A History of Corrosive Oppression

Recently, I’ve been watching that ABC Family Show Greek on Netflix Streaming.  When you search for Greek, the next result that comes up is The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization from PBS (1).  I decided that it sounded interesting and watched that too.  The part that inspired this blog is when they started talking about Sparta.

To start with they talk about the great military might of Sparta and how it was the major threat to Athens.  My history class in college was Ancient Western History (part 1), and so I know a small amount about Sparta that doesn’t come from movies.  I remembered that Sparta was comprised of two main groups of people, the Spartans and the Helots.  Helots was the name for Spartan slaves.  The actual citizens of Sparta were the slave masters (2).

It seems that portrayal of Spartans in our current culture is rather favorable: totally bad ass warrior dudes with amazing six packs.  However, this PBS documentary started talking about how every male Spartan citizen was taken away from their families early on to be raised in the barracks because being a solider was mandatory.  Apparently, they also lived on the move a lot, traveling from one battle to another with pretty much only one change of clothes.  According to other Greek cultures, their food was also horrible.  One Greek man is said to have written that, after eating their, food he realized that they were so fearless in battle because nothing they faced there would be as bad as having to eat the army rations.

If Sparta was so powerful, why did they have crappy foods and required military services?  Well, let me tell you my theory and understanding of that. Sparta conquered a neighboring community (possible named Helot, which may be where their word for slave came from).  They had people to tend their crops, so the actual citizens could focus their attention elsewhere.  They conquered more people, and had more slaves, which gave them more time to do things other than feed themselves.  But they also had a large slave population, and slave generally don’t like being slaves.  Historians think that Helots outnumbered Spartans seven to one (2).  In order to continue their oppression of the slaves, Spartans had to have every available man able to fight, which required being separated from their families as boys and forced into military service.  According to Wikipedia, Thucydides wrote that “most Spartan institutions have always been designed with a view to security against the Helots.”  They were on top, but being on the top required a lifestyle of intense fighting and oppression.

It also caused intense cruelty to become the norm.  Once a year, they would cull the Helots and during the rest of the year brutal beatings and subjugation was the norm.  To learn more about that, watch the second episode of the PBS documentary.  But why am I writing this and why should anyone care at all?

We should care because Sparta is just the oldest example I can come up with of the cost of oppression that continues to perpetuate every culture bent on empire.  Here’s a small example from today in America.  Last year, I was a therapist for an teenage boy, who was telling me about his very homophobic world view.  I didn’t know how to respond because I felt I had a duty to say something about how homophobia is bad, but I was also there as his therapist needed to maintain an alliance with my client for both our sakes.   I asked about it in class.  My white, elderly professor (conservative by social work standards, which means not uber liberal) had an answer that really surprised me.  His response was that he would intervene to address homophobic talk, but not because wanted to assert his views or felt an obligation to help the oppressed (in this case).  He would step in because to not do so would be a disservice to the client.  His words went like this, “I would worry about the part of himself he is harming by denying the humanity in another person.  To deny someone else’s humanity is to hurt yourself.”

I can’t really put it any better myself.  From the Spartans to the modern debates about marriage equality that are causing red and pink = signs to take over facebook today, there is not a single person in the community that is not in some way harmed by oppression and the denial of others humanity.  End blog.

Let Me Tell You About Pigeons. Why They Are So Freaking Awesome.

I wrote this almost a year ago.   It came to me one morning when I couldn’t sleep because Philadelphia can be so freaking hot in the summer, especially on days when you have the chance of sleeping in.  These are my feelings expressed in a poem-like setting.  Currently, no title because nothing I’ve thought of seems to fit.  Feel free to share suggestions.

Let me tell you about pigeons
Why they are so freaking awesome.
Pigeons are survivors.

I have always loved pigeons.
Watching Masters of evolution and adaptation
The ones that survived when the country turned
From trees, grasses, prickly bushes
Into skyscrapers and concrete.

More than surviving, flourishing
Growing and multiplying
Finding new ways to live
No matter the cost.

When people chase them,
Turn them into playthings for children,
They always return to life before
Humans a temporary, if dangerous, distraction from life.

As I grew older and became a social worker
I began to see more and more parallels
Between the birds I love
And the clients I serve.

Winged rats, pest, disease infected vermin
People hurl insults and genuine disgust at the birds
Who learned to live when we changed
The surface of the earth.

