When Suzanne Dhaliwal wrote this response to my concerns over mental health stigma in the workplace, I began to wonder how many times I had met other women of colour within the activist networks who had recited the same story: the same feeling of not belonging, not quite knowing where they could be placed within this so-called “alternative” society, and why they felt ostracised while so many others found it so easy to participate.
This is also my story, where I have been called out for using the racism card, ignored for challenging ethnocentric analyses, and been criticised for placing some importance to my family. That is why for the past couple of years, I’ve bowed out of activism, choosing instead to try and find somewhere else my skills would be valued. What I learned, however, was that they were certainly not to be found within the workplace or in mainstream political parties – at least not when meshed with my moral and political values.
The problem with all these places, and specifically activism, is that people think it is simply acceptable to “add-colour-and-stir” without actually changing anything about the way in which they behave and organise, let alone think. Underlying this is a seemingly rigid set of (unspoken) beliefs that, if challenged, leave you out of this ‘alternative’ society, or simply branded as not having the ‘right politics’.
For example, I have found that within my grandparents’ generation of Asian society, there is a huge onus on owning your own home. My grandfather’s pride in being ‘uncolonised’ comes from the fact that he can afford to live in a non-ghettoised area, and decide what he wants to do with that land rather than have it decided for him. Is that capitalist? Perhaps, but it is also a sense of liberation from imperialism and racism. Similar stories come out of Eastern Europe, where the use of ‘comrade’ and other Soviet-era discourse is highly related to tales of disadvantage and dictatorship, not the friendly left-wing banter many link it to.
If activists in the UK really desire diversity, which I sometimes question anyway, they need to be able to make radical changes to the way they organise. They need to be much more open and welcoming, acknowledging privilege and also making sure that those silenced voices now speaking are actually listened to. And that this is converted into change. Flexibility as well as reflexivity is essential here, with efforts made to really challenge and open up ‘radicalism’ into the actual radical.
As Suzanne says, this is the only way we are going to change the world – by being able to converse and bring in everyone, not retain this endless homogeneity by thinking that we are somewhat in the right (above all others).
That is why I propose that any woman (in the broadest possible sense) of colour, or anyone who is feeling ostracised for being ‘different’ should join hands with others, and that we fight this battle together rather than alone. Supporting each other, we can find spaces which are more inclusive, and perhaps through that show what real radicalism looks like.
If you are interested in organising this, please leave a comment below, and I will email you on anything we do follow through with.
This post was initially published on Nishma’s website.
5 Comments
I am totally in for this. I have been discussing this very issue within my union very recently and I was shocked by some of the reactions…(shocked though not entirely surprised)
As a woman of color from the so called ‘global-south’ and a union organiser I would really love to work on these issues more effectively. Main aspect of this ‘working’ of the issues, however, is not so much about lecturing others into questioning their ‘hidden’ racism’ or prompting them to challenge their own privilege (without denying the importance of bringing up the subject wherever possible). Rather, is about discovering / facing / challenging our own racism and privileges… much trickier though..
I think if we are able to feel at place within ourselves, we can gain the strength and will to fight the greater battles. Are you based in the UK, Gabriela?
I personally struggle with the assertion that we are all part of the same “movement”. To be honest I find it precisely this kind of totalising assumption that negates the very concept of solidarity in the first place. To find common cause is to build alliance across struggles. In this sense my affinities do not lie in uniting around some lowest common denominator concept of social justice. Rather I have my infinite desires and in giving these substance I rightly recognise the desires of others. Solidarity becomes about working together in pursuit of these, rather than the generalised prescription of “social change” that dominates the discourse. A tendency I might add that is ultimately founded on the guilt of the white/liberal/educated privileged inheritance of most who make up today’s “left”.
Your response reminds me of the Lilla Watson quote (slighty overused, but anyway):
The fact is when we “work together” there are still internal politics. This is where privilege comes into play, and women of colour have felt like they do not fit in, and are very much ignored. These include messaging, methodology and trust. There are many struggles which have been taken over by white middle-class liberal men who get listened to over the initial sufferers, when the former claim to have the same desires. This goes unacknowledged across many of the people I regularly speak to.
I call for a support and organising group because I have felt that disempowerment and that feeling of outsiderness because of my colour, my culture and my gender within these spaces. This is my struggle. This is my desire – to make sure that no-one feels excluded when their desire is similar to a change we want to work towards.
Count me in!