I have been thinking a great deal about the role that stigma plays in the daily lives of so many people. Stigma is a way in which we "other" people - in other words, you don't belong because of (fill in the blank). Some might see it as "us" and "everyone else".
I see stigma operating in a number of ways, but some that have been the focus of my meditation lately include:
I see stigma operating in a number of ways, but some that have been the focus of my meditation lately include:
- acting as a platform to not give services - this might seem contradictory, but if you can classify people by problem, then you can limit what services become available to them.
- acting as a way to keep a group out of the mainstream - in Canada, we have certainly seen this with First Nations peoples who have been framed as "less than" in a myriad of ways.
- as a way to isolate - you belong over there not here. Over there is non-inclusive and isolating.
- affirming differences in a way that makes those differences lacking in value - black, gay, trans, Muslim, etc etc - These are differences that are very powerful as they define the person in a way that ensures they can never belong - they will always be "other".
- asserting power over groups by using membership criteria to determine who belongs where - those with power use such definitions as a way to hold on to power. A good example is seen in human rights movements - those for whom human rights are being demanded require that the power structures be prepared to share or diminish their hold on power.
- access to power structures - who you are defined to be reflect which doors to power will be available to you.
- controlling the definition of correct - when you meet the criteria then you are "good" person but otherwise you are "bad", "deficient", "unworthy", "pitied".
- mechanisms to create internal senses of deficiency - for the person who is part of the "other" they internalize the sense of inferiority. Stigma reinforces shame and guilt acting as way in which the person solidifies the stigma within. They become their own oppressor.
- defining diversity - this word is used a lot - seeking diversity; creating diversity; ensuring diversity. Think carefully and you recognize the inherent stigma - diverse from what? The answer is, diverse from the dominant group - who does not give up dominance but rather agrees to share some piece of it (think of the "token" person). This permits the power structures a "free pass" because they argue inclusiveness by the presence of a "diverse" person.
I am sure that, as you read this, many more examples come to mind. Certainly, the politics and language of stigma appear to be gaining greater permission to openly express and behave in ways that support division. Why, however, does this matter to meditation?
In meditation, we seek to know and understand the self. What is that we hold onto? How do our thoughts interfere with right action? What belief structures exist within us that sustain the "othering" of people? How do our thoughts and actions support power structures of oppression?
We also come to know that most of us possess patterns that are stigma oriented - both as a stigmatizer and as a stigmatized. Meditation opens up how we feel as being "othered" and even ways in which we seek revenge or getting people to know how they have hurt us.
When we allow division, we fail. Selfishness, ego, anger, domination and other similar emotional states must take charge - as "othering" requires that we dislike, hate, demean. "Othering" cannot be found in love, care, inclusion, for example. Meditation is peaceful searching for our truth which can include states of being, ways of knowing that are not right thinking or right behaving. It is the search for acceptance of both self and others. Thus, when we see things to be critical of, it is the state of that human being that must be understood with efforts not to diminish but to help for truth to be seen. Success is not creating another divide by claiming that the lack of right action should exclude the person - rather, how do we include?
These are some of the most difficult emotions I find in meditation. For they reflect self and intersection with the ways of those also in the world with me.
The fear of I
The greatest fear is
What lies within
Born of childhood and
generational patterns
Raised to be white
To be shown this is right
Not to question
Learning to obey the rituals
The enclave of belonging
Comes from being white
Defending the border
So our territory stood
Cross not the line
Separating us from them
Know your place
Avoid contamination
A good Catholic boy
Taught the lessons of Christ
Growing as a believer
Fighting the contradictions
How could love be restricted
Only to those who looked like me
While all others were savages
And heathens to be converted
The clergy spoke of success
Bringing many into the life of God
Letting go of their sinful pasts
But never seen in my parish
Marching for civil rights
Obscured the confusion
Of Bible and Church
Without including the others
Conscience could be calmed
Guilt assuaged
By clamouring for change
In places not here
These patterns so soundly built
As cement set for a lifetime
Not to be questioned
Only to be dressed in finery
The earthquake explodes
Structures collapse
Beliefs not longer valid
From simply knowing the other
Humanity opens itself
To a sweeping truth
Not of difference but
Of similarity
Now this is seen
So why as white so oft hated
When change is sought
Is escape possible from the patterns of power
The template of childhood
Does not go away
The privilege of behaviour
Rests with self knowing
As the search goes on
Inside views are murky and scary
The lanes and streets already walked
Littered with the detritus of division
Can the pilgrim
Walk the journey
No longer unpalatable to the other
Still knowing the claim to white is perpetual
© Peter Choate,
2017