They crap on my car!
Someone exclaims, never noticing that
He parked his car under the tree
That is their home.

Does that not remind you of what some say of the homeless in our midst?
Eye sores, detracting from tourism and property values.
No respect or awe for people who live in conditions
That would terrify us.
Building lives and finding love on the sides of our mainstream.

In some ways the pigeons
Do not seem to mind us
Do not recognize
Our power and their oppression
Scattering when we walk by is just life.
We have now begun to call that
Complex Trauma.

Complex Trauma
Like Black men living in a society
Where politicians and media have made
Black synonymous with criminal.

Like my LGBTQ friends
Who know not to walk down the street
Holding hands with the person they love
Because sexual orientation is not protected
By the Civil Rights Act.

Have you looked at a flock of pigeons?
More than you might expect are missing a foot.
How did they lose it?
Does it pain them to walk on the stump
As they go about their daily lives
Finding food without seeming concern?

I would not be surprised if you have not noticed.
We train our eye to avoid to the sight of
Physical difference.
The injured veteran, the ex-employee with a work-time injury,
A woman burned by a violent partner.
All of them are relegated to invisibility
By the part of us that warns,
Stranger, Other.

The only time we notice them,
Like pigeons,
Is when they get in our way.
The leeches asking for public money.
Please, we want help with food, housing,
Education for our children.
Maybe even some dignity.

From what I observe,
Pigeons don’t really help either.
But at least they do not one seem
To hate other pigeons.
Unlike our society where
Hate is profitable for the economy.

These parallels are probably not
What called my attention
To these feathered underdogs.
No, it was likely their shiny multicolored feathers.
So beautiful pigeons.
Like other children
Not realizing that this beauty
Was the wrong kind of beauty.

Like when Mexican immigrants move into rundown
Abandoned communities.
Repair the homes
Paint them bright and vibrant colors.
Then the homeowners association gets mad.
Because white blight is better
Than ethnic bright, life.

I would miss the pigeons if they left.
Worst, who would take the place
Of the bird who fills our need
For something to hate?

For removing the thing
We call the problem
Will not address our indoctrinated need
To hate another in order to prove
We are in the inner circle.

A Different Way to Think About Sexual Assault

MILD TRIGGER WARNING

Yesterday, I read a story about Zerlina Maxwell.  She is a feminist writer, and she was on the Hannity Show in response to discussion about whether or not women carrying guns on a college campus would lower the rate of sexual assaults and rapes (1).  Maxwell’s said that she thought the solution was not to tell woman anything about how to prevent rape, whether it is a gun or a rape whistle.  Instead, she wants to conversation framed around educating men not to rape women.  She has sense gotten a lot of horrible backlash, which is worth a whole discussion on it’s own, but isn’t the point for this blog.  The Think Progress Article I am linking to, though, is great because you can also watch the video clip of The Hannity Show, as well as seeing an example of that backlash.

Reading the article and watching the video reminded me of an argument that took place in my racism class last year.  Someone brought up a story about how a woman had gone to a guy’s hotel room dressed very provocatively and then later said the man had raped her.  Someone said that she should not have dressed provocatively, and there are just some common sense things that women should do to protect themselves.  Well, that sparked a huge argument, filled with lots of tension and anger, that came up multiple times throughout the entire year we met as a class.

At the time, there wasn’t much I said on the topic.  Partly because there were other people with a whole lot to say, and party because I didn’t have the words to express my emotional reaction.  I did, however, have a strong gut reaction that these comments and these ideas were wrong and offensive.  I just didn’t know how to talk about it so that it made sense, and so I wouldn’t get so upset I’d start crying in class, which I hate.

Now, I have had some time to think about it, had Maxwell to help frame it for me, and I am ready to talk about it.  First, women from their birth are told that their value in our culture goes up when when men find them physically attractive.  Many women respond to this socialization, quite reasonably, by dressing in a way that is considered attractive.  This does not mean that their physical and psychological safety can be violated in anyway.  However, when a woman is sexually assaulted, the same culture that taught them to dress a certain way usually responds but slut shaming.  It isn’t fair and it doesn’t even make sense when you really think about it.

