Coloniality

White (in)humanity in therapy: The Ulterior Message Of Selective Outrage

On March 10, 2022 by 
 By: Lucia Sarmiento Verano

I’ve been silent for a while but I cannot let this be. This is sucking the life out of me so here goes what I have to say. We have all seen the news about the war in Ukraine this past two weeks and most of us therapists have also seen many organisations speak about it, including a number of very prominent figures organising events to call for donations to help Ukrainian refugees. All speakers initially announced were, of course, whiter than white, some of them having had problematic and oppressive attitudes before, at least one of them being publicly racist on Twitter not so long ago.

But I’m not here to criticise individual people for whatever “misguided” attitudes or outright oppressive behaviour they have, nor to criticise the actual event happening which will, I am sure, bring much-needed support to people currently going through the most horrendous life situations. Overall, doing something to support people in crisis is good.

This is about the mentality and underlying attitudes in our profession as a whole. This of course includes people organising these types of events and people at the helm of organisations publishing statements about Ukraine. It also includes the rest of us, who either do not or have not openly challenged these attitudes wherever we have encountered them. I am sure we all can do better.

The writing of this post was inspired by the brilliant tweeting of Myira Khan and by my own rage, which has been seething since the first days of this conflict at the sight of all horrified white Europeans implying this is the first war in a long time; or even worse, it’s bad because it’s in Europe and the victims are white.

And believe me, I feel for Ukrainians and their current plight as much as any of you, and I have nothing against white Europeans in principle. But an empathic attitude is hard to maintain when all I’ve been seeing for the past couple of weeks is this glaring fact: you (white Europeans) as people, have never and will never extend the same type of concern and empathy we may have for you, to us. Us people from the Global South and also people of colour. I know that if this were to happen in my home and to my family and friends, white Europe would not bat an eyelid.

So tell me, what does that say about the trust, care and connection we can develop in relationships across cultures and races? Notably between a person from the Global South like me, and a white European? Or, a person of colour and a white person? And what does that mean for therapeutic relationships?

Like most other resources in this world, Humanity is unequally distributed and is usually reserved for the same peoples. If you do not see Humanity in us, how can we trust you will empathically care, and hold our experiences to the same level of importance as your white European clients?

Selective outrage: a manifestation of white supremacy

As therapists, we should be accustomed to thinking about and analysing the underlying messages carried in relational dynamics by certain words, behaviours and attitudes. Whether we call them ulterior transactions, transferential material, or anything else, we help our clients recognise these and the impact they may have, accompanying them in the untangling of complex and emotional situations.

Perhaps it is time we turn the focus on ourselves and the people around us for a moment if we are robust enough to take it. Using our knowledge and skills should, in this case, help us recognise the hidden message that right now, our profession is putting out into the world, hidden in plain sight, shameful and hurtful.

Let’s be real: we have not really seen a response like the present one in regards to any other humanitarian crisis, war, refugee crisis etc. in this profession. Believe me, the silence was glaring already, especially from ‘leading’ figures and organisations who declared being preoccupied with injustice and inequalities, but at the same time, repeatedly chose to remain silent about said injustices.

Then the war in Ukraine happened. The volume of the voices being raised today has created an echo chamber where that previous silence just resonates more loudly and painfully.

We are being shown that people in this field are capable of great energy, great drive and motivation, volunteering their time and organisational skills to respond to terrible events when these are deemed important and serious enough. The message cannot be clearer: war and humanitarian crises outside of Europe, even though they were engineered and created by western countries, for the most part, are not as important.

And this is how White Supremacy is speaking loudly through our profession. Dehumanising black and brown bodies, the global majority, shows that their plight does not spark the same amount of outrage, pain or empathy.

This clear differential response is a symptom, a sign. We urgently need to pay attention to it because it points in the direction of a harmful and historical dehumanisation process that is at the very root of racism and oppression. Creating the spectrum of violence with which we are now familiar: microaggressions and exclusion at one end, war, torture, exploitation and genocide at the other end. Ultimately the same type of violence is born out of the dehumanisation of people of colour.

