Tending the Wounds of Oppression: Part 1
The field of mental health counseling has growing up to do. The field of social justice counseling offers needed (albeit late AF) validation to what so many people from communities that are marginalized have been saying for… yeah, not sure where to put the start date to that. I’m going with well over 500 years (prior to the transatlantic slave trade and land theft of the First Nations communities in what we call the U.S.). For marginalized communities there are several shared experiences that affect our wellbeing.
Imposter syndrome (“I don’t have what it takes.” “I don’t belong here.”)
Hyperalertness (Constantly scanning for safety or belonging)
Masking/Code Switching/Stealth mode (Covering up your natural ways of being to fit with social norms and expectations, which may be exhausting or invalidating)
Not trusting yourself/ Self-gaslighting (“I’m blowing things out of proportion.” “Maybe I am too sensitive.”)
People-pleasing/ Fawning (Care-taking dominant groups their expressions of fragility or maintaining relationships/friendships with people who invalidate your culture and experience whether its intentional or not)
Shut down/ Check-out mode (Only being partly present to get through)
Emotional Labor (Might be care-taking, advocating, ignoring, compartmentalizing, processing experiences of oppression, etc.)
How do we work with this reality? How might we reduce the wear and tear these experiences have on our sense of self and our sense of being well? Leticia Nieto, in her book Beyond inclusion, Beyond Empowerment: A Developmental Strategy to Liberate Everyone, presents two frames for us to understand what strategies we use and what options are available to us. Bringing awareness to our unconscious habits can help us know what learning we need to do, what areas needs stronger stress management abilities, and when to let ourselves rest.
Empowerment Framework
Image from Understanding Oppression: Strategies in Addressing Power and Privilege by Leticia Nieto and Margot Boyer from ColorsNW Magazine, March 2006. Retrieved from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://beyondinclusionbeyondempowerment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/nieto-articles-understanding-oppression-2006.pdf
The Experience of Empowerment framework captures strategies that people from marginalized communities use to deal with oppression, whether its ableism, transphobia, racism, and so forth. Let’s break this down.
Target= groups that do not have socially conferred power and unearned benefit. Examples include, but are not limited to, women, trans-folx, BIPOC, people and descendants from the Global South, poor or working class, high school education or less, those without citizenship, fat-bodied people, non-English speakers or English as a second language, neurodivergent folx, disabled folx
Agent = the group that has socially conferred power. Examples include, but are not limited to, men, white folx, cis-folx, middle & upper class, those with education, those with citizenship, thin-bodied people.
Agent-centric skills = the strategies marginalized folx use to navigate oppression that are focused on the agent or dominant group
Agent-relative skills = the strategies marginalized folx use to navigate oppression whether the agent group is de-centered and the marginalized group centered
Survival Skills include assimilation, code switching, masking, playing down cultural or natural ways of being to fit in with the dominant group. It includes fitting stereotypes of a group and playing the expected role of the group. Survival skills tend to be unconscious, meaning we do it without thinking about it.
Confusion Skills begin a shift towards consciousness, waking up to the dynamics of power and oppression. We’re seeing how people are treated differently based on their social location, the roles identities are expected to play out, relationship patterns based on who has socially conferred power and who doesn’t. At the same time, there is some ignoring of the nuances of power due to a person not being sure what to do about their new understanding, let alone what to do about it.
The double line after Confusion symbolizes an event, or a set of events, that shift a person from being agent-centered to being agent-relative. Usually some shit blows up and the uncertainty of Survival and Confusion Skills don’t hack it anymore.
Empowerment Skills are the skills a person uses when they are ready to take action. A person recognizes the inequity and points it out to others and requests change. They want something better for their community. They’re not willing to go along with the status quo that favors some people at the expense of others. They begin to seek out a shared community of people who get it and have shared experiences. Navigating the responses of others and taking the risk to speak up can take a lot of energy. Sometimes they may be perceived as aggressive, hostile, demanding, or overly sensitive due to the effort involved with the skill and the heart-break they experience.
