Victims in the Heart of Darkness

¡Hola! Everybody... This is the busiest time of the year for me! The dead of whiter, short days, work overload! LOL!

Happy birthday Princess!

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-=[ Victimology ]=-

“Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.”

-- Carl Jung

It’s enlightening to observe how some people love me when I write about safe topics, but avoid me like the plague when the topics are uncomfortable. I always tell my workshop participants that if they’re within their comfort zone, then nothing has changed. And doing the same actions and expecting different results is the best definition of insanity I have come across.

People say that I shouldn’t write or talk or agitate against racism. That doing so is the problem and that if I only stopped thinking and talking about it so much, it wouldn’t be so much of a problem. Individuals who point out racism, it follows, are the problem!

I’m here today to write a little about this so-called victim mindset I am being accused of. Let me state what is probably already evident. To delve into the study of racism is to come face-to-face with the heart of darkness, to borrow Conrad’s phrase. To look into this darkness is to know despair. I know this journey was difficult for me. It’s easy to be overcome by the reality of de facto racism -- to realize we haven’t really come that far.

But I will say this much: to know despair, to see injustice and resolved not to do anything about it is the essence of victimization. Want to be a vic? Go ahead, keep your head in the sand. Don’t talk about, don’t do anything about it. Neurosis is never a good substitute for suffering, it’s merely a series of strategies designed to avoid the painful.

If you’re going to read some of my upcoming posts, you will surely feel the despair I speak of, you will begin to see some of this darkness. Many will not engage me, many more won’t even come around. That’s okay; I am not here to judge, only to tell the truth. I will say this much: Dr. Jung was correct. You don’t evolve into an integrated human being by stubbornly refusing to peer into the darkness. That’s better known as neurosis. It’s the same as looking for a lost key under the street lamp because it’s the only area where there’s light.

People will tell you that you’ve lost your mind, that you’re part of the problem, and you will feel an almost overwhelming pressure to stop. I’m here to tell you that if you succumb to that fear, if you collapse under the weight of that despair, then you’re the ultimate victim.

Love,

Eddie