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As cultures across the world have risen up and been torn down, white supremacist values of hierarchy, normativity, and respectability have been exerted and reinforced. United States culture is deeply embedded in and built upon white supremacy. White supremacy conditions us to believe that there are innate superiorities in White people and White cultures that permit oppression, harm, and authority to cultures deemed inferior. Proximity to Whiteness informs proximity to status. Frances Lee Ansley, legal scholar and professor, defines white supremacy not just as self-conscious racism but also as “a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.” This definition has been quoted by critical race theorists and abolitionists, and it is the definition that informs this pillar of the 5 evils.
Within the 5 Evils of Society framework, “Whiteness” and white supremacy exist only in order to establish an “other” over which an “authority” can wield power. Therefore, Whiteness and proximity to Whiteness informs who has access to and controls power. In this way, white supremacy uses respectability in order to be the bully, the aggressor, and the enforcer of the 5 evils. White supremacy tells people to get in line and stay in line. You want to be as close to the people with power as possible so that you are seen as “normal” compared to them and better compared to others who are not compliant.
White supremacy manifestations can always be seen in the overt acts of fascism being enacted by the Western empire. White supremacy can also be seen in the more subtle and covert ideas of professional standards of excellence and academic performance expectations as well as professionalism in appearance, dress, and performance. Police brutality and the criminal justice system are manifestations of white supremacy in that any deviations from what the bully decides is “correct” and “respectable” is deserving of punishment. Where Whiteness works to construct hierarchies, it incorporates building materials from ability status, size, color, location, religion, gender, and sex. Without the white supremacist consequences of normativity and respectability, we would not be stuck fighting within the hierarchy of our society. And how does white supremacy enforce these hierarchies? Through the use of patriarchy as the weapon. Where patriarchy is the muscle, white supremacy is the wielder of the weapon.
The symptoms and consequences of white supremacy are hierarchies, normativity, and respectability. Working with the understanding of systemic trauma–as discussed in previous writings–it stands to reason that white supremacy infiltrates our conceptions of self, others, and the world, especially in the perceptions of safety, trust, power and control, intimacy, and esteem.
Internalized about the self, we may believe we are only as good as we are better than others. Our safety is maintained through commitment to respecting authority. Our sense of self is tied to our capacity to pass as normal or normative. Our power comes from hierarchy and being able to place ourselves higher/above others.
Internalized about others, we may feel that others only serve as a source of comparison to rank ourselves against. It may be difficult for us to trust others because, through comparison, everyone is a threat. Our comfort and closeness with others lies in our similarities or in my being better. Differences and divergence from authority are deemed disrespectful. Being truly seen is a sign of vulnerability. We must show respect to those “above” us or else risk being dropped “lower”.
Internalized about the world, we may act from the idea that there are “good” places and “bad” places and this is determined by a place’s proximity to and relationship with authority. Power and control over the world, the land, and the people is determined by how much a place can be of use to the endeavors of white supremacy. We may feel that caring for the earth and indigeneity is intimate and emotional; we may need to turn that care off in order to operate within white supremacy.
The mental health industrial complex is a system burdened by the 5 Evils of Society, like many other systems in the U.S. This means, inherently, it is riddled with white supremacist manifestations. I see the mental health industrial complex as a direct extension of white supremacy. What are some of the spoken and unspoken white supremacy symptoms that permeate the mental health field? The idea that there are “normal” ways for a person to think/feel/behave, and that deviations from these “normal” ways is pathologized. Normalcy in mental health is directly determined by the authority, and the emphasis on normalcy versus divergence is a reflection of white supremacy. The mental health field has moved through different stages of relationship with indigenous knowledge and healing. Indigenous teachings of health, wellness, spirituality, and community have all been actively oppressed, minimized, pathologized, and punished; they have been replaced by definitions of normalcy–strictly defined using puritan black-and-white thinking– created by white supremacy. By creating a “mental health field”, society has pushed us away from our Selves, forced us into compliance, watched us break without that connection to Self, and then pathologized us for breaking.
Disentangling from white supremacy in the mental health field looks like no longer engaging in pathologization in any way. It looks like trusting people’s self-report of lived experience and meeting the accommodations that different people need in order to accomplish what they decide they want or need to accomplish. With a return to indigenous understandings of mental health and wellness, each person can be given an opportunity to understand their ancestors, who survived through deep connection to nature. Mental health providers can take up a position as community guide/healer/support. There can be disagreement and negotiation without punishment, because those things are not inherently disrespectful. Instead, we can use mutual aid and understanding. Disentangling from white supremacy in the mental health field looks like embracing all of the different kinds of indigenous knowledge from all different cultures, embracing that no one is better than any other, learning from each other, sharing and finding similarities without forced comparisons, and radical support for all experiences without punishment.
Suggest Readings
Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. Bloomsbury, 2016.
Davis, Angela Y. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle. Haymarket Books, 2016.
Friere, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The Continuum Publishing Co, 1993.
Helms, Janet E. A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life. 3rd ed., Cognella, 2019.
Mullan, Jennifer. Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice. W. W. Norton, 2023.
©2023, Margaret (Pebble) McCleary, CoTenacious LLC, and its affiliates and assigns and licensors, All rights reserved.
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