An RC Colleagues’ Ending-Racism and Liberation Workshop
An RC Colleagues Ending-Racism and Liberation Workshop took place in June 2020. It was led by Ellie Brown (International Liberation Reference Person for College and University Faculty) and Barbara Love (International Liberation Reference Person for African Heritage People). Highlights were the precision in planning and execution, the coordination, the camaraderie, the selflessness of the team that put this awesome workshop together, and all the awesome leaders who hosted numerous Zoom sessions well ahead of the workshop.
Barbara gave deep insights into the cause of racism. Racism is very much linked with classism because it was created to help the owning class make or retain wealth by pitting diverse groups against each other and painting certain groups as sub-human to justify pillaging their resources and raping their cultures. The colour of a person’s skin or shape of their nose has nothing to do with intellect or character. It is humans who fabricate lies about racial groups so as to more easily exploit them.
All such lies about racial superiority and inferiority have been scientifically disproved, but unfortunately many people still carry the distorted images in their psyches. Barbara likened RC liberation theory to the Hubble Space Telescope that allows us to see what ordinarily the human eye wouldn’t see. Because we put our minds to liberating oppressed groups, we can see things from their perspective. RC also recognizes (one of the first groups to do so) that the oppressor has material [distress] that needs to be worked on because when people are taught to oppress, they are hurt and lose connection with some of their humanity.
For me the worst part of racism is how we People of the Global Majority have internalized the distress recording that says “white people are better than Black people.” We copy white people to ridiculous extents. We shun our languages, religions, and values just to gain their acceptance, but we have never been and—as long as racism remains—will never be accepted. Why? Because no matter how much Queen’s English we speak, or how much bleaching cream we rub, or how expensive is the fake white people’s hair we wear, or how skillful is the plastic surgery we undergo to be like the white supremacists—they don’t care! They want our natural resources, our backs for labour, our servile belief in their gods, for revenue and control. We can only break free when we open our eyes and see our own beauty, intelligence, and goodness and fight for them by changing the oppressive narrative.
Ellie opened Sunday’s session on sexism with a powerful statement that has been ringing in my mind ever since: “Don’t settle for mere reform; push for restructuring.” Don’t settle. Profound. The message for me is that any type of liberation, so far as it involves changing hurtful stereotypes, is an uphill task that requires not only passion but also perseverance and sacrifice. It’s not easy as a woman to stand against male domination at home or at work, or to stand against classism, tribalism, or whatever else ails our society. It takes guts [courage]. It takes a constantly re-emerging mind that shakes off discouragement and deceptions and speaks its truth with conviction.
I loved my support groups. We had great sessions. I will not be “settling.”
Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
(Present Time 201, October 2020)