We are all in this together. Every single one of us is battling covid, and shut downs and the mass shootings in our own home towns and even more broadcasted on television. It really bothers me but even more so right now, when one human being can belittle another while we are all clearly struggling right now. It’s extremely hard for me not to react.
Where is your grace?
It’s been proven time and time again that humans who are consistently under great amounts of stress are less likely to make the sound choices -the same sound choices they make when they are not burdened. We’ve learned that fear based programming doesn’t teach the individual in an internal manner but more of a programmed manor. Which means they are not acting out of consciousness, they are acting out of fear. We’ve also learned that those in poverty are at higher risk to a multitude of negative circumstances.
Why? Why are those in poverty considered at risk?
Now some people who grew up in poverty, and made their way out, might look down on their peers and wonder, why are they stuck there? I know because I was one of those people. When I got to college, I began to ask myself what was it that propelled me forward. What made me different from those who were willing stay put in that paycheck to paycheck (or less) lifestyle. At the surface there was a quick and easy answer. I was ambitious and so it would be my duty to make them more ambitious so they can be liberated.
But I quickly realized, ambition wasn’t the problem. Being liberated from poverty was never the problem. They did everything they were supposed to be doing as parents and workers and humans who wanted to taste all that life as they knew it, had to offer.
What was I missing then? Why weren’t they liberated and living life to the fullest and making better choices, healthy choices, spiritual choices?
Oppression.
Oppression is a subtle but eroding problem that wore our grand parents and great grandparents down and then they passed it down to our parents. They passed down their lumpy carpets, hushed voices, and respect for the elders who raped them. They passed down their solving emotional problems with a good meal and a drunk night out with friends. They passed down their hunched backs and overworked minds for one more paycheck to keep buying shit the don’t want, use, or need.
We are not taking any of those things. We don’t them and we’re changing our ways so that we can get rid of them. And you know what, we’re working our asses off to not pass down these generational behaviors.
And so when I hear someone trash talk our oppressed communities, I want to scream. I want to bring them through the hell we’ve gone through and our parents went through and our great grandparents. And I want to sit them down and drag them through all the subtle forms of oppression we’ve endured.
But then I realize, that the toxic words, the belittling of the oppressed is exactly what comes from the mouths of oppressed individuals. And they probably have already endured hell. And my best option isn’t to do to them what was done to us. My best option is to focus on my vision, freedom from oppression. Oppressing them is not going to free them from themselves.
Jayne.press 