Thank you Fabio. This does not seem irrelevant or off topic at all. It’s at the core of what matters most. (Defuse… remove the triggering device from….).
We can speak out? Connect with humanising and progressive activists? - Share and check out our perspectives and be willing to change them if necessary?--
Act politically ?- - Contribute to and share the evidence on the social determinants of health and wellbeing, and contribute respond to consultations to support policies that promote justice - Support and engage with the events and processes that other
psychologists are organising ( for UK actions see psychologists against austerity https://psychagainstausterity.wordpress.com/
and walkthetalk http://www.walkthetalk2015.org/ ) and that other activists are engaged with – some of which we have seen messages
about on this list recently ? We can keep trying to join the dots between injustice, racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change, psychological distress, childhood misery, job cuts and unemployment, public service cuts, self-harm, suicide rates, homelessness,
austerity ideology, economic inequality, benefit cuts and sanctions, greed, humiliation, neo-liberal capitalism….. We can talk about how distal forces determine events, and name and challenge injustices ( including socially toxic defences against our
vulnerabilities = racism, sexism, …. ) , when we see them….in political processes, in others, and in ourselves.
Some years ago some of us, thanks to the organising of The
West Midlands Community and Critical Psychology Interest Group (WMCCPIG) put
together a Manifesto, ( the Birmingham Manifesto, attached )structured through a paper by Mark Burton I;ve used it every year in teaching since . I wonder if anyone on this list now has capacity to collectivise us as an informal collection of folk with community
psychology leanings to update and re-issue it?
But is more psychological input what the world needs right now? Do psychologies and psychologists help or hinder the forces for good and for justice in the
world? If so, which psychologies and which psychologists do help? Do we need to do more to change psychology as a discipline before psychology tries to change the world? Seems to me that artistry and creativity and community activism and some parts of medicine
and some applications of law and good governance have a track record of making the world better …not quite so sure of psychology’s record , overall. Is defusing what we can help with? Maybe it is….
And whatever our roles, we can appreciate and support and contribute acts of generosity and kindness and love and humanity for others in big and little ways?
We can engage with love and kindness and practicality ….as well as with anger….and we can be alongside one another when we feel despair.
From: The
UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fabio Tartarini
Sent: 26 October 2016 20:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] racism and xenophobia: what to do?
apologies for sending an email which might be off topic or irrelevant.
I keep seeing news articles and see Facebook groups of people who incite hatred, dehumanisation, islamophobia and racism, together with internal divisions between right,
and left (“lefties”, patriots and so on). I’m not talking about grey areas but news like the followings:
- the
current issues about the “children” refugees, used to reinforce the idea of (male) muslims coming here as terrorists and so on..
besides the invested interest of newspaper to ride the most newsworthy stories (which could explain an increase in front pages news of this type), there has been an increase
in reported hate crimes (which have been fuelled by the media and politicians).
What is your response as psychologists and citizens? How we could take it from here? What examples of practices could lead the way to a defusing of the situation in a short
term?
As human being, researcher and lecturer I would like to do something, but what? I appreciate education is key to defusing this situation, but is this the quickest way? What
are your thoughts?
Apologies again if out of topic or irrelevant.
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