Can Master Syndrome be Undone: An urgent Challenge for the Anti-Racist Movement December 21, 2014 By María I. Reinat-Pumarejo
Can Master Syndrome be Undone: An urgent Challenge for the Anti-Racist Movement
By María I. Reinat-Pumarejo
December 21, 2015
If there is such a thing as post traumatic slave disorder,as Joy DeGruy-Leary proposed in her most inspiring PostTraumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,can there be such a thing as “Master syndrome”? To what extent do white people seriously understandtheir own humanity in a racialized society? My experience as an anti-racist educator and organizer for almost threedecades tells me that good white people barely pay attention to how racismimpacts them. Having a sustained and logical conversation about racialpathology is harder when the pathology pertains to white people. Once they pass the stage of denial, they areso ready to be in solidarity with People of Color and even compete for firstplace as “the good ally”, that they seldom pay attention to how racism degradesthem spiritually and psychologically, or how they continue to transfer theirown racial pathology (master syndrome if we follow DeGruy-Learys’s blue print) ontothe next generations.
For years, even as I met most impressive white paladins ofthe anti-racist movement, I have seen them stuck in their internalized racialsuperiority. While they know how to brilliantly describe its manifestations,they are unable or unwilling to relinquish its seductive power. Gettingso much into our business, as the so-called “recipients of racism”, theyneglect to examine how lacerated they themselves are due to racism. Entertained by the intoxication of the newand glamorous identity of “the good white ally,” whites as benevolent patrons, usuallymiss the opportunity to explore their own racialization and dehumanization.
As I struggle with the effects of the racial ideology uponmy own people —how to recover a healthy sense of belonging in a racializedsociety that deems us as the “inferior other”— there are some questions thatcontinue to linger in my mind over the years: why should white people undoracism when apparently it works so well for them? How superior do white peoplereally feel about themselves upon discovering that the measures of excellencehave been degraded in order to deliver the illusion of their superiority? How superior can they really feel in any enterprisewhen they unfairly neutralize or eliminate competitors? What is, therefore, the effect upon theirself-concept and self-esteem when deep inside they know they, in fact, are notsuperior? How do they deal with thedisorientation that such cognitive dissonance produces? Can we honestlystruggle together when whites have not even considered the deepest of racialmanifestations: that is their ontological sense, their very existence asracialized beings? Who are they truly withoutthe security blanket of race privilege? Canwe even be sincere when, out of society’s racial norms, there is still anexpectation that People of Color will bear the cross in silence, not speakingtoo clearly, too loudly, too frequently about racism for the comfort of whites? Are they so delicate to the sound and tothe pounding of the truth that they, perhaps, are not made for anti-racist struggle?Have they entertained the notion that even in the proposition of an ally-victimdichotomy, they are still positioned as superior? How can we struggle together when this by-productof a racialized society is so underplayed?
In these days when so many of our sons have been killed bypolice and vigilantes, the ghost of the infamous Judge Taney sneaks into in mymind with his ugly determination in Dred Scott v. Standford (1857): “blacks are by far so inferiorthat they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” It will appear, based on the latestincidents in the cases of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and so many othervictims across the US, that this determination is still the law of theland. We live desperate times. I don’t know of any mother of father of colorwho does not agonize with the thought that their son might not come back alivefrom school, from a trip to the store, or from a night out with friends. My point: we can no longer afford beingdishonest for the comfort of white people. The conversation needs to evolve. If we are to engage systemic racism, we need to come clean, and go deepin the healing of all our racial pathologies, ours and theirs.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/25/obama-ferguson-prosecutor-politicians-protesters-get-it
December 21, 2015
If there is such a thing as post traumatic slave disorder,as Joy DeGruy-Leary proposed in her most inspiring PostTraumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,can there be such a thing as “Master syndrome”? To what extent do white people seriously understandtheir own humanity in a racialized society? My experience as an anti-racist educator and organizer for almost threedecades tells me that good white people barely pay attention to how racismimpacts them. Having a sustained and logical conversation about racialpathology is harder when the pathology pertains to white people. Once they pass the stage of denial, they areso ready to be in solidarity with People of Color and even compete for firstplace as “the good ally”, that they seldom pay attention to how racism degradesthem spiritually and psychologically, or how they continue to transfer theirown racial pathology (master syndrome if we follow DeGruy-Learys’s blue print) ontothe next generations.
For years, even as I met most impressive white paladins ofthe anti-racist movement, I have seen them stuck in their internalized racialsuperiority. While they know how to brilliantly describe its manifestations,they are unable or unwilling to relinquish its seductive power. Gettingso much into our business, as the so-called “recipients of racism”, theyneglect to examine how lacerated they themselves are due to racism. Entertained by the intoxication of the newand glamorous identity of “the good white ally,” whites as benevolent patrons, usuallymiss the opportunity to explore their own racialization and dehumanization.
As I struggle with the effects of the racial ideology uponmy own people —how to recover a healthy sense of belonging in a racializedsociety that deems us as the “inferior other”— there are some questions thatcontinue to linger in my mind over the years: why should white people undoracism when apparently it works so well for them? How superior do white peoplereally feel about themselves upon discovering that the measures of excellencehave been degraded in order to deliver the illusion of their superiority? How superior can they really feel in any enterprisewhen they unfairly neutralize or eliminate competitors? What is, therefore, the effect upon theirself-concept and self-esteem when deep inside they know they, in fact, are notsuperior? How do they deal with thedisorientation that such cognitive dissonance produces? Can we honestlystruggle together when whites have not even considered the deepest of racialmanifestations: that is their ontological sense, their very existence asracialized beings? Who are they truly withoutthe security blanket of race privilege? Canwe even be sincere when, out of society’s racial norms, there is still anexpectation that People of Color will bear the cross in silence, not speakingtoo clearly, too loudly, too frequently about racism for the comfort of whites? Are they so delicate to the sound and tothe pounding of the truth that they, perhaps, are not made for anti-racist struggle?Have they entertained the notion that even in the proposition of an ally-victimdichotomy, they are still positioned as superior? How can we struggle together when this by-productof a racialized society is so underplayed?
In these days when so many of our sons have been killed bypolice and vigilantes, the ghost of the infamous Judge Taney sneaks into in mymind with his ugly determination in Dred Scott v. Standford (1857): “blacks are by far so inferiorthat they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” It will appear, based on the latestincidents in the cases of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and so many othervictims across the US, that this determination is still the law of theland. We live desperate times. I don’t know of any mother of father of colorwho does not agonize with the thought that their son might not come back alivefrom school, from a trip to the store, or from a night out with friends. My point: we can no longer afford beingdishonest for the comfort of white people. The conversation needs to evolve. If we are to engage systemic racism, we need to come clean, and go deepin the healing of all our racial pathologies, ours and theirs.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/25/obama-ferguson-prosecutor-politicians-protesters-get-it
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