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Andy Gill

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Reframing the Narrative By Asserting your Humanity

Reframing the Narrative By Asserting your Humanity

Last updated on: February 28, 2016 at 3:39 pm by Andy Gill

Reframing the Narrative By Asserting your Humanity 2016-02-28T15:39:37-05:00 Andy Gill

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In the past few days I’ve been repeatedly asked the same two questions: Where is the hope? And what is the solution? For the oppressed person my answer is this: The continuous assertion of your humanity.

To do this is to acknowledge and reject the limits that have been set against you, for the sole purpose of silencing and controlling you. It’s to reject a falsified morality and reconstruct a new theology because, in my opinion, having no God is far better than embracing the Eurocentric version of “God.” [1]

The assertion of your humanity is not a sin, although it is risky, it’s the understanding, and becoming deeply rooted in the fact that you have autonomy.

So then, what is asserting one’s humanity look like? It’s a confident declaration of who you are, despite what they say [or do]; it’s differentiating between what we’ve been taught and what is reality; it’s the refusal to neuter your language and/or suppress felt anger.

“Either we submit or we rebel, knowing that our physical lives are at stake.” – James H. Cone

Considering a majority of humanity is either not white, not heterosexual, or not male – it’s safe to say that the underlying narrative of American theology (but not limited to) is detrimental to a majority of humanity. The world, it is quite literally two-thirds Asian, a majority of that being southeastern.

Meaning, we don’t live in a white world, we live in a world in which has tricked us into believing that it’s a world dominated by whites. Through the news, Eurocentric/androcentric theology, and especially our entertainment industry it’s constantly painting the nonwhite person in a shadow of negativity.

It’s a narrative that says white people are saviors and all other people are to be pitied; it’s a co-dependent relationship based on the foundation of abuse.

This is called the “White-Androcentric-Savior Complex.” A delusional belief that because one is a “white male” they are automatically better [needless to say, but just in case, this is untrue]. It plays as an opiate used to numb oneself to reality, using the made up concept of race to ineffectively negate their own insecurity.

For instance, this:

[Image from the economist]

But again to reframe the narration we must replace our narrator. It starts with not watching Fox News, ever again [jokes, people]. For some, changing the narration can be done over night, but for most it is a slow, long, and drawn out process; a process that does not come without cost, and simultaneously a realization that there is no other choice but to delink.

“Once you realize that your inferiority is a fiction created to dominate you, and you do not want to either assimilate or accept in resignation the bad luck of having been born equal to all human beings, but having lost your equality shortly after being born, then you delink. Delinking means that you do not accept the options that are available to you.” – Walter Mignolo

Freedom, as we know, is never given, in an imperfect world, it must taken. With the extermination of Amerindians, the misogynistic cultural objectification, the homophobic legislation of “morality,” European colonial conquests against both Africa and Asia, a systemic oppression of the [growing] lower class, and the stigmatization/isolation imposed upon the mentally ill…

Asians, Latinas, Blacks, Native Americans, LGBTQ, women, “lower-class,” – anyone that is effected negatively by a social hierarchy – we need solidarity bridging the gaps of disparity; the courage the stand, support, and encourage each other in this face of pain and suffering.

“The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair…”

– Judith Herman.

Is it not rational to ask, how much longer until this stops? We’re not called to become these “shadowed versions of ourselves,” the solution is finding the community [read: safety] that is amenable to your self-determination. The only way in which we can avoid becoming a shadowed version of ourselves is by surrounding ourselves with people who support who and what we’re created to be; this is what it is to be full human, and the only way to find this is to feel safe enough [or sometimes bold enough, regardless of safety] to assert your given personality.

But if freedom is never given, and it must be taken then doing nothing is only affirming a white fictionality [and a falsified narrative]. I’m I’m not saying to use force, or to become violent; I’m suggesting that you need to acknowledge your autonomy and assert your humanity, and that we do this by creating amenable like -minded [SAFE] community.

[1] I want to say that I’m fine if this works for you, but I’m not fine when you manipulatively impose him upon me.

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