Our Identities and Our Thinking
People of all identities (both targeted and oppressor) have particular distresses that make it difficult to think. There are also ways that people of each identity (constituency) can think and function more flexibly than people of other identities.
I have been thinking about how we might use our unique flexible intelligence to affect the current situation.
For example, the oppression of working-class people sometimes undermines their confidence in their intelligence, but they often think especially well about certain things, like how the economy works, how to connect with the people around them, how to get things done.
It has been interesting to put attention here. As a counselor, I have asked the client, “Where can you think?” And after some time, I have encouraged them to consider how they might like to apply their flexible thinking to the current situation. I might ask, “How would you like to use the ways you can think?”
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of middle-class people
(Present Time 207, April 2022)