sophiaserpentia | on being slowly worn down

So, Don Imus was suspended by MSNBC for two weeks for the recent racist/sexist outburst by him and Bernard McGuirk on his show. Who says "jigaboos" anymore -- i mean, really?

Someone on my friend's list (please step forward if you want to be attributed) predicted that of course he wouldn't be fired because he speaks for MSNBC. The more i think about this, the more obvious it seems. Of course he speaks for MSNBC, he has been a mouthpiece for institutional racism/sexism/homophobia/classism for 30 years. It suits the interests of the upper class to have people saying what he says.

A while ago i pondered whether it is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that makes oppression possible, and if i ever create a "Sabrina's greatest hits" tag, that one will be on it, because it is an idea i continually return to. Let me be a bit more specific, though, and modify that hypothesis just a bit: it is perhaps more accurate to say that it is Complex PTSD that makes oppression possible.

From an essay on C-PTSD:

It's widely accepted that PTSD can result from a single, major, life-threatening event, as defined in DSM-IV. Now there is growing awareness that PTSD can also result from an accumulation of many small, individually non-life-threatening incidents. To differentiate the cause, the term "Complex PTSD" is used. The reason that Complex PTSD is not in DSM-IV is that the definition of PTSD in DSM-IV was derived using only people who had suffered a single major life-threatening incident such as Vietnam veterans and survivors of disasters.

... It seems that Complex PTSD can potentially arise from any prolonged period of negative stress in which certain factors are present, which may include any of captivity, lack of means of escape, entrapment, repeated violation of boundaries, betrayal, rejection, bewilderment, confusion, and - crucially - lack of control, loss of control and disempowerment. It is the overwhelming nature of the events and the inability (helplessness, lack of knowledge, lack of support etc) of the person trying to deal with those events that leads to the development of Complex PTSD. Situations which might give rise to Complex PTSD include bullying, harassment, abuse, domestic violence, stalking, long-term caring for a disabled relative, unresolved grief, exam stress over a period of years, mounting debt, contact experience, etc. Those working in regular traumatic situations, eg the emergency services, are also prone to developing Complex PTSD.

"lack of means of escape, entrapment, repeated violation of boundaries, betrayal, rejection, bewilderment, confusion, and - crucially - lack of control, loss of control and disempowerment" -- these are par for the course when you live in a sexist, racist, classist culture. That is pretty much what those terms mean.

Suppose people were not capable of being beaten down and broken. Suppose they would object to every mistreatment and slight, no matter how big or small, no matter how often it had happened to them, no matter how vicious the repercussions. If this were so, then over time, it just wouldn't be worth it for one person to expend the energy to lord it over another human being. The benefits would be outweighed by the costs involved.

It wouldn't be possible for employers to exploit the people who work for them. It wouldn't be possible for an entire nation to lock women up in their homes and keep them separated. It wouldn't be worth the grief to build walls dividing neighborhoods and populations.

But, because we hear about our worthlessness in subtle ways every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, we DO get beaten down and broken. We learn that when we complain, instead of finding solidarity in others who have been wronged as we were, we get left to twist in the wind and take the heat alone, and be made an example of; and maintaining one's defiance in the face of that takes more and more energy by the day. Eventually the complaining stops, because tending to the emotional injuries (and, not infrequently enough, the physical injuries) on top of the disadvantages we are asked to accept become so costly that there is no energy left to complain any more.

Bit by bit, so slowly that we rarely see it happen in real time, the efforts we expend make those with privilege wealthier and better-fed, while we lose sleep and make do and struggle to pay our bills and say "it's nothing" when we're sick but can't afford to see a doctor. The pattern is so widespread there is nowhere we can go where we aren't under the net, we can't even talk about the net without people saying we're crazy or exaggerating, and nothing we can do will stop us being slow-motion cannibalized.

And then there are people like Don Imus and Michael Savage and Ann Coulter. These are folks who keep up the steady drumbeat of negativity, the slow pulse that reminds you how and why you're broken. Polite society hems and haws and says they are out of line, but if they were really out of line, they'd be out of work, wouldn't they? They wouldn't have audiences of millions and millions, would they? They wouldn't be living high on the hog 14 years after comparing the New York Times' White House Press correspondent (at the time) to "the cleaning lady", would they? Their "rowdy words " (hey, can't you take a joke?) wouldn't be repeated again and again and again in the mainstream media if they were truly offensive, would they?

