Hi Steve,
Just for a little context. I am working as a volunteer for the NHS (after finishing a mental health nursing career that ended with me as a Clinical educator.)
I have now contributed to the development, (and am now supporting the implementation) of the NHS Midlands Equality and Inclusion Strategy-focused around ‘anti-racist’ pr…
Just for a little context. I am working as a volunteer for the NHS (after finishing a mental health nursing career that ended with me as a Clinical educator.)
I have now contributed to the development, (and am now supporting the implementation) of the NHS Midlands Equality and Inclusion Strategy-focused around ‘anti-racist’ principles. A policy designed to help overcome both the overt (and the institutional racism) in the NHS.
And by the way I’m white (almost translucent actually😂) and heterosexual. So that’s me.
Having been teaching on ‘equality’ issues for years I too find some of the comments made on social-media crass, uninformed, often silly and more often pretty hateful.
But having a background in psychological interventions (through my mental health training training and training as a Therapist) I’m so much more interested in why people hold onto such venomous and hateful ‘states of mind’ rather than the specific ‘focus’ of that anger. Yes, of course we can all ‘lose it’ at times when confronted with some people’s bizarre arguments. Of course I’m no better than anyone else in that regard.
But I was always advised to ‘listen to the music-not the words’. Agreed, some angry people are often genuinely angry for the right reasons (oppression of certain groups, discrimination etc.) But then some people have this additional ‘super charged’ aggression-that feels less to do with social justice issue and more to do with their own psychology (for those that haven’t-see 12 Angry Men for a brilliant example)
And unfortunately that anger would still be there for them even if the world looked perfect to the rest of us.
Yes, Trans folk have rights, but so do all women and men. Yes, Trans folk are often discriminated against (amongst the many other groups in our society.)
But as Isiah Berlin says (rightfully) “freedom has two sides. Freedom ‘from’. In this case the women’s perspective. And freedom ‘to’. In this case the Trans perspective. So often those freedoms collide head on.” It seems that some people just don’t get that really simple point.
The other issue is that when we get angry with someone that’s stupid it can make us look even more stupid. Because It assumes that the person is actually making a conscious decision to be stupid. Most times we act stupid (and of course that includes me at times) we are not making a conscious choice at the time.
So when I used to work with very angry clients that were referred to me, I always wanted to find out so much more about the depth of the anger itself rather than the current ‘focus’ of that anger. Many times the root cause of that anger was discovered to be miles away from the rationale they originally offered me. But issues of social justice are a really good socially acceptable ‘hook’ to hang all that psychological angst on for those people.
Hi Steve,
Just for a little context. I am working as a volunteer for the NHS (after finishing a mental health nursing career that ended with me as a Clinical educator.)
I have now contributed to the development, (and am now supporting the implementation) of the NHS Midlands Equality and Inclusion Strategy-focused around ‘anti-racist’ principles. A policy designed to help overcome both the overt (and the institutional racism) in the NHS.
And by the way I’m white (almost translucent actually😂) and heterosexual. So that’s me.
Having been teaching on ‘equality’ issues for years I too find some of the comments made on social-media crass, uninformed, often silly and more often pretty hateful.
But having a background in psychological interventions (through my mental health training training and training as a Therapist) I’m so much more interested in why people hold onto such venomous and hateful ‘states of mind’ rather than the specific ‘focus’ of that anger. Yes, of course we can all ‘lose it’ at times when confronted with some people’s bizarre arguments. Of course I’m no better than anyone else in that regard.
But I was always advised to ‘listen to the music-not the words’. Agreed, some angry people are often genuinely angry for the right reasons (oppression of certain groups, discrimination etc.) But then some people have this additional ‘super charged’ aggression-that feels less to do with social justice issue and more to do with their own psychology (for those that haven’t-see 12 Angry Men for a brilliant example)
And unfortunately that anger would still be there for them even if the world looked perfect to the rest of us.
Yes, Trans folk have rights, but so do all women and men. Yes, Trans folk are often discriminated against (amongst the many other groups in our society.)
But as Isiah Berlin says (rightfully) “freedom has two sides. Freedom ‘from’. In this case the women’s perspective. And freedom ‘to’. In this case the Trans perspective. So often those freedoms collide head on.” It seems that some people just don’t get that really simple point.
The other issue is that when we get angry with someone that’s stupid it can make us look even more stupid. Because It assumes that the person is actually making a conscious decision to be stupid. Most times we act stupid (and of course that includes me at times) we are not making a conscious choice at the time.
So when I used to work with very angry clients that were referred to me, I always wanted to find out so much more about the depth of the anger itself rather than the current ‘focus’ of that anger. Many times the root cause of that anger was discovered to be miles away from the rationale they originally offered me. But issues of social justice are a really good socially acceptable ‘hook’ to hang all that psychological angst on for those people.