Day: November 17, 2019

This past week my department hosted a workshop on white fragility and anti-racism for a good number of diverse faculty and staff who were interested in the topic. Although emotionally charged and intellectually challenging, we must continue to address the pervasive role racism plays in the world. Even as a black woman who has been doing diversity work for much of my professional career, I walked away with a few heightened revelations. This week I’ll share one of the revelations that is foremost in my thinking since that day. It’s not new, but it is worth highlighting because of a recent work-related event.

At the forefront of my thinking is the hidden nature of how racism operates to undermine the lives and livelihood of people of color. Most people do not think of themselves as racist. They will never don a white sheet and hood to march with the KKK. In fact, to their credit, most people like to think of themselves as fair-minded and open to others. They don’t go around using derogatory terms to describe their Latina co-worker. They don’t ban the black male staff member they hired from attending the all staff lunch. They don’t relegate students of color to seating in the back of the classroom. But racism is at work in subtle ways that make it difficult to fight because it is operating under cover of darkness and often without the perpetrator being fully aware of what she is doing.

What I’ve experienced and observed is that we have all been inflected with the unconscious belief that what’s white is not only right, but normal, is the standard for what is best, and rightfully belongs in authority. When we bring that underlying system of thought to work or to a classroom, we put non-white students, staff members, and faculty members in the position of having to prove and protect themselves every minute of the day. There is no assumption of competence or worthiness, let alone excellence. In fact, there is an undercurrent of resentment and scrutiny that whites are not subject to. Any word or action by non-whites is often construed as below (white) standards or (white) norms and is taken as confirmation that the person of color is somehow lacking or doesn’t belong. And worse, persons of color are subject to push back if they dare to question or provide constructive feedback to students, colleagues, or subordinates. Much of this happens completely outside the awareness of the perpetrators,

I’ve watched my entire life how people of color are not given the same benefit of the doubt as their white counterparts when a mistake is made. One need not look further than how President Obama was treated as compared to President Trump. Even still, a person of color who demonstrates excellence is considered an “exception”. And sadly, accusations made against people of color by students or colleagues are taken on face value because they confirm the unconscious stereotypes of those in leadership.

I just learned that I am again the victim of a harmful and unsubstantiated accusation that I had no idea about until recently. A white colleague was spreading a negative insinuation about me that people took to be true without ever investigating or even asking me about it. These same people who listened to this frivolous claim and believed it also smile and say hello to me everyday. They may even give me a hug. But now I know that some of them acted against me based on the complaint of this ambitious white colleague who unwittingly fed into existing negative stereotypes about black women. Too much racism operates in the dark when people in power do not even question this systematic undermining of people of color. I’m aware that too many people of color, like me, are having their careers and reputations ambushed in this way.

The reality is that not only white people, but all people, need to challenge our standards of excellence and normal. Is white skin and European features really the highest standard of beauty? Is white leadership the only acceptable leadership? Is white really right or best? It’s also time that we throw out the false claim that some people are inherently smarter and possess greater moral character than others based on their race. Science has proven these notions to be false, but our subconscious has not caught on. We have to consciously remind ourselves that every colleague, faculty member, leader, and student possesses their own individual intellectual and moral strengths and weaknesses, disconnected from their race. It’s not easy to do, but it is possible, and it is necessary if we want to stop these hidden forms of racism from destroying lives and limiting our collective human potential.

I am exhausted from an undercurrent of anger cursing through me every day that I watch my fellow Americans subjected to a mind-boggling amount of gas lighting coming from the highest office in the land: the president of the United States. Donald Trump abuses us every day to feed his own perverted needs. I’m not psychologist, but I know what emotional abuse is and how gas lighting works as a tool of an abuser to bend victims to their will.

Simply put, gas lighting is when a person methodically makes his target question reality so that he can feed whatever perverted need is driving his behavior. The need might be power, control, ego, or money. Gas lighters are without moral character and conscience as they emotionally abuse their victims for their own gratification. They do it in a number of ways.

First and foremost, gas lighters are liars. They lie all the time. Their lies are blatant and they will shamelessly deny having said something even if they are caught on audio or video or email or text message saying it. Even worse, they will claim that everyone else is a liar and that only they are telling you the truth. Sound familiar? They are constantly insisting that targets suspend their belief in previously trusted sources of information such as the news media, teachers, historians, and even science. They use bravado and charm and empty compliments to endear themselves to the unaware as they keep insisting that they are the truth teller while everyone else, even with factual evidence in hand, is lying. Think about how Trump often tells his rally audience that they are the smart ones and that they are the true patriotic Americans and that they together will make America great again.

The unrelenting efforts of Trump gas lighting wears down his targets to the extent that he can successfully cast doubt on everything his followers once believed to be true, decent, and right. Look at the corrupting effect he has had on everyone who enters his orbit. This week he pardoned three convicted war criminals against the advice of military leadership. I feel sorry for people like Jeff Sessions and the now seven of his associates who have been convicted and sent to prison. He demands loyal but his loyalty is not reciprocal and once they have served his purposes, he discards them like trash. And if they wake up and leave on their own, he publicly ridicules them.

Like all gas lighters, he actively works to uproot our sense of stability and foments mistrust of normal channels of information so that he alone becomes the source of reality and truth. He has gotten Fox News and some conservative radio hosts to align with him and Trump rallies are filled with a cult base who have aligned to protect and defend him. I see all these folks as victims who are being abused and used and will one day wake up empty and full of shame.

The other characteristics of a gas lighter are evidenced by his constant need for an enemy to attack. Trump has turned public servants, Democrats, immigrants, and the media into public enemies. He attacks what is important to us such as news and information, the intelligence community, the FBI, science, immigrants, and even President Obama. The “deep state” is supposed to be out to destroy him and therefore, America. He tells his followers that you can’t trust anyone who accuses him of wrongdoing, labeling them as traitors or “Never Trumpers”.

Once his enemies are established, he projects, accusing them as individuals or groups of every wrongdoing that you can almost guarantee he himself is committing. For example, when he calls someone stupid, I think to myself that he believes he himself is stupid. When he calls for draining the swamp, he is really pointing out the swamp where he is most comfortable. He is so quick to publicly attack people that Republican lawmakers are terrified of him because his cult base will align with him against that person.

And finally, the words of a gas lighter will not match his actions. He says he will provide the best healthcare when in fact he is dismantling it. He says he always hires the best people, but look who he has hired. He says he will protect Dreamers when he is literally working to end DACA through the Supreme Court. His followers are not getting the benefit of tax cuts or the “easy tariffs” and the water they drink and the air they breathe is getting worse because of deregulation.

This week, the nation is fighting for its survival against a man hell-bent on destroying it for personal ego, power, and wealth. The Impeachment Inquiry is shedding light on just how pernicious this president is and just how much Republican lawmakers have become pathetically submissive to the gas lighter in chief. It is high time we impeach and remove Trump. And at the same time, we have to provide a way for Trump victims to redeem and rehabilitate themselves.