Breathing and the Right to Exist
Transcription |
We would like to take time to acknowledge the tragic death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on May 25, 2020, at the hands of police officer. His death awoke painful collective memories of a long history of racial oppression and has fueled a global outcry against systemic racism and state brutality. We also acknowledge all the other people of colour who have died at the hands of states, named and unnamed. “I can’t breathe” has become an anthem for those who have suffered under the tremendous weight of slavery, colonialism, and oppression that have ravaged communities throughout centuries to this present day. Breath is the basis of our existence. George’s plea is a testament that people of colour have been denied their very right to exist. Taking existence for granted should not be the reserve of the privileged. The very colour of one’s skin should not dictate whether someone must fight for their existence.
Existential psychotherapy, shaped by the tenets of existential philosophy, deals with the basic concerns of human existence and what it means to be a human being. Yet, both existential philosophy and existential therapy take existence as a fundamental given for all people, usually without recognizing the struggles of people of colour to exist. Black existentialism and critical phenomenology counterbalance this message. Given the current events and the largely white history of existential thought, we intend to dedicate an upcoming episode to discuss non-white views of existentialism, including black existentialism and critical phenomenology, as stances that may inform existential psychotherapy. In the meantime, we would like to point you toward some resources where you can learn more about racism and oppression from an existential perspective. If you are interested in learning more about black existentialism and critical phenomenology, we suggest the writings and teachings of those listed below.
In addition, you will find ways of donating, resources for social media and how to get involved by visiting blacklivesmatter.com. And here are five podcasts to better inform ourselves about black history, to listen to black voices, and to learn about anti-racism:
Code Switch
Still Processing
The Daily
1619
Pod Save the People
We would also like to acknowledge the raw and complex emotions being felt and expressed at a personal and societal level in response to these events. Sometimes in such situations, we can feel ungrounded, overwhelmed, enraged, sorrowful. Somteimes we can feel disoriented, disorganized not knowing what to do, or even paralyzed. One way to move from reaction to response is first to identify the reality of the situation by looking at what happened and becoming informed, then to notice our immediate reactions, emotions, and impulses to what is going on. Once we have attended to what comes up for us spontaneously, we may start to identify what we do and do not understand about the specific situation. We can take time to notice how we make sense of it and what is still unclear or not yet understood. From this place of understanding, we can then take a position towards what happened, which can help us formulate our response and identify what we want to do and how we can we enact our response in a free and existentially responsible manner.
Essentially, we are moving from what happened to exploring how we feel about what happened, to understanding it and taking a personal position towards what happened so that we can decide how to act responsibly. We invite you to remain open to engage with this process, to feel your emotions and impulses, to develop an understanding, to come to a clear position towards this and to offer your response, to bring about the change that you would like to see. Taking a position and assuming responsibility, is an essential part of living existentially. We encourage you to find your position and then explore ways of expressing and living that position authentically.
Our hearts go out to listeners who are affected by racism, and especially those who have been subjected to the brutality of discrimination. We stand with you in solidarity. For those of you who are listening who have been oppressed, marginalised, and discriminated against, it is your right to exist: Black Lives Matter.
We end with a poem by Lucille Clifton. She won the National Book Award, was once the poet laureate of Maryland and earned two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work, legendary for its extremely modern minimalism, revolved around spirituality, womanhood and African-American identity.
“Won’t You Celebrate With Me”
won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
Recommended Readings
The Souls of Black Folk - W.E.B. Du Bois (1897)
The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon (1963)
Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought - Lewis R. Gordon (2000)
Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body - Harvey Young (2010)
Phenomenologies of the Stranger: Between Hostility and Hospitality - Richard Kearney (2011)
Living Alterities: Phenomenology, Embodiment, and Race - Emily S. Lee (2014)
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race - Naomi Zack (2017)
Fred Dallmayr: Critical Phenomenology, Cross-cultural Theory, Cosmopolitanism - Farah Godrej (2017)
Vereen, L. G., Wines, L. A., Lemberger-Truelove, T., Hannon, M. D., Howard, N., & Burt. I. (2017). Black existentialism: Extending the discourse on meaning and existence. Journal of Humanistic Counselling, 56, 72-84.
Moore, E. R. (2001). Being black: Existentialism in the work of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin. [Dissertation]. University of Texas.