Addressing Goal 1 at the World Conference
From a talk by Tim Jackins on Day Six of the World Conference
We are here to adopt our RC Community Goals for the next four years. We have done a lot of work together these past five days. The work has been important and useful, and working together has been important and useful.
Most of us don’t need to say anything more. We have had months and months to say our thoughts. Each of our minds needs to be heard. But we cannot hear all of our minds at this time—in this group of three hundred or so people. We cannot make big reconsiderations of many things. So I hope you will consider carefully whether it is the right moment to say a thought.
We have finished the Guidelines. That’s important. The Guidelines are central to the functioning of the RC Community. Now we are looking at the Goals, which are not quite so central.
The purpose of the Goals is to guide us into the future. They don’t require the same level of consensus as the Guidelines. We are not required to agree with them. Not everyone is going to adopt them for themselves. We each get to make that choice.
OUR GOAL TO ELIMINATE RACISM
We spent time yesterday on Goal 1, the Elimination of Racism, and we are addressing it again today. I want some people to have a minute to speak to it, and I think they need to be people who have not already spoken.
I listened carefully to everyone who spoke yesterday about this Goal and tried to understand all the issues and confusions. Some of these I could understand quickly, and some took me until 3:00 this morning.
[People had been discussing whether to adopt the proposal to add the word “Black” to Goal 1, so it would read like this: That the elimination of racism, in particular the racism aimed at people of Black African heritage, be actively made an ongoing, central piece of the work of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community.]
The Elimination of Racism was our first Goal, and it has been our most important Goal for over twenty years. I don’t think any of us have any doubts or confusions about its usefulness.
It is aimed particularly at the racism targeting African-heritage people—because in our judgment that is currently the most disruptive oppression. The racism targeting African-heritage people is used to restimulate, confuse, and disrupt the functioning of people who would otherwise be working together. It has been crucial that we take it on [do something about it].
I was aware of several oppressions and restimulations last night. I heard us battling to not be confused by racism, yet still being confused by it.
We are confused by both the racism coming from the outside and the internalized versions of it. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that the reason we feel so bad about ourselves is that racism has been installed on us and we’ve internalized it.
Like with other distresses, it can seem like we can’t conquer it—like all we can do is try to escape from it. We all have places where we have been hurt so badly that we’re confused about ever being able to get free of the hurt. This affects our judgment and perspective in the battle against racism.
It was lovely that many Africans spoke up last night. I’m glad we’ve created a situation in which that is possible. It seemed to me that Africans have felt dictated to by those of us who live outside of Africa. And they have, of course, been dictated to—since the invasion of Africa by people of European descent. Also, those of us who live outside of Africa have pieces of racism that make us function in ways that restimulate Africans’ internalized oppression. We are well-meaning, but that doesn’t change the fact that often we are not thinking well. I think some of that showed, too. Also showing was that racism against people of African heritage is not the same everywhere in the world.
What came to my mind at 3:00 this morning was about the use of the word “Black.”
There is an objective color of skin. That is not the reason for racism. It’s an easily identifiable characteristic that can be used as an excuse for racism—parallel to how being female is used as an excuse for sexism. It is not about the human qualities of an individual. We know that humans are humans whether they are born male, female, or intersex, or are from Africa or any other part of the world.
The word “Black” can be used to describe the color of a person’s skin. However, before European-heritage people invaded Africa, Africans were not “Black.” That was an irrelevant concept. They were themselves. (It is like when children arrive. They think they are one of us, they are human. End of story.) All that changed when Africa was invaded by European-heritage people. And the effect of the invasion continues for native Africans.
Circumstances have been different for people of African heritage who live outside of Africa, who live in societies in which they have always been dominated by others.
These things affect our thinking about, understanding of, and communication about racism, and how we fight against it in different places. But the central issue is our commitment to ending racism, in particular the racism directed at people of African heritage. This Goal has been our Goal for over twenty years. It has worked well for us, and we still need it.
THE NEED FOR DECISION
Sometimes it’s useful to decide to do things even though they are so difficult and restimulating that we can’t tell [determine] if our decision is correct. I could vacillate for a long time trying to figure out what is correct. But it has been more useful to test something by putting it into practice and seeing if it’s correct. It isn’t always correct, but I find something out quickly. I get to test the decision in present-day reality, not in the confusion of my mind.
We may sometimes need to do that with a Goal, which also means trying to make the Goal work. (A failure after a half-hearted effort doesn’t teach us much.) Our Goals can always be modified as we think better, and it’s all right if we make a mistake.
We try to reach agreement by doing as much discharging and communicating as possible, and that can take a lot of work and time. When we can’t reach agreement and a decision has to be made, it falls to the leader to make the decision. In this case, that’s me. If we get to that point, I will make a decision. It’s my job. You gave me this job.
Not all of you know me well. Meeting on Zoom has curtailed contact (as well as increased it in some ways). And before that, geographic distances could make it difficult to be in contact. However, I hope you can trust my judgment if we get to the point of my needing to make a decision. I have been chosen, and reconfirmed over and over, by people who have seen me function and are familiar with both my commitment and my intelligence. If you and I have not had enough contact yet (I hope we eventually will) to have that level of relationship, I’m asking you to look to the people who do have that level of relationship with me.
It may not be easy, but I hope you can decide to trust my judgment despite restimulation. I will do my best to do what is best for everyone in our Community. And I might be wrong. We cannot entirely escape that possibility. We all do the best we can figure out, and that’s probably good enough.
[The change to Goal 1 was adopted, without objection, by the World Conference—with the understanding that more discharge and communication about it are needed.]
(Present Time 209, October 2022)