Taking from the definition of microaggression: “routine, commonplace comments or gestures (intentional or unintentional) that convey negative, derogatory or harmful messages to targets; marginalized individuals or groups.” (Pierce, 1974; Sue et al., 2007)

And expanding it to what we are talking about today. Selective outrage and silence convey the following messages: “your life matters less” “your experiences have less importance for us”.

And the bigger your outrage is, the louder you are screaming this message directly onto our faces.

I will not stand for this. All power to the Ukrainian people, but these therapists’ responses do not represent me in the least.

White Supremacy in the therapy room

I don’t want this post to remain just an angry rant about what’s happening “out there”. I want to draw attention to how this phenomenon can (and will) also affect therapeutic practices and in turn, create potential harm for global majority clients.

In fact, there is no real difference between what therapists like to call the “out there” and the “in here”. No barrier or psychic separation between social context and the therapeutic relationship. You are probably familiar with the concept of parallel process, which posits that relational dynamics happening outside of the therapeutic space will be reproduced inside the therapeutic space. Perhaps you are more inclined to use concepts such as transference, enactments, archetypes or the collective unconscious which has an impact on us all.

If you accept any of these premises then it is arrogant at best and hypocritical at worst to deny that context, prejudices, biases and social hierarchies have an effect on our interactions with clients. The social context of therapy is the social context of us all. It is the same social context that calls for outrage and empathy towards white people affected by war while remaining silent when people of colour are affected by war.

Right now, not only our profession is doing that very visibly but we also see messages calling the war of Ukraine a threat to GLOBAL peace (as if that was ever a thing), and calling for GLOBAL peace when referring to the conflict in Ukraine. This is clearly framing the European theatre as the global one, an unabashedly Eurocentric and white supremacist perspective.

If therapists are expressing these views openly, with little to no challenge from fellow practitioners, what is that saying about what lies in therapists’ minds and their unconscious processes regarding humanisation, or rather, dehumanisation of the global majority?

Again, this is not to attack anyone personally nor to imply anything. This is a call to my fellow therapists to bravely confront and reflect on these issues and their consequences.

As therapists, we know that part of our ethical duty is to be honest with what we may be bringing into a relationship and work on this in order to reduce potential harm to clients. Then let’s be congruent with our ethical principles, shall we? As a profession, let’s stop talking out of our bums and walk the walk for once. Let’s do this right now, with the help of some simple questions:

  • Have you been affected by the news of the recent war in Ukraine?
  • Have you been moved by the calls to action in our profession and in society in general?

Good.

  • Now, do you remember being equally affected by recent wars in the rest of the world? By Afghanistan’s invasion, Syria’s destructions, Lybia’s invasion, the ongoing colonisation of Palestine? Be honest.
  • Do you remember being equally moved by calls to action for any of these causes? Again, be honest (and not for me, for yourself and for your clients).
  • What does this tell you about your internalised eurocentrism and white supremacy?
  • How could this manifest in relational or transferential dynamics between you and clients from the global majority? (again, try to be as candid as possible, you owe your clients that at least).

It might also be time you learn about the unconscious dynamics of racism and white supremacy. There’s plenty of material out there to explore. No, I won’t provide references or suggestions.

Concluding thoughts

I will just finish by saying I recently heard someone saying there is an invisible barrier felt when trying to connect to a white counsellor. I now believe that barrier, which I have felt at times with white European counsellors, especially when trying to discuss experiences of growing up in South America, is well and truly there, but not because of the client. That barrier is the therapist’s own white supremacy and eurocentrism.

What can a therapist, who deep down dehumanises us and our families, that feels more detached from our problems and our experiences than the ones of people more like them, provide us in terms of true empathy, attunement and relational depth? Certainly not the quality connection needed for the deepest work to occur. A lesser quality service if you will. Not good enough.

I will leave you with that.

In the end, our profession is just another site where colonialism reigns and is reproduced. In the public arena, and the private space of a therapeutic encounter, whiteness has gotten under our skin and it is, in ways that remain invisible to the majority, poisoning our work.

And ultimately if you are incapable of mustering the same amount of empathy and care for people of colour as for your white peers at least hear this:

“Whoever debases others, debases himself”
(James Baldwin)

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