Remembering That All Humans Are Inherently Good
Last month I spent two weeks in Georgia (USA), knocking on doors and talking to people about the runoff elections for U.S. Senate. I did this to help two candidates get elected—an African-heritage man and a Jewish-heritage man who both had a liberation perspective. If they both were elected (they were!), they would create a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, making much good possible.
I talked to hundreds of people and got to see the difference that even a brief connection could make, for them and for me. I did this to make good change in the world and because I knew it would move my own re-emergence forward, including my ability to think and act. I went across my country to a place where I had never been and talked to people I didn’t know, which brought up much fear and insecurity! I am glad I didn’t let the feelings get in my way. I learned so much. I learned to listen more deeply and show myself more fully. I got to discharge on terror, feelings of powerlessness and separateness, and more. I got to be moved and inspired!
I talked to people of a variety of backgrounds, identities, and beliefs. I saw so much humanness. My conversations helped me understand why people believed, thought, voted, and acted in the ways they did. One of my favorite connections was with an older white man who had beliefs I strongly disagreed with. I gave my opinion but did it respectfully, while showing that I liked him (which, thankfully, I did). I also listened to him. Our conversation had sweetness and laughter. I know that the interaction changed us both for the better. I had many other meaningful connections. There were hard conversations, too, and I got to discharge, learn, and be more effective the next time.
The following are some thoughts from my experience:
When we forget the inherent human nature of others, we stand in the way of human liberation. Those of us who are working to end oppression can forget the humanness of those who (or who we perceive) are visibly acting out oppression. We can view them with disdain and hatred, rationalizing that it’s justifiable to mistreat them if they’re acting out hurtful patterns. This harms everyone.
If we believe our theory—that all people are completely, unconditionally good, cooperative, and fully intelligent and only harm others when they have been hurt themselves—then we will want everyone to be healed and liberated. We will want to change the conditions that lead people (including ourselves) to act out oppression and will work to change those conditions. We will interrupt oppressive patterns as part of that but will do so with caring, listening, connecting, and respect.
I can be influenced by feelings of victimization, separateness, judgment, and disdain of others for their distresses. This is hard to admit, including to myself! But the more I discharge my pattern, I see how it is in the way of my re-emergence and my ability to change the world (which are interdependent).
If we are against people, we make it harder for them to change their oppressive patterns. We can’t see them fully, including what we have to learn from them and their experiences. And we can’t see ourselves. If we are against those who act out oppression, then we are against ourselves as well, since we all act out oppression. If I see men as bad for oppressing me as a female, or Gentiles as bad for oppressing me as a Jew, how can I not be against myself as a white middle-class USer, and my people, for my oppressive patterns? I can’t.
It feels almost unbearable, but I have found it useful to discharge on the perspective that had I lived under the same conditions as the people who became Nazis, I might be acting as they did. I might be no different. No better. I’ve just lived under different conditions.
I’ve had some heavy sessions realizing that no one is helping me as a Jew by hating people who became Nazis or those who oppressed and killed my ancestors in Russia. What I and all Jews need is for every Gentile to help such people heal (and to see their own anti-Semitism, too). That thought has made me cry hard!
We need allies to change the conditions that lead people to be confused about and hurt Jews. Attacking those people verbally or otherwise only makes us less safe.
To end racism as white people, we have to reach for, connect with, and listen to all white people, especially those we feel most unable to do that with. I think that is how we re-emerge personally and end all oppression. I want to do that.
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
(Present Time 204, July 2021)