Divide and Fail

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:

• 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