This is a follow up on the article “Showing humanity in the Humanities department” from March 2.
After my conversation with Dr. Sadarangani, I wanted to learn more about why others feel the need to bully and victimize those who have done nothing to personally wrong them, and what we can do as defendants and allies in rebuttal. This is an idea that often sits idle in the back of my consciousness; I realize acts like this happen every day but I’m not actively thinking about the effect they have on others or truly why they happen. If only there was some educational foundation with experts in areas such as this, who would love to talk about it. OH wait, Parkland College is that exact place. I feel we often take for granted the resources gifted to us, so please take advantage of Parkland.
I turned for answers to Parkland counselor and social science lecturer, Mr. Joseph Omo-Osagie. Any ignorant person who enters Mr. Omo-Osagie’s office will feel an immediate sense of discomfort. They will first be confronted with many images of PRIDE, Black Lives Matter, and to round it up, the Golden Rule. Mr. Omo-Osagie will welcome their discomfort and offer a seat, empathy, and conversation. Being a counselor, he looks at a situation like this through a lens of healing and communication. We focused on what we can do as individuals and as a community to halt hate.
Direct and safe communication is the best way to counter hurtful thoughts. Conversations over tough ideas are how we generate empathy for each other; this is the solution we discussed. It is harder than you think. To be able to discuss topics such as racial discrimination from both sides first, those opposed need to be open to discussion and acceptance that they may be wrong. We must support one another and create a safe space for deep sighs, with the message of “I acknowledge your humanity.”
Utilizing my resources more, I turned to Dr. Sarah Grison, Psychologist. Fresh from giving a talk at a conference in Texas, she was excited to meet and discuss this topic. In fact, she had just talked with another student who is writing a paper for their English class over hate and discrimination; an encouraging sentiment that just in this college, there are many seeking to change our future.
Dr. Grison’s background is in the cognitive and neuroscience fields, so her advice circles around that. When looking at hate it is natural to look at anger as well. Anger is more individual-specific where it can bottle up and be taken out on others but is still just an emotion, not a thought pattern. Hate has a different flavor; it is learned over time in a social structure. There’s always an in-group and an out-group. Over history, there have been many outgroups to Americans: Black, Hispanic (Mexican-mainly), Asian, White-immigrant, Brown-immigrant, Jewish, Muslim, Trans, Gay, Liberal, Conservative, everyone has to capability to be an out-group, no one is safe, except those in power.
That hate is then formed into schemas, organizations that include all negative stereotypes that make “them” not “you.” This doesn’t happen for no reason. Usually, there is a threat initially associated with the other group. Threats like fear of having your job taken away from you or having your view on the world confronted and distorted. These perceived threats are attacked with anger that forms and transforms into hate. Hate reduces humans to objects and allows attacks both large and small; both are equally important.
I’ve talked about how hate is developed, I’ve talked about what we can do, but can it be done? Dr. Grison showed me a link where it had been done, and at Parkland. This American Life is an online podcast show and they have one episode entitled, The Devil in Me. In the first act Steven Slaven a veteran of the Iraq war discusses his learned discrimination and how he broke free from those thoughts. Slaven had PTSD from losing friends to Iraqi soldiers. When he came home, just the thought of being in the same room with a Muslim man sent him into fight or flight. He realized that reducing humans down to a select few was not who he wanted to be and jumped headfirst into his own style of exposure therapy in 2006 by joining Parkland’s Muslim Student Association. There he was confronted with people who were just as suspicious of him as he was of them. But he made friends, he saw that just as there were small castes of crazy Christians, it was the same for Muslims. When reflecting on his time in the military and the situation he was faced with Slaven had this to say, “It didn’t bring out the very worst in me, but it is the worst I’m ever going to be in my life. I can tell you that.” Please listen to this episode here.
Steven Slaven is just one case of someone trying to break free of the hateful thoughts instilled in him from in-group’s culture at Parkland. It can be done anywhere by anyone, what is necessary is a safe community that wants to see equality. To those who committed acts of hate against Dr. Umeeta Sadarangani, it isn’t the end of your story, everyone loves a comeback. You just have to be proactive in your search for change, and I cannot think of any place better than the college we are attending now Parkland College.