"My grandmother's grandmother was a slave. I spent many years living with her. I wasn't consciously processing how slavery impacted her life - but my grandmother was open about her feelings towards white people. Slavery passed down a trauma to me that people outside the African-American community fail to understand. We're 'trained to go' in the Bay Area - a lot of Black families here came from the South - we react instinctively to being made to feel inferior." In line with this, prison therapist, James Gilligan, has noted that at the base of most violent acts is a presence of a profound feeling of disrespect. People tend to commit violent acts when they feel disrespected, and they don't feel as though there is any other way to gain that respect back. But this is a society that doesn't hesitate to disrespect the disadvantaged, whether the disadvantaged in question are the poor, people of color, individuals labeled by the state as criminals, or other vulnerable individuals or groups. Oftentimes, on the part of those most vulnerable, the attitude that violence is the answer doesn't seem that unreasonable. This demand is unidirectional. The oppressed don't have the resources to show unconditional love; they are busy surviving. The oppressors have all the resources. Let's start with debt forgiveness and the end of state violence. We are busy holding our breath. But conditional love, or the attitude that you will only get my love if you show me love and respect back on my terms, only works if we are already on equal footing. In an unequal society, someone has to give first. Unconditional love and respect should not be expected from the oppressed, but it should be expected from the oppressors.
22 Comments
12/30/2015 03:01:09 pm
"Slavery passed down a trauma to me that people outside the African-American community fail to understand."
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12/30/2015 03:02:05 pm
"Yes, it must be so horrible to live in the Bay Area, with so many tangible memories of servitude all around you."
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12/30/2015 03:03:02 pm
"Slavery passed down a trauma to me that people outside the African-American community fail to understand. We're 'trained to go' in the Bay Area - people of color here react instinctively to being made to feel inferior."
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12/30/2015 03:03:42 pm
Because only black people have ever been victims of slavery.
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12/30/2015 03:04:32 pm
Sure. And my native ancestors being killed by white men passed on trauma to me. Oh wait. It didn't, because I'm not an idiot!
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"People tend to commit violent acts when they feel disrespected, and they don't feel as though there is any other way to gain that respect back."
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12/30/2015 03:08:56 pm
To be fair, there is some science dictating that it is possible that trauma can manifest itself in later generations. Referred to as "epigenetic inheritance."
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12/30/2015 03:09:49 pm
THIS WAS THE NEXT STEP IN ABSTERGO'S GRAND PLAN.
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12/30/2015 03:10:45 pm
Passed down a trauma? What, you can leave a psychological condition to someone in your will now?
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12/30/2015 03:11:40 pm
Where did this idea come from that people's feelings justify their bad behavior? The antebellum white South owned slaves because they didn't "feel" like working in the fields; did that make it OK? What's the moral difference between that, and shivving some dude in prison because you "feel" like he disrespected you?
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12/30/2015 03:13:50 pm
I'm partially Indian and the Mughal Empire makes me entitled to feel traumatized, and that I can fuck with Muslims because they don't understand what they did to me, because it was all Muslims that were Mughals the same way it was all white people that enslaved. Those quakers back in the day were literally the devil, the DEVIL.
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The Sicilian
1/6/2016 11:16:54 pm
I'm Sicilian, am I entitled to unconditional love from the Moors, the Italians, the Greeks, oh and the rest of the Mediterranean?
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Sigh
1/7/2016 02:29:26 am
"my grandmother was open about her feelings towards white people."
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stiff77
1/7/2016 05:58:24 am
During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children aged 10 to 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Still 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers. Many people today avoid calling the Irish slaves called what they really were: Slaves. They use words such as "indentured servants" to describe what happened to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.
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Rustle James
1/7/2016 06:56:59 am
I find it hard to believe that you've spent time with your grandmother's grandmother.
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First American
1/7/2016 11:39:05 pm
Oh PLEASE. I'm Native American, and have RECENT, tangible trauma in my family.
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First American
1/7/2016 11:43:58 pm
By the way, we know what the fuck ACTUAL genocide is all about.
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Jungle McFunckey
2/14/2017 04:43:20 am
Fucking dumb shitskin.
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7/20/2017 05:45:53 am
Not clear, are you saying that you lived with your great-great grandmother for many years? Because the math on that is kinda vague. Anyway, you aren't going to fix the future by staying stuck in the past. Your ancestor's problems aren't your problems, and your problems won't be your descendant's problems.
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