On managing bigots and their bigotry [Note: Content Warning - bigotry/hate. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are (when I remember) shown in green.

 

My LinkedIn feed recently directed me to the following: 

“Yoorrook’s social justice hearings wrap up”   https://yoorrookjusticecommission.org.au/news-stories/yoorrooks-social-justice-hearings-wrap-up/     

That included the following in the section on health: 

“Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas accepted that Victoria’s health services are not culturally safe places for First Peoples in this state, and that racism in hospitals was at “crisis” point.   ...   Yoorrook heard countless examples of racism in Victoria’s health services.”   

“Associate Professor Dr Graham Gee, from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said: “Not surprisingly racism is not just an emotional violation and devastating, but it’s linked now to a wide range of social health problems, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke.   It is literally poisonous for your body. And with enough racism it also is linked now to post-traumatic stress disorder, you experience enough discrimination, it filters in and you can experience traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and what have you. That has been well established now for at least a decade.”  

“Minister Thomas accepted that the “constant” reporting requirements of Aboriginal organisations was “a continuation of the ongoing surveillance of colonisation, where First Peoples are constantly surveyed as a way of keeping First Peoples controlled”.”  

Obviously, addressing the existing problems with individuals (especially the often unacknowledged but always underacknowledged problem of unmanaged unconscious bias [see, for instance, here, here, here, and here]) and systems is vital. 

From   “NT police commissioner’s apology means nothing without sacking racist officers, top lawyer says”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/05/garma-2024-nt-police-commissioner-apology-racist-officers-northern-territory-ntwnfb   “Former bar association president tells Garma panel ‘there is no due process’ for Aboriginal people in NT courts, and derides Albanese’s pledge for more engagement”  

“A senior Darwin-based criminal barrister says the Northern Territory’s court system has no due process for Indigenous people and instead of apologising to them for 154 years of racist treatment, its police commissioner should sack the racist officers in his force.   ... dismissed police commissioner Michael Murphy’s public apology to Indigenous territorians delivered on Saturday at the annual Garma festival, saying it would mean nothing while officers who had engaged in racist behaviour remained on the force.   “This is what you do when you discover that level of racism in your police force,” Lawrence told an audience at Garma on Sunday. “It’s very easy. Very easy. You fire the lot of them. You get each cop that was coming out with that filth and you show them the door. What’s difficult about that? How can you not do it?””  

However, another very obvious point would be to PREVENT those people getting in to those organisations in the first place.

As I have written about previously, it is high time we supplemented the criminality checks, which are mislabelled character checks (which they do NOT provide, as they identify neither bigotry nor other other flaws such as sub-clinical psychopathy), with proper character checks - checks which identify conscious and unconscious bigotry, dangerous trends towards authoritarianism, and problems such as the aforementioned sub-clinical psychopathy. 

Then, and only then, can we start moving our organisations towards service to community that is genuinely and sustainably free of bias/favouritism. 

The current training and education is essential, and will remain so, but for those people with flaws such as those listed above, it is merely a superficial tick boxing exercise - although it is more than that for decent people. 

I have provided links to a few past posts of mine that are relevant to this below.

 

Unfortunately, there are two major problems with regard to addressing this problem. 

The first is that we have moved in to a pre-election cycle, as evidenced by the following: 

““Very difficult” to pursue Makarrata without bipartisan support, Malarndirri McCarthy says”   https://nit.com.au/12-08-2024/13052/very-difficult-to-pursue-makarrata-without-bipartisan-support-malarndirri-mccarthy-says      

“Cracking Down On Repeat Serious Offenders”   https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/cracking-down-repeat-serious-offenders      

“Victorian Premier refuses to commit to keeping promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14”   https://nit.com.au/11-08-2024/13023/premier-refuses-to-commit-to-previous-promise-of-raising-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-14     

The second is the following, which shows that Australians are racist, amathiac, or both, and that snowflake reactions are a major problem: 

“Guardian Essential poll: Only one-third of voters want a treaty, truth-telling commission or Indigenous voice”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/13/guardian-essential-poll-only-one-third-of-voters-want-a-treaty-truth-telling-commission-or-indigenous-voice      

“NT Police Commissioner resigns from union following criticism of apology to Indigenous people”   https://nit.com.au/07-08-2024/12935/nt-police-commissioner-resigns-from-union-following-criticism-of-apology-to-indigenous-people     

The struggle for decency will have to continue for longer ... 

PS - additional comments 

A few additional news articles have highlighted another aspect of this, which is the power of mainstream media - which has been inherently pro-conservative / anti-progressive for at least a couple of decades in many cases (not the Australian edition of The Guardian), and the gatekeeping power of police on access to justice - which further emphasises the issue of dealing with the biases/potential biases of police AT THE TIME OF RECRUITMENT (in particular, note that it is the UNMANAGED form of unconscious bias that is most devastating to communities) being so essential. 

“Australia’s justice system is failing Indigenous women and children – it’s time for major reform | Karen Iles | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/14/australias-justice-system-is-failing-indigenous-women-and-children-its-time-for-major-reform-ntwnfb   “Without justice there can be no healing, and only urgent and innovative changes to policing can deliver both to First Nations victims of murder, sexual assault and other serious crimes   ...   Police are the gatekeepers of our justice system. We would all agree there is no place for racism and sexism in the application of justice. The federal inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children, Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission and successive coronial inquests all point to a problem: the application of justice, and access to it is clouded by systemic “sexism, misogyny and racism” that pervade our police forces.   No amount of training for police is going to fix this.”      

“Victoria’s about-face on raising the age is its surrender to a fear campaign | Daniel James | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/14/victoria-raising-the-age-backflip-fear-campaign   “The decision will calm the nightly news cycle about youth crime but it has forever damaged the relationship with First Nations communities”   and   “Jacinta Allan’s latest backflip has some MPs worried Labor is reacting ‘to every scare campaign’ | Victorian politics | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/13/jacinta-allan-criminal-responsibility-age-change-comment   The enemy is not only those in power resisting change. In a democracy, that is most commonly thought of by activists as the elected politicians - who are subject to the effects of public opinion, including the nightly news cycle. To immunise democracies against biased news reporting, the vast majority of the community needs to be taught, accept and use techniques for identifying media bias, and awareness of their own personal biases and character flaws that make them vulnerable to such biases in the first place, and shown how they can - if they freely choose to do so - manage their flaws and faults     

[Content Warning: self harm]   “The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror | Television & radio | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/aug/14/the-life-and-tragic-death-of-john-balson-how-a-true-producer-documented-his-own-rising-horror   This discusses a physical illness and the cumulative mental and emotional damage of being exposed to trauma - which also applies to other journalists reporting on violence, emergency services (including police), and the victims of trauma - such as DV victim-survivors and those affected by violence, including the victims of genocide ...   Additional links from the article are:   “Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists - Dart Center”   https://dartcenter.org/content/covering-trauma-impact-on-journalists   “An overview of current research on the occupational hazards for journalists covering traumatic events, the risk factors that aggravate those effects, and some suggestions for mitigating those factors. Originally published by River Smith and Elana Newman in January, 2009; Updated by Susan Drevo in May, 2016, and by Autumn Slaughter in March, 2019.”   and   “Working with Traumatic Imagery - Dart Center”   https://dartcenter.org/content/working-with-traumatic-imagery   “Photographs and video of horrifying, violent acts may provide essential documentation of human tragedy. But however compelling its news value, traumatic imagery needs to be handled with care, as it can place the wellbeing of those who work with it at risk.”   This is also an aspect to be considered when discussing management of social media - especially for young people      

The links to past posts of mine are: 

“The predecessor to stochastic t_rr_r_sm: inciting a crime [Note: Content Warning - links to items on bigotry, hate, violence. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-predecessor-to-stochastic-trrrsm.html   This contains links to other key posts of mine      

“The hate and amathia of bigots that is being revealed by the olympics”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-hate-and-amathia-of-bigots-that-is.html      

“Good news from Mexico City”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/good-news-from-mexico-city.html      

“On cluelessness in the workplace”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/on-cluelessness-in-workplace.html      

“Abuse of legal process”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/abuse-of-legal-process.html     

“Sex, gender, brain wiring, discrimination, empowerment, and unmanaged unconscious bias”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/sex-gender-brain-wiring-discrimination.html      

“Police are NOT scientific [Note: Content Warning - discussion, and links to reports, on bigotry, violence, and abuse - including of power. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/police-are-not-scientific-note-content.html      

“Concerns about human rights in Queensland”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/concerns-about-human-rights-in.html      

“Less happily for NAIDOC Week: racial gaslighting”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/less-happily-for-naidoc-week-racial.html      

“The nonsense of racism as a part of speech”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-nonsense-of-racism-as-part-of-speech.html     

“Some of the ways that TGD people get thrown to the wolves in employment”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/02/some-of-ways-that-tgd-people-get-thrown.html      

“Moving beyond lip service in human rights”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/11/moving-beyond-lip-service-in-human.html      

“This week”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/11/this-week.html      

“Policing and democracy”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/12/policing-and-democracy.html      

“A commentary on protests, police, and perceptions - and violence”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-commentary-on-protests-police-and.html     

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/