So, yes, Don Imus speaks for MSNBC and all of corporate America. Don Imus speaks for people who don't want us to complain about their privilege.

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Who says "jigaboos" anymore -- i mean, really?

Idiots do, sadly.

Agreed on everything in this post. Imus and his ilk are sickening and the fact that people continue to permit it by watching their shows is qually sickening.

<nods vigorously> This all makes sense to me.

So -- because I'm In A Mood, I guess -- the question I have is "what do I do, in light of this insight?"

What can we do, individually or corporately, as people who are in this culture, to change this kind of relentless grinding-down?

The only thing that has occurred to me so far -- and it goes beautifully with the Emma Goldman paraphrase, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution!"* -- is to be as vividly and celebratorially as possible -- to celebrate oneself and others with verve and joy and delight. I can't, we can't, make the idiot greyfaces stop -- but with some luck, and some determination, and some really really good parties (*grins* ok, it's shorthand, but it's sorta what I mean!) maybe we can make them look so boring no one pays any attention.

But more ways to stop the process are way better than fewer -- so what *else* can we do? And how can we do it well, joyfully, with delight?

*From Goldman's autobiography:

At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha [Alexander Berkman], a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause.

I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world--prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. [Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 56]

Half the problem is that these people (Coulter, Imus) really are that shallow & hateful & the other half is that every time they say something they know is more inflaming & extreme than the last hateful stupid thing they said- money & attention flow their way & so they are encouraged to become even more openly publicly vile.

Sure, they may get a suspension or maybe even fired (tho that's doubtful) but the legion of people who think like they do, but are afraid to be openly racist, sexist or bigoted support them all the more & that ensures interviews, book deals, speaking engagements... they get more benefit the more they get chastised & being chastised only fuels the whole "look how the liberalnazis try to suppress us from even speaking about our classic American values & way of life" pity party.
It's a vicious cycle.
It also serves the ruling class by keeping our focus on the so called "culture war" rather than on the whole sale pillaging of th till that the elite are up to in the Gilded Age prt. 2

To me, the diffferences between Complex PTSD and DSM-IV is academic and most PTS is in a grey area between the two extremes. Being in the military in a war zone is NOT (imo) an "event". While there, it becomes the entirety of one's life and years seem like decades. Likewise, when I look back to when I waited for evacuation after Katrina, subjectively, the time seems like months, when it was really less than a week.

Likewise, someone who suffers no direct threat to life, but reads about people getting murdered, then has nightmares, suffers from each and every news story about the violence.

Speaking as one who has survived both natural disaster, and has had creepy people threatening me with dangerous weapons, the impact of direct threat was far less because I could *do* something about the threat. But in the post Katrina days, I felt impotent and powerless, so the personal trauma was far greater.

This post was really enlightening for me. It really helps me see more clearly the what the control paradigm actually is. Thank you.

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and there was a lot of feedback regarding this issue with Imus and the women he denigrated on his show (which of course I do not listen to). My argument is this: why is there so much outcry against one ignorant (white) man's continued uses of racist remarks and figures of speech when Black/African-American people use these very same words in everyday conversation?!

Irregardless of color, black, or white, or even yellow for the matter, commentary of this nature is derogatory even if you are addressing people of your own race/ethnicity. Yet we are barraged with objectionable lyrics in rap music and hip-hop music, making repeated references to women as bitches and hoes. It is overlooked and downplayed among the "Black Community", it is the basis of jokes and friendly banter. But despite the light-hearted attitude that is maintained, the core meaning, the basic foundation of these words is wholly demeaning. How many black women are abused verbally and emotionally daily by utterances of these words from family, friends, and other peers?

It is overlooked and downplayed among the "Black Community",

It most certainly is not. What is overlooked and downplayed is the fact that people in black communities do *not* ignore these issues.

I stand corrected then, perhaps this opinion is only relative in my case because I do not hear such objections among my Black/African-American peers. What I see are a lot of sighs and rolling eyes, and what I hear are excuses coming from those who bear the brunt of these slurs and "we must rise against this ignorance" diatribes only to see the same people who speak out using the same words themselves and listening to the same music that carries the same message of sexism.

Hmm. Well... I guess we dont hang out with the same people. Good day to you.

of course he wouldn't be fired because he speaks for MSNBC.

Pretty much.

Money speaks for MSNBC. Eight sponsors bailed and Imus is gone. Just like that. ;)

~M~

on being slowly worn down

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