Second, blaming the woman for dressing suggestively may seem to let the rapist off the hook, to favor men.  But it doesn’t help men either.  It tells all men and boys that they are not in control of their bodies and actions, that a mini-skirt is more powerful than their minds and decisions.  It robs men of their agency.  It is feminist to tell men that they can be more than a rapist, that in fact they are expected to be more.  Take a second to think about most of the boys and men you know.  I bet all of them (well the straight or bi ones) have seen a woman they are attracted to and managed not to rape her.  Blaming women for sexual assault and rape hurts everyone and heals no one.  Maxwell is right that it is time for another conversation.  It’s time to teach boys not to rape, rather than teach women how to live in fear of rapists.

Someone else posted a quote by Sir Patrick Stewart so that people could hear this message from a man.  I think he also addresses the matter eloquently, so I will include it.

“The truth is that domestic violence and violence against women touch many of us. This violence is not a private matter. Behind closed doors it is shielded and hidden and it only intensifies. It is protected by silence – everyone’s silence. Violence against women is learned. Each of us must examine – and change – the ways in which our own behavior might contribute to, enable, ignore or excuse all such forms of violence. I promise to do so, and to invite other men and allies to do the same. ” (2)

Like Stewart, I also take this time to reaffirm my commitment to understanding and changing the ways that I help perpetuate a culture of violence.  Even for someone who is surrounded by amazing feminists and men and women actively working to end violence against women in all forms, it is hard to stop perpetuating this culture.

I know this for myself because, in college, a male friend of mine was accused of sexually harassing a female student.  My first response was to be dismissive, to not believe her, to stick up for my male friend.  It was really hard to admit that this person I liked and trusted could harass a woman.  But, as Maxell points out, the majority of rapes are committed by people we know and trust.  Though my friend was not accused of rape or physical assault, automatically believing my friend and dismissing the woman would perpetuate a culture where it is not safe for women to speak out.  It’s hard for everyone, and it will continue to be hard.  However, I still have hope for women and men (and other genders and for people who identify without a gender) that we can create a culture where everyone is taught that it is not OK to rape.

If you are looking for a small way to make your own affirmation to changing our culture, here is a form where you can send a letter of support to Maxwell as she deals with with the backlash of demanding real change.  Click here!

Everyone Working Towards Social Justice

I attend a weekly young adult discussion group at my church.  My church is part of the United Church of Christ, which is a super hippie/liberal/progressive christian organization.  We spend a lot of time talking about social justice.  Several people have made comments about how they find it difficult to live up to their call to work for social justice.  One person said that if he was a teacher or a social worker, he could feel OK that he was doing his part everyday, but, since his profession isn’t obviously social justice oriented, he feels like it is harder for him to contribute.

My lovely boyfriend got me thinking about these comments when he sent me two interesting articles yesterday.  Both of them are about how “everyday people” or people, like my friend, who chose professions that aren’t directly about social justice that are making positive changes in the world.

The first article was about a man who really liked going to his local deli.  Recently, a famous African American was accused of stealing at the deli and was searched by an employee (1).  The man in question struggled with his decision to boycott the deli because the owner seemed like a really nice man who was truly apologetic, the employee in question was “a good man” who didn’t mean to be racist, and it’s a good deli.  It was eventually his wife who helped him frame the event in the context of his family.  If it had happened to his son, he would have no question about his loyalty to the deli.  That thought motivated him to action.

The second article was about a white, female author who wanted to write a fantasy story that utilized Native American folklore because she was frustrated about how fantasy is dominated by European stories and traditions (2).  Someone pointed out that her portrayal of another culture had unintentionally utilized stereotypes and had, in some cases, demeaned the other culture.  Her response was to re-write her story with the help of the person who had criticized her.  This story had already been published, by the way.Both of these people are not teachers or social workers, but they are making meaningful contributions to our cultural understanding and tolerance of racism and other -isms.

And there are more inspiring people in both stories than the authors.  There are the people who had to the guts to stand up and to criticize people whose actions had been racist.  That’s a really hard thing to do, and it is often frowned upon as being too uptight or unfriendly, even in my liberal communities.  However, risking offending a person in a dominant social group in order to speak the unpopular voice of people who are oppressed and marginalized is powerful, needed, and impressive.  It is something that everyone can do throughout their daily lives.  It requires bravery, but bravery that millions of people around the planet show everyday regardless of their education or profession.

Since I brought up the topic that offending another person can be OK, I’ll end with referring you, once again, to The Social Justice League because she has already written a cool post going further into this issue (3).  I applaud everyone who continues to wrestle with their part in working towards social justice and is willing to push themselves outside of the comfort of their daily routine.