take home to do school work with, without good teachers.
* Many young men in towns across America, have to actively seek criminal activities, and are never forced into situations where they would have to chose whether or not to engage.
* Many people are never sent to jail/prison (where there are tons of violent criminals- and one is forced to survive), and then upon returning to society, denied access to jobs because of their criminal record (regardless of if it was a first time offense, violent or non-violent). but regardless are expected to pick up the pieces of their life and do good in the world, even if their lack of education and criminal record makes it near impossible . (but that doesn't matter they should continue to try, besides, those past fuck ups were also their bad choices)
The American community complains about crime and social programs, blaming people for the "choices" they make. But when people try to offer up explanations for those problems such as structural inequality, those people are told to stop making excuses. Where does that leave us? Can't we at least agree that for now, the debate shouldn't surround personal responsibility? Especially when many of us have never gotten the same set of choices, rendering us incapable of judging someone else by the choices they make?
And for those of us that have survived through the structural inequalities, come out relatively unscathed and have even become successful, can we not keep our fellow brothers and sisters down? Boa Phi a Vietnamese spoken word artist says it best in his song about Reverse Racism.
"...If a white poet goes up to do a poem about reverse racists. I won't get mad. He's not talking about me. I won't even speak out. I might even laugh a little bit. Because I already have brainwashed an entire nation of white people to defend us, Asians, more than they would defend themselves or each other."
Sometimes for fear of being labeled one of those "unsuccessful, lazy, dumb, criminal, etc" people of color; we shout at the top of our lungs to say, "I made it" "I'm not one of them", " you are so right, they make bad decisions". We need to defend each other, and at the very least, change the debate. We can all agree that we should have good schools and opportunities, it costs money to do so, so lets get to providing social services that we all benefit from. A well employed well educated society is good for us all, and it takes investments. Good schools, good teachers, good jobs (as in the kind that pay enough for you to survive, and the ones that treat you with the respect and dignity every human deserves), affordable health care (so people are not plummeted into financial debt because of health issues, especially since debt and financial security affect the life outcomes of the youth living in the home), Lets make sure that youth regardless of their ethnicity, culture, religion, sex, ability, or sexual orientation see that people like them can succeed, lets make sure they all have role models.
Give to yourself and others the power to rise up to the challenge.
GIVE RISE
* Why should I have to pay for health care of someone that doesn't take care of themselves? What if they smoke? That is their decision. If they don't contribute to society and have a job, why should they get health care?
* They made the choice to go to prison and become a criminal. Why should they get any social services or help? They need to take personal responsibility for their actions and get a job and be a contributing member of society.
* That 16,17,18 or younger kid CHOSE to drop out. They CHOSE not to go to class and get bad grades. Why should we invest in kids that don't care about school? They should not blame the bad teachers, or lack of books, or lack of bathrooms for their decisions. They need to take "personal responsibility for their actions".
* Welfare- Those women chose to have those kids, they are lazy, they need to get a job, we should not be responsible for supporting them, when they chose to do all the above.
***Lets stop pulling the race card or complaining about the choices people make. People need to just take responsibility for their actions. Lets stop excusing, Murderers, Lazy people, and Welfare mothers, high school drop outs, etc.
This whole line of thought makes me, SICK. If anyone points out a systemic failure, that causes some people to make bad choices, all of a sudden that person is making excuses for what should be considered "degenerate" members of society. Gary R. Ryan wrote an article on Lovelle Mixon entitled, "Did Lovelle Mixon Get Any Respect?" . The commenters went wild, with anger at the audacity of Gary to imply that Mixon deserved respect. A rapist and murderer, how could he ever deserve respect. One of the many points that seemed to escape the commenters was that the choices that Lovelle had to make throughout his life, should never even have presented themselves. The reasons these "choices" existed for Lovelle is due to the structural racism and inequity that he was subjected to throughout his life. YES other people made other choices that were in his exact situation, but that is not the debate we should be having. Some kids chose to stay in schools with bad teachers, and bad books. Some people reformed themselves after their first stint in prison or jail. Some people never made the choice to engage in crime. Some men, despite having confused understandings of power and sexuality, due to a history potentially starting at a very young age(during developmental years, or maybe not) do not in fact rape little girls. This is absolutely true. BUT should those "choices" be forced upon young black men EVERYDAY throughout the country in the first place?
We can all agree that people make bad decisions. But the fact that:
* many students are never forced to be in schools without working bathrooms, without enough books for students to take home to do school work with, without good teachers.
* Many young men in towns across America, have to actively seek criminal activities, and are never forced into situations where they would have to chose whether or not to engage.
* Many people are never sent to jail/prison (where there are tons of violent criminals- and one is forced to survive), and then upon returning to society, denied access to jobs because of their criminal record (regardless of if it was a first time offense, violent or non-violent). but regardless are expected to pick up the pieces of their life and do good in the world, even if their lack of education and criminal record makes it near impossible . (but that doesn't matter they should continue to try, besides, those past fuck ups were also their bad choices)
The American community complains about crime and social programs, blaming people for the "choices" they make. But when people try to offer up explanations for those problems such as structural inequality, those people are told to stop making excuses. Where does that leave us? Can't we at least agree that for now, the debate shouldn't surround personal responsibility? Especially when many of us have never gotten the same set of choices, rendering us incapable of judging someone else by the choices they make?
And for those of us that have survived through the structural inequalities, come out relatively unscathed and have even become successful, can we not keep our fellow brothers and sisters down? Boa Phi a Vietnamese spoken word artist says it best in his song about Reverse Racism.
"...If a white poet goes up to do a poem about reverse racists. I won't get mad. He's not talking about me. I won't even speak out. I might even laugh a little bit. Because I already have brainwashed an entire nation of white people to defend us, Asians, more than they would defend themselves or each other."
Sometimes for fear of being labeled one of those "unsuccessful, lazy, dumb, criminal, etc" people of color; we shout at the top of our lungs to say, "I made it" "I'm not one of them", " you are so right, they make bad decisions". We need to defend each other, and at the very least, change the debate. We can all agree that we should have good schools and opportunities, it costs money to do so, so lets get to providing social services that we all benefit from. A well employed well educated society is good for us all, and it takes investments. Good schools, good teachers, good jobs (as in the kind that pay enough for you to survive, and the ones that treat you with the respect and dignity every human deserves), affordable health care (so people are not plummeted into financial debt because of health issues, especially since debt and financial security affect the life outcomes of the youth living in the home), Lets make sure that youth regardless of their ethnicity, culture, religion, sex, ability, or sexual orientation see that people like them can succeed, lets make sure they all have role models.
Give to yourself and others the power to rise up to the challenge.
GIVE RISE
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