#oppressed

Humour is the weapon of unarmed people: it helps people who are oppressed to smile at the situation that pains them. ↗

— Simon Wiesenthal

#helps #humour #oppressed #pains #people

Underlying the attack on psychotherapy, I believe, is a recognition of the potential power of any relationship of witnessing. The consulting room is a privileged space dedicated to memory. Within that space, survivors gain the freedom to know and tell their stories. Even the most private and confidential disclosure of past abuses increases the likelihood of eventual public disclosure. And public disclosure is something that perpetrators are determined to prevent. As in the case of more overtly political crimes, perpetrators will fight tenaciously to ensure that their abuses remain unseen, unacknowledged, and consigned to oblivion. The dialectic of trauma is playing itself out once again. It is worth remembering that this is not the first time in history that those who have listened closely to trauma survivors have been subject to challenge. Nor will it be the last. In the past few years, many clinicians have had to learn to deal with the same tactics of harassment and intimidation that grassroots advocates for women, children and other oppressed groups have long endured. We, the bystanders, have had to look within ourselves to find some small portion of the courage that victims of violence must muster every day. Some attacks have been downright silly; many have been quite ugly. Though frightening, these attacks are an implicit tribute to the power of the healing relationship. They remind us that creating a protected space where survivors can speak their truth is an act of liberation. They remind us that bearing witness, even within the confines of that sanctuary, is an act of solidarity. They remind us also that moral neutrality in the conflict between victim and perpetrator is not an option. Like all other bystanders, therapists are sometimes forced to take sides. Those who stand with the victim will inevitably have to face the perpetrator's unmasked fury. For many of us, there can be no greater honor. p.246 - 247 Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. February, 1997 ↗

— Judith Lewis Herman

#abuse-of-power #abused-women #attacks #bravery #courage

How few, since the foundation of the world, have found themselves in a position environed with public perils so numerous, oppressed with responsibilities so high and solemn, as yourself! ↗

— Robert Dale Owen

#found #foundation #high #how #numerous

A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound scepticism that white people can actually be oppressed. ↗

— Barbara Smith

#anti-semitism #black #challenged #color #major

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. ↗

— Steven Biko

#most #oppressed #oppressor #potent #weapon

You have discovered so much kindness and good will to those you thought were oppressed, and had no helper, that I am sure you will not despise what I have wrote, if you judge it will be of any service to them. ↗

— Jupiter Hammon

#any #despise #discovered #good #had

I applaud the growing commitment of Evangelicals to the needs of the poor and oppressed in urban America. ↗

— Tony Campolo

#applaud #commitment #evangelicals #growing #i

I teach at Eastern University, which is highly committed to doing work among the poor and the oppressed peoples of the world. We have a special commitment to the city. ↗

— Tony Campolo

#city #commitment #committed #doing #eastern

I feel that man-hating is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them. ↗

— Robin Morgan

#against #class #feel #honorable #i

Legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, yellow, red, and white women-with men relating to that the best they can. ↗

— Robin Morgan

#best #black #brown #led #legitimate