What If the Working Class Were Well Represented?
The following is in answer to the question, “What would the RC Community look like if the working class were well represented?” [See the article “The RC Community and the Working Class,” by Jacqueline “Jackie” Kane, on page 80 of Present Time No. 206.]
I live in an intentional community with twenty mostly working-class and raised-poor folks. Many of us are in recovery from drug addiction, have been in jail, were undocumented immigrants, have survived domestic violence, or have other “target” identities. We live here because it meets our needs. The cost of living is low. There is free childcare. We have a large garden that reduces our grocery bills.
I have succeeded in naturalizing RC in my community over the past fifteen years. People regularly discharge during the “check-ins” at the beginning of community meetings. They understand that emotional expression is a healing process. People can “vent” by describing their “grievances” to the group without others being confused about what is going on [happening]. People will also say, “That’s because of classism (or racism, or sexism),” when something oppressive is referred to in meetings or conversations.
We increasingly trust and lean on each other for support. We listen to each other. A few residents have attended a non-RC discharge and liberation class that I teach, and this has supported the naturalizing of RC in our community.
We mostly simply live together and notice the benefits of listening when someone is upset and of reaching for the relationship despite obstacles.
I think recruiting working-class and poor folks means taking action—not just doing emotional processing! We must show with our actions that we are “in there” and available to be human together. Not that we want them to be like us but that we already like them and want to be part of making life better for us all. Not that we have something to teach them but that we want us to be close and learn from each other.
It seems to me that having time to “improve oneself” by learning RC is a privilege. Also, some people are not going to take a class, read handouts, or do something that looks and sounds like therapy. Co-Counseling? Really? Just the term turns off [makes uninterested] much of the population that I live and work with. It sounds very middle class!
The most important thing I have done to reach people with target identities is to discharge my oppressor distress. One of the biggest improvements in my relationship with a particular community mate came after I attended an RC workshop on discharging on USer identity. I was able to listen to him and hear what he was saying in a way that I hadn’t been able to before. He noticed it right away.
There are no shortcuts. We need to discharge oppressor distress, make real relationships, and live our lives as a revolution.
Eugene, Oregon, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 206, January 2022)