Strategy Skills are the fruit of Empowerment Skills. Here people begin to recognize patterns to the systems of oppression. They learn what is workable for them, what isn’t, and nuances in between. They begin to develop conscious strategies about when, what, and how we respond to oppressive situations. They can begin to collaborate with others, asking for help, and taking breaks when needed. They shift from reactivity to responsiveness. Strategy is about recognizing and remaining in choice.
Recentering Skills are refined Strategy Skills. A persona has developed a clear vision of liberation and anti-oppression and is oriented to collaboration with their community and other change-makers to shape liberation. They rest into their awareness, strategies, and collaboration and begin to lead others towards a liberatory vision.
Nieto explains that we develop each skill one by one, and we may shift back to any of them depending on the situation. Meaning if we’ve developed Strategy Skills and typically operate with these skills, if a threatening situation comes up we may find ourselves using Survival Skills to navigate that challenge. It doesn’t mean we’ve lost the skill set we’ve developed, it just means we are taking the best care of ourselves at the moment. Using this framework we acknowledge what skill sets we have and what we can work on developing. It can also help us understand the choices of others in our community and extend compassion.
Practices for Cultivating an Anti-oppression Orientation
Exploring the Experience of Empowerment: Take a moment and reflect on your marginalized identities. (You can use the ADRESSING tool or the Wheel of Privilege and Power below to identify them.) Consider an experience where you used each of these skills: Survival, Confusion, Empowerment, Strategy, Re-centering. You can want to write, draw, or explore movement for each memory. As you reflect, notice your posture. Notice any movement, conscious or unconscious, you make. Become aware of your five senses. What stands out? What doesn’t? Check in with your breath, its speed, where you feel it. What sensations are you aware of? Knots? Tightening? Relaxation? Warmth? Notice the emotions that arise. Check out the speed or fullness of your mind?
ADRESSING Tool
Image from Understanding Oppression: Strategies in Addressing Power and Privilege by Leticia Nieto and Margot Boyer from ColorsNW Magazine, March 2006. Retrieved from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://beyondinclusionbeyondempowerment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/nieto-articles-understanding-oppression-2006.pdf
Wheel of Privilege and Power
Image from Wheel of Privilege and Power by Tessa Watkins from Just 1 Voice, November 2021. Adapted from Sylvia Duckworth, Canadian Council for Refugees, and Olena Hankivsky, PhD. Retrieved from https://just1voice.com/advocacy/wheel-of-privilege/
Skill Development: Journal about what skills you want to develop. Do you know someone or have studied a teacher who embodies those skills? What is it about their example that stands out to you? What do you need to learn or practice to develop that skill or embody that value? Create a list of things you can begin, practice more, or stop doing to develop this strategy.
Community Connection: Take time connecting with your community or communities and make a regular practice of it. Maybe it's going to a group or having a regular meet up with friends or comrades. Perhaps it is reading books or blogs, listening to podcasts, or watching movies by teachers from your community that inspire you. Explore tapping your family, chosen or biological, and learn about their journeys either through conversation, studying history, or spiritual practices.
Practice Rest: Do less. Sometimes we don’t need to add in anything, instead what is needed is to reduce or remove activity. What isn’t working for you that you could walk back? Maybe it is where and who you spend your time with. Maybe it's the media you engage with. Perhaps changes in work or living environments could support shifts. Maybe it’s simply saying ‘no’ or not playing familiar roles.
Practice Pleasure: Make time for pleasure, joy, and play.
Check out Part 2 of Tending the Wounds of Oppression, which explores the anti-oppression skills for our parts that hold socially-conferred power. If you’re a member of a marginalized group, YES, this is also for you.
Updated July 24, 2024
References
brown, a. m. (2019). Pleasure activism: The politics of feeling good. AK Press.
Nieto, L. (2020). Beyond inclusion, beyond empowerment: A developmental strategy to liberate everyone By Leticia Nieto. Cutzepalin.
Nieto, L. and Boyer, M. (2006). Understanding oppression: Strategies in addressing power and privilege. ColorsNW Magazine. Retrieved from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://beyondinclusionbeyondempowerment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/nieto-articles-understanding-oppression-2006.pdf
Watkins, T. (2021). Wheel of Privilege and Power. Just 1 Voice. Retrieved from https://just1voice.com/advocacy/wheel-of-privilege/
