on being slowly worn down
Apr. 11th, 2007 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaSo, 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:
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.
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."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.
... 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.
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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Re: from a post of my own...
Date: 2007-04-11 10:49 pm (UTC)It most certainly is not. What is overlooked and downplayed is the fact that people in black communities do *not* ignore these issues.
Re: from a post of my own...
Date: 2007-04-11 11:00 pm (UTC)Re: from a post of my own...
Date: 2007-04-11 11:07 pm (UTC)