June 2023 Clinical Supervision Topic: Race, Oppression, and Liberation
In preparation for this month, I’ve been reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo.
Here are a few poignant quotes from the latter:
“Over 400 years of systemic oppression have set large groups of racial minorities at a distinct power disadvantage. “
“Basic rules, to know if [something] is about race:
It’s about race if a person of color thinks about race
It is about race if it differently/disproportionately affects people of color
It is about race if it fits in a broader pattern of events that affects people of color”
“Racism is [defined as]: Any prejudice against someone based on race when those prejudices are reinforced by systems of power.”
“We have to remember that racism was designed to support an economic and social system for those at the very top. This was never motivated by hatred of people of color, and the goal was never in and of itself simply the subjugation of POC. The ultimate goal of racism was the profit and comfort of the white race, specifically of rich, white men.”
“When we look at racism as a system, it becomes much larger and more complicated than it seemed before, but there is also more opportunity to address the various parts of it.”
“I’m sorry, I wish I could say that reading this book would guarantee that you would never leave a conversation about race feeling like you’d gotten it all wrong and made everything worse—but I can’t. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen, AND you should have these conversations anyway.”
“When someone asks you to check your privilege, they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing, and may in fact be contributing to those struggles. It is a big ask to check your privilege. It is hard and often painful. But it’s not nearly as painful as living with the pain caused by the unexamined privilege of others.”
“When we identify where our privilege intersects with someone else’s oppression, we’ll find our opportunities to make real change. So yes, we all need to be checking our privilege.”
I’m hoping you’ll watch this video in preparation for our sessions this month, and consider these questions:
Where am I actively learning about racism and systems of oppression in the US?
Where do I find anti-oppressive therapy/social work techniques and practices?
How do I examine and acknowledge power and privilege in my clinical interactions?
How do I validate someone’s experience of racism?
How do I embrace intersectionality?
How do I provide a safe space for people with marginalized identities to share their experiences?
Lastly, check out our conversations on this from previous years.
