sexism – Page 2 – Engaging Peace

I was there, Saturday January 21, 2017

Posted on January 31, 2017January 31, 2017 by kathiemm

u, Sarah’s mom (left) and sister (right) at the March for Women in NYC. Mom’s sign reads “Our rights are not up for grabs…neither are we!”

by Sarah Mensch

I always knew I’d be a protestor. I grew up in a household where Stephen Colbert and Keith Olbermann were always on TV, where Thanksgiving dinners were spent discussing politics. One of my first clear memories is of my dad swearing at the TV in 2000 as Bush collected more and more electoral votes. Political heat was no stranger in our home.

Here I am at the Boston rally, holding my sign.

I’ve always imagined protesting as “sticking up for the little guy,” so to speak; I thought I’d be fighting for LGBT+ rights, or immigrants and refugees’ rights. But when Trump was elected, things got personal.

Within minutes, Trump grabbed at the throats of “sanctuary cities,” of Planned Parenthood, and the Affordable Care Act. My mind turned to my mother and to my sister, who suffers from a chronic illness called POTS. It turned to my friends and me, who rely on the ACA’s policy allowing us to stay on our families’ health insurance plans until we turn 26. It turned to my grandfather, a refugee from Poland who survived the Holocaust because of our incredible melting pot. And I knew I had to fight.

Going to the Boston Women’s March was incredible. Even the walk to the Boston Common was exciting. People were blocking the streets, pushing old friends in wheelchairs or carrying little ones atop their shoulders. Their signs were funny, sentimental, or calls to action. And I had never seen so many people before; later, I learned that I was one among 175,000 marchers in Boston alone.

My view at the Boston rally before the March,

I think the speech Senator Warren gave at the March best summarizes the event: “…we believe that sexism, racism, homophobia, and bigotry have no place in this country,” she said. “Black lives matter; diversity makes our country stronger. We believe that equal means equal and that’s true in the workplace, it’s true in marriage, it’s true every place.”

While I expected this to be an angry march, something a little closer to a riot or a protest, all I saw was people loving each other.

Strangers were high fiving other strangers whose posters held messages that resonated with them. People moved out of the way easily, quickly, and without complaint to let handicapped marchers through. It became very clear to me that this was a celebration. We were here because we were proud of ourselves and of each other in our diversity.

Sarah Mensch, Research Assistant, Graphic Designer, is a psychology major at Boston University. She is thrilled to be working on a Directed Study focusing on the effect of the media on gun violence under the supervision of Dr. Malley Morrison. When Sarah graduates, she aims to go on to graduate school to earn an MSW and become a therapist. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys pursuing her minor in Deaf Studies, photography, and exploring Boston

Another one of Sarah’s favorite photos from the March:

My friends and I with our signs. I was so proud to stand with these women.

Your father taught you WHAT? Part 1.

Posted on September 24, 2016 by kathiemm

By Kathie Malley-Morrison

In its inaugural issues, Engaging Peace introduced the work of cognitive political psychologist, George Lakoff—particularly his work on political conservatism and liberalism. Our presentation of his theory included posts on Why We Fight, Countering the Ubiquitous Argument, A New Way of Thinking, and Values and Rhetoric. Today we begin sharing highlights from Lakoff’s psychological analysis of today’s conservative Republicans, such as the supporters of Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Bottom line, according to Lakoff, is that conservatives generally grow up in a strict father family system. In his view, “In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says, which is taken to be what is right.”

Lakoff goes on to say, “The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above nonChristians, Straights above Gays.”

In regards to renditions of those values in this election year, Lakoff says, “We see these tendencies in most of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as in Trump, and on the whole, conservative policies flow from the strict father worldview and this hierarchy.”

Lakoff also notes that, “Family-based moral worldviews run deep. Since people want to see themselves as doing right not wrong, moral worldviews tend to be part of self-definition — who you most deeply are. And thus your moral worldview defines for you what the world should be like. When it isn’t that way, one can become frustrated and angry.”

What do you think of Lakoff’s views? Do you know any conservative Republicans, personally? If so, do you know anything about their families, their personal histories? To what extent do they seem to support a strict father morality, a father (authority) knows best morality, a WASP-centered morality? Are they frustrated and angry? Are they going to vote this year?

A truly patriotic American is….

Posted on February 29, 2016 by kathiemm

Photo of a peace flag by the US Capitol during the peace march on 2007-01-27.
Image by Rrenner at English Wikipedia and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

In my view, a truly patriotic American is an activist dedicated to the goals outlined in the Preamble of our Constitution. This entails the effort to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

I also believe that anyone who enjoys any benefits from living within a country purporting to be a democracy and providing at least some access to a democratically-based political process has the obligation to participate in that process—in particular by voting.

So, how do you become a patriotic activist in the United States? First of all you need to evaluate the current state of our system. Ask yourself some questions: is everyone in the country treated justly? If not who commits the injustices? Who suffers from the injustices? What will it take to reduce injustices—better laws? Reform of the judicial system? Who has the power to make those changes? How can you influence those power-holders?

And how about domestic tranquility? Is the United States aglow with domestic tranquility right now? If not, what individuals and groups are dividing Americans against themselves? What can be done to bring people together?

When today’s politicians use the word “defense,” are they really talking about defense or is the term “defense” a euphemism for terms such as conquest, imperialism, hegemony, domination? Do current governmental defense programs help or undermine the goal of defense? And would not the ultimate defense be living in peace?

And then we have the “general welfare” and “blessings of liberty”? Does having a higher level of income inequality than all other “developed” nations contribute to the general welfare of people in this country? In the long run, can it contribute to your welfare? How about racist, sexist, ethnocentric language, or attacks on people of color, or Jews, or Muslims, or Catholics, or immigrants? Do they contribute to the general welfare? Do they secure the blessings of liberty for you, your children, your grandchildren?

If not, then pay attention to the promises of this year’s candidates for political office. Do they offer adequate solutions to the challenges of democracy? Do some seem more tuned in to the problems than others? Think carefully, but act too. Vote.

Let’s face it, these guys get a lot of handouts. Part 1.

Posted on November 7, 2015 by kathiemm

Of course nobody wants to talk about this. At least most white people don’t. It’s sort of like admitting to some shameful disease you don’t want anyone to know you have. Or worse, it’s like admitting maybe you don’t deserve the great prize you got or even some of the little bitty ones that cost you so much time and effort.

The great prize for most white people (although some of them have a lot more of it than others) is white privilege—what Peggy McIntosh identifies as “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day….”

Dr. McIntosh sees the resistance of most white people to the very idea of white privilege as similar to the resistance of many men to the suggestion that they have an advantage over women solely because of their sex, not because of any inherent superiority.

McIntosh shares her own journey to awareness of white privilege: “I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence, unable to see that it put me ‘ahead’ in any way, or put my people ahead, overrewarding us and yet also paradoxically damaging us….”

To illustrate the advantages she can take for granted as a white person, she lists 46 privileges, including:

* “I can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

* If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

* I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.”

No matter how good, honest, trustworthy, or deserving they may be, there are millions of people of color for whom these commonalities are not true, for no reasons other than the color of their skin and the racism degrading all of us.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology