No longer blog@Examiner.com; please disregard this on the website-try to fix soon. Bear

Bates College Hosts MLK, Jr. Day’s Activities

(This is the first of a two-pt. blog series)

I.

This is the day (January 16) our nation set aside a holiday to celebrate and lift in respect, the memory & legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine, hosted a keynote speech (given by Professor Kahlil Gibran Muhammed) as well as many break-out workshops.  The theme of the day was Reparations: Addressing Racial Injustices.

The call for reparations to African-Americans, descended from slaves, in their relationship to their owners & slave identity, has gained more & more momentum & critical attention has now aided the call for reparations; reparations, however, to be sustainable must be founded on a new declaration of race in our culture, a new conversation, a new language, a new social consciousness; in other words, the completion of the Oppressor-&-the Oppressed experiment.  So, education about slavery and issues surrounding it, is the firm base that everything will rest upon, including reparations.

In his keynote presentation, Professor & author, Kahlil Gibran Muhammed, he noted that those who support reparations must be intentional about reparations for it to be efficacious & meaningful to those whom it might benefit, as well as legislators.

Dr. Muhammed observed that what is presently needed in our culture, in terms of righting the social justice & criminal justice worlds, is for Americans to move into a new threshold.  Dr. King, said Dr. Muhammed, was passionate about racism being a type of “cultural homicide.”  We don’t need DOA.

Later, in his talk, Muhammed emphasized how President Obama received the baton from MLK, Jr.  Perhaps this was one of Obama’s central, political axioms: America has always been about seeing ourselves as one nation, from many, diverse lands all over this planet.  One common understanding of our “oneness” is that when push comes to shove, we’d give our lives for our brothers & sisters.  We have many, unspoken & spoken American values that we could agree to hold these all with respect.

Hearing some of the above comments, some white folks would respond, “Well, none of my ancestors owned slaves.”  This statement is as incongruous as building an outside brick barbeque, and you tell your buddy, “Well, we’re all set to go.  Did you see all the bricks?”  “Yes, I did, but that’s all that’s over there, no sand, no tools, no iron for the grill—nothing but bricks!”

White people are often completely unaware about their privilege, as white people, in our nation.  So, this is all about education.  First, we need accurate, and not skewed information & knowledge, about racism, and every other “ism” you could think of.

©Christopher Bear-Beam January 16, 2017

Racism is a Feeling

Sometime back I attended a monthly dialogue session that focuses on Anti-Racism, Racism & Discrimination.  In our discussion, one of the group members said something that stayed with me: Racism is a feeling.

Here are some rhetorical questions: please don’t give your answers now, but simply listen to some of the questions:

§         What do you think of this statement (“racism is a feeling”)?

§         Do you view it as true and accurate, or false and inaccurate?

§         What are your reasons for believing the statement to be true?

§         What are your reasons for believing the statement to be false?

§         As I said the phrase racism is a feeling, did you notice any shifts in your body?

§         Were there places of tension, compression or release that you felt in your body sensations?

§         A key part in this exercise is to listening discriminatively—this doesn’t mean you listen for a way to gain information to use to discriminate against someone.

Discriminative Listening is listening to someone’s hear/reading between the lines; but you listen for both emotions and words contained in the other’s communication.  In this kind of listening, we can engage our own empathic compassion for self & others, as we listen.  Pay careful attention to feeling words found in a person’s statements, innuendos, & general conversation; this may be combined for one’s content, and insures that we really understand what the person is saying, especially those that are easily misunderstood.

Do you think adapting the phrase “Racism is a feeling” would be a helpful term to use in anti-racism training?  How about “Racism has many feelings? Think of your own, and try it out?

Our goal here is to try to come to a common understanding on the statement, Racism is a feeling. Another way of getting at this is to take a very quick look at Brain Chemistry, since it’s relevant for understanding this phrase.  I hope it’s also relevant in our everyday lives, too.

Human Development

We when are growing as  children in this culture, or someone who is a citizen of another nation, the Neo Cortex (NC) in the frontal lobe of the brain; for many people their NC doesn’t fully develop until around eighteen years of age.  The NC plays the role of language formation, so when language is in the formation phase in youth, the role of the NC is different than when one is older.

In the formative years of human development, a child may not have the capacity for human language, but it has to develop in a process of time.  However, all types of non-verbal communication are occurring.  The child is exposed to many brief, or in some cases longer, non-verbal messages, that are imprinted on one’s psyche or unconscious—facial looks, smiles, mean looks, “be quiet” messages, positive non-verbal & reciprocal positive regard statements, punishing looks, unspoken non-verbal cues with underlying family or hidden messages, expressions of joy, grief, sadness, anger, depression, acting-out behaviors, etc.  

The brain somehow somehow stores these messages, and as the brain continues growing, there are more and more of the unconscious emergences; there is, of course, a parallel-running, language acquisition and comprehension function of the NC.  More unconscious data arises to manifest itself in conscious ways and ordinary experiences.  An individual’s self-reflective and intentional application of new learnings appears to cement certain feelings onto a template of everyday living.

The caveat here is that our emotions may, in fact, need re-booting, customizing, and opportunities that lead to personal expression of feelings and/or thoughts.  What this also points to is the need to blend both cognitive thoughts mixed with messages from the affective realm (a partnering of feeling & thought) for effective communication.

If this process is somehow neglected, skipped, or is somehow incomplete, and doesn’t happen, it’s easy for a human to get lost in past trauma, stuck in anger or resentment, and lose the purpose for which she’s participating in the first place.  Ending consequences may be that some medical authorities will resist using the diagnosis of PTSD; there appears to be a newly emerging notion that PTSD is no dream—it’s real and VA doctors are certainly aware that PTSD harms soldiers & families.  They understand, as do most professionals in the health care field, that you can’t fool human nature, environmental hazards, or medical technology and personnel.

A major field that we need to understand a little about is that of cognitive-behavior theory; a systems view of racism we may consider is this: racism is a constellation of many feelings.  Essentially, researchers and practioners in this field theorize that all feelings/emotions naturally flow from cognitions or thoughts in our brains.  There is a causal relationship to our cognitions and emotions.  For example, a person’s Belief System is formed from cognitions; cognitions may include interpreted facts, assumptions, stereotypical thinking, inferences, opinions, biases, etc.

Cognitions trigger our emotional infrastructure and catalyze us to get ready to feel various emotions coming up into our conscious field.  A metaphor would be that emotions are our quality control system.  Their mental basis is rooted in one’s cognitive schema.  Emotions that come up for air are signs for us to take note of so we can take whatever appropriate action needed as a result of our emotional intelligence, and either let it go, sit with it a while, dismiss it, deny it, or merely observe the feeling.

Here’s another suggestion: what if our phrase read Racism is a storage area for multi-colored feelings.  If we use this as our premise we might ask “What colors could we give to the various emotions in the constellation of racism?” 

Copyrighted Christopher Bear-Beam February 3, 2015   

Begging (American Style)

In far flung countries begging is a custom, our developing, American definition, pieces of indigenous lands unless you have no land on which to live.

In the U.S., in the big cities and maybe in rural areas, too,  homeless folks beg for spare change, or barter their work for food, etc.—on street corners, under viaducts, wherever they can find empty space they occupy, squatters on public domains, their weapons are signs of begging, only we are a little embarrassed by the term, and sad faces,

I feel so sad for them, knowing I could just as easily be there myself/entertaining the people in cars, now entertaining could equal begging, American-style.

Immigrant workers stand on curbs or at busy intersections, in clumps, they ain’t no chumps, they be just begging for a job today—survival worries—take it one day at a time—that’s all the energy any of us has, what we have now, not so fine, and furiously fine.

I’ve begged in Berkeley in the Mid-Sixties—easier then, because I was selling the Berkeley Barb, the daily news of dissent.

Now I’m begging for people to buy my poetry, or my leather products—cut off/cut off unemployment benefits due to a label given to me by the State—misconduct—it’s done, not filling a monthly quota is misconduct, rather hostile & abrupt, scheduling problems, targeted by the political system of an entity whose stated aim is to deal ethically, they hide beyond the wall, wrapped in gauze of serving the needs of the Mentally Ill/no surprise.

What about my needs for dignity and equity and justice?  I also have a Mental Health diagnosis, don’t I count?  Can’t learn anything when my boss threatened to kill me in her multiple-personality way, PTSD re triggered, I’m awash in symptoms.  Was this my fate or my Karma?

So, now, no coins jingling in my pockets, or bills in my wallet, unless I sell my poetry, you see, by begging, American-style, luckily as a poet I have my craft, my greatest earthly joy/my products are me.  It’s a trip when you’ve had a job all your life, or most of it—now this prop has split, gone.

Selling my poetic discourse under a tree.

But what’s up with me?  Lots of black crow feathers in my mouth—tastes like one sick bird, lots of bending & stooping and the humble pie is rancid vomit.

Everyone’s got to beg someday, so don’t be too proud to beg, OK?  Good to give away all you got, good to receive as well.

© Christopher Bear-Beam July 25, 2011

Monoculture Crisis

I write about Conflict Resolution, but I think there are many inter-woven roots of Conflict Resolution; some you can see because they’re visible and above-ground, and some you can’t see because they’re often invisible, unseen because of ventilating and creating underground.

In the scheme of things, Conflict Resolution has much to do with culture and how inter-cultural relationships function either in unhealthy or healthy ways.   Culture is much more than just the kind of language spoken.  It consists of many, multiple layers upon layers and social conditioning upon social conditioning elements.  The fact that it has so many variables means that conflicts and embracing, death and life, separation or diversity, etc. are all part of the gift-wrapped package.

If you leave Austin, you can go out to the wilds, forests, state parks, and national parks, and view the micro-culture of a chosen ecosphere.  Here, you don’t find places that have the same kind of plant or tree lined up, military style, standing at attention, and getting ready to salute the top dog.   No, in the wild, you see chaos, destruction, thriving and growing, going through evolutionary growth development, there’s a general messiness in any kind of healing-- galore!  You see randomness, a natural graffiti of flora and fauna colors, leaving their colored pollen to remind us of their presence, because we are all interdependent beings, joined in the circle of life, and dancing crazily on the edge of a forest fire.

“Monoculture—the practice of replicating a single plant, product or idea over a huge area—is about the most unstable, unsustainable, unimaginable form of organization that exists, but in the short term it keeps the system running smoothly and keeps the power in the hands of a small number of people”  (P. 1, The Icarus Project: www.theicarusproject.net, “Friends Make the Best Medicine: A Guide to Creating Community Mental Health Support Networks”—you can obtain copies of this book free of charge by going to the website above).

Living in a Monoculture means you want everyone else to be a carbon copy of you.  A Multi-Culture celebrates and respects difference, diversity, the freedom and dignity of each person individually, an equality-fueled partnering, an avoidance of the Doctor (once known as the supreme expert, infallible god with scalpels, icon, distant, often unapproachable and acting without much humility, monologic communication, often acting as if superior to a patient (a peer?) and family members, as if they are somehow separate, “better than,” “grasping for control,” etc.  Do any of these images resonate with you?

Monocultures are not conducive to life, and generally within natural systems you see Multi-Cultures living and breathing interdependently.  In Monoculture, primarily in Western Democracies is a way that wealthy people and systems control and exploit others.  “Powerful people figured out awhile (sic) time ago that it’s a lot easier to control things if everyone’s eating the same foods, listening to the same music, reading the same books, watching the same TV shows, and speaking the same language.  This is what we call the Monocult, and while everyone is supposedly more and more connected by this new ‘”global culture,”’ we’re more and more isolated from each other.”  (Ibid., p. 1).

The Icarus Project is both a pioneer and an outgrowth of a psycho-social wave that is now growing and picking up steam. This is a peer-based model of recovery that functions on the basis of self-empowerment, self-transformation, and supportive community; it’s known by various names (Peer Support is perhaps the most common), but suffice it to say that many are concerned and disillusioned about the old school Medical Model that’s built on an hierarchal, up-down, doctor as boss/patient as servant.  Many individuals and organizations are resisting how the Medical Model runs counter-intuitively and out of alignment with the natural systems in which we live.

These people are rising up in diverse ways to use their voice to clearly and personally state their own identity, and to offer peer resources and initiatives to those with Mental Illness, many who have been very damaged by the current rigid model of The Medical Model.

So we have a perfect set-up for conflict, right?  Yes, that’s true: and we also have a perfect set-up for psycho-social-creativity to work.  It’s good for us to remember that one of the powerful, growth-producing phenomenon that dynamically is a Conflict>Creativity>Transformation>Conflict>Creativity>Transformation cycle that continuously re-images and reformulates itself, changes, flows, takes two steps back, lacks permanency, is randomly impacted by conditions, causes and effects, is simply a part of the life-death process, opens us up to our incredible mind-bodies capacity for mindfulness and awareness, etc.

We are not victims, we’re not weak, disassociated or unthinking; we base our view of reality on empirical facts, not what we ever always think about facts or scientific laws or functions of living, but our experience that speaks to other listening voices, and is our credibility and legitimacy that we own and use.  Our stories ride out our path of self-expression as well as journey us towards fulfillment of our human potential.  Our stories have the power to heal us and send out the energy that is available for any healing on this planet to take place.  

I urge you to check out the Icarus Project Website (www.icarusproject.net).   They offer resources that clear-mindedly give meaning to our humanism, our return to the garden of humanity, and the ecstasy and dignity of human selfhood.

I am gathering information presently as I envision a group gathering of those who have been negatively impacted and affected by the Monoclot in the area of Mental Health and Mental Illness.  The group mission would be to offer a safe and confidential place for folks to communicate their stories; if you, or anyone you know, have ideas, creative inspirements, input, questions, would like to be a part of this kind of group, etc.  Please email Christopher Bear-Beam at sunbear.com@gmail.com.

© Christopher Bear-Beam January 2, 2014

 

Monoculture

Two people square off in a conflict.  One of them throws out a hailstorm of words, hisses, with a trance-like look in his/her eyes in an all up in your face attitude.  The other person decides to take what could appear to be very vulnerable tactic, weak & gentle tone of voice, along with an understanding look in the individual’s eyes. This response only made the other person angrier, because he/she was pissed off because the other person wasn’t angry like he/she was.  “C’mon dudes fight will you?”

Often we find that we are the ones who are stirring up the conflict; as someone has said, ‘a little bit of sugar works much better than a little bit of vinegar, not that the person in the above scenario would have to use the method used to solve a conflict.’ To better understand what may, or may not be, happening, we need to define conflict.  In fact, if we don’t have clarity on the nature of conflict, much less on how we may define it in a sentence, can we really expect the resolution of conflicts in our lives?  Probably not. There must be the “heart” and moxie to “get it” at all levels of our humanity.

In his book, Conflict Resolution and Mediation for Peer Helpers, Don Sorenson, PhD., lists some phrases we may live by in terms of the way we typically react to conflict:

“Come and let us reason together.”

“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

“If you can’t make someone think as you do, make that person do as you think.”

"A half a loaf is better than no loaf at all.”

“A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.”

“The best way of handling conflicts is to avoid them.”

“Avoid foolish & ignorant disputes, do not generate strife.”

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

“He who runs away lives to fight another day.”

“Might overcomes right.”

“Justice will prevail.”

“Truth is mightier than the sword.”

“Tit for tat is fair play.”

“Kill your enemies with kindness.”

“There is nothing so important that it is worth fighting for.”

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Albert Einstein told us years ago, ‘The only way you can solve a problem is to find a creative solution that is more powerful than the original cause. Otherwise you end up with the same kind of dilemma.’

“Would you just shut up—don’t rock the boat and create a worse mess than we already have.”

“Would you just tell me what you’re feeling right now—every time we have some sort of conflict, you go into your silent-steaming.  You’re like that for a couple of days, and then you act like nothing happened.  You won’t talk and there’s no way I can pull your emotions out, anyway.”

“I am just going to go home and pray about it.  I’m not making any move toward that jerk unless I see he’s beginning to change or move forward.  I have to listen to see if God speaks.  If he can’t do that, he’s history in my book.”

The Passive-Aggressive Activist: this kind of person has the personality trait of always trying to befriend you, gain your approval, put you in the spotlight, do everything you ask and MORE!  But this PAA hides behind a “user friendly” mask, and their motives are generally not in the “friendly” mode, but designed to hurt, to steal some object or notion, to violate their family cemetery, often defame, besmirch, libel you & your family, and, if they could, to destroy you.  The mask also hides the pirate’s skull with a dagger in his mouth.  Go easy and do a lot of observing what’s happening in your own ecosphere.  Back in the Nineties a book came out called “The Clergy Killers,” and gave a general background of the mental health of people who do this, and why they do it.

Here are some questions based on my observations, in regards to authentically defining the meaning of conflict for yourself:

1.    Do I try to win, to avoid losing in a conflict context and/or situation?

2.    Do I work endlessly & tirelessly at “not losing” and “beating the other dude out as the winner.”

3.    Do I think & feel that I have a competitive nature?  In what sorts of places or situations do I feel triggered, then activate competition?  In what parts of my life does it emerge?

4.    Do I try to remain neutral during conflict?

5.    Do I use avoidance in managing conflict?  Do I just do nothing?  Do I stop listening, and check out emotionally (going into that expressionless, somnambulant trance-of eyes that aren’t really there in that moment.

6.    Do I have a difficult time managing my anger in a conflict?  If anger is a primary emotion what would happen if I slipped and let it out in a conflict?

7.    Can you think of any more scenarios?

Consider these three approaches when communicating with someone with whom you have a conflict:

1.    An important key is to mention specific actions or behaviors, as well as dates, to whoever you may be engaged with in conflict.  Communicating & Positive Labeling can be used to view yourself more from an elemental (earth, wind, fire & water, space? These are the integers) lens, or in your expression to the other person of how his or her behaviors has impacted you.  Make sure you include your feelings about it, too. How have you felt emotionally about the conflict? What do you do normally about your feelings?

2.    Next, keeping your own communication posture congruent (here the forms of communication match: the words & non-verbal communication are aligned and not opposed by either forms of personal communication) towards the other person, with some detachment, but never surrendering both yours and the others individual, personalized, human, compassionate action and clear thinking.

Think about these points the next time you’re traveling in a conflictual situation; think of your own motives as well, because conflict resolution is all about having the “heart” to deal with conflict when it comes,

© Christopher Bear-Beam October 2, 2014