Conclusion - Connection to Social Work and Social Justice
The process of writing this blog forced me to think through the idea that the gender binary is a colonial concept.
As someone who does not fit into gender, I see that the gender binary is something applied to me from the outside. Since I am a white settler, is the gender binary forced on me by colonialism, or by something else?
Anti-racist practice among white people often focuses on the fact that the system dehumanizes us by making us oppressors. For example:
"On a deeper level, members of dominant groups may suffer a loss of authenticity and humanity as a result of their unearned privilege and dominant position in society (Freire, 1972/2000). Brod (1987) argues that members of the dominant groups are so deeply harmed by their often unwitting participation in a system of oppression, that they would ultimately be better off with-out the unearned privileges resulting from the system of oppression" (Edwards 2006).
My interpretation of this idea is that racism harms white people spiritually, while benefiting us at a surface level. If racism dehumanizes white people, colonialism must have an affect on it's own perpetrators. So I, a white person, perhaps do have the gender binary thrust on me by colonialism.
So where do I go from here? What does this mean for my life and practice? As a social worker, a white social worker, can I work to decolonize? If decolonizing would free me from the gender binary, I have great stake in it.
However, according to Tuck & Yang (2012), decolonization is not the correct word for overcoming these particular aspects of colonization. Decolonization is nothing less than returning all American land to indigenous people.
So I will say to "fight colonization". I am working to be an ally to immigrants in Moviemento Cosecha in my life right now. I have also been offered opportunities to speak up in defense of my queer community. I have been navigating the difference of working for myself and working for the other.
"By working towards social justice, allies are seeking not only to free the oppressed but also to liberate themselves and reconnect to their own full humanity" (Edwards 2006). If this phrase is not spiritual, I do not know what is. Reconnecting with my full humanity. My white self and my agender self.
By working through issues of spirituality, I have learned something about justice. I think it is important for social workers to grapple with this. "talking about belief systems, religious or otherwise, 'becomes important when you’re helping people with the existential issues of, ‘Now that I have a physical or cognitive challenge, how will I manage my life? What is going to make my life meaningful, purposeful, worth living?’” (Weissman 2015)
Social workers engaging with religion has implications for queer folks. "if a social worker is going to address the needs of a client...who believes he is “dirty” because he is attracted to men, the social worker is indeed going to have to “argue with” the client’s notion of God..." (Knitter 2010)
To reconnect with my full humanity, I had to argue with my notion of God. I had to kill God, as Andrea Gibson says in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsUp6Wd_o8I.
Though it complicated, my religious struggle and my gender trouble are related to my work in the movement for justice, movement against colonization. This blog gave me some great space to think, and I hope to update it as I read some of the books I linked here.
As someone who does not fit into gender, I see that the gender binary is something applied to me from the outside. Since I am a white settler, is the gender binary forced on me by colonialism, or by something else?
Anti-racist practice among white people often focuses on the fact that the system dehumanizes us by making us oppressors. For example:
"On a deeper level, members of dominant groups may suffer a loss of authenticity and humanity as a result of their unearned privilege and dominant position in society (Freire, 1972/2000). Brod (1987) argues that members of the dominant groups are so deeply harmed by their often unwitting participation in a system of oppression, that they would ultimately be better off with-out the unearned privileges resulting from the system of oppression" (Edwards 2006).
My interpretation of this idea is that racism harms white people spiritually, while benefiting us at a surface level. If racism dehumanizes white people, colonialism must have an affect on it's own perpetrators. So I, a white person, perhaps do have the gender binary thrust on me by colonialism.
So where do I go from here? What does this mean for my life and practice? As a social worker, a white social worker, can I work to decolonize? If decolonizing would free me from the gender binary, I have great stake in it.
However, according to Tuck & Yang (2012), decolonization is not the correct word for overcoming these particular aspects of colonization. Decolonization is nothing less than returning all American land to indigenous people.
So I will say to "fight colonization". I am working to be an ally to immigrants in Moviemento Cosecha in my life right now. I have also been offered opportunities to speak up in defense of my queer community. I have been navigating the difference of working for myself and working for the other.
"By working towards social justice, allies are seeking not only to free the oppressed but also to liberate themselves and reconnect to their own full humanity" (Edwards 2006). If this phrase is not spiritual, I do not know what is. Reconnecting with my full humanity. My white self and my agender self.
By working through issues of spirituality, I have learned something about justice. I think it is important for social workers to grapple with this. "talking about belief systems, religious or otherwise, 'becomes important when you’re helping people with the existential issues of, ‘Now that I have a physical or cognitive challenge, how will I manage my life? What is going to make my life meaningful, purposeful, worth living?’” (Weissman 2015)
Social workers engaging with religion has implications for queer folks. "if a social worker is going to address the needs of a client...who believes he is “dirty” because he is attracted to men, the social worker is indeed going to have to “argue with” the client’s notion of God..." (Knitter 2010)
To reconnect with my full humanity, I had to argue with my notion of God. I had to kill God, as Andrea Gibson says in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsUp6Wd_o8I.
Though it complicated, my religious struggle and my gender trouble are related to my work in the movement for justice, movement against colonization. This blog gave me some great space to think, and I hope to update it as I read some of the books I linked here.
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