Where are the People of Color at IONS?

Maria Gutierrez | 12.04.07 | 05:34 PM |

(6 ratings)

There is an unintentional segregation happening in Consciousness circles. Because those talking about consciousness and evolvement of consciousness are predominantly from one background and world view, that discussion is very likely to be biased. If the Consciousness Conversation is only attracting one person, shouldn't the discussion be broadened to invite more diversity of opinions? Isn't it more creative and lively to have many world views represented? Isn't the point to be integral. I see something out of balance in conversations like this - where are the checks and balances? If everyone sees the same, there is more chance of entering into illusion.

I have had this experience in many circles lately. I am a graduate psychology student at the California Institute of Integral Studies and have noticed that my world view as a Mexican American and native woman is not invited or touched on in any of my classes. The faculty at the school are almost all Euro-American and seem to not notice the ingrained oppression at the school, until there is a "situation" with a marginalized student. As I've been exploring the IONS website and now the Shift In Action website, I find myself feeling very similarly to how I feel at CIIS. Where are the people of color? Where is the diverse world view? Where are the native people?

I deeply appreciate the perspectives of all those change-agents who show up at these forums and who speak out for Consciousness. It makes me feel hopeful to see anyone act from that awakening Soul within them. My purpose in writing this is to be the voice for the minorities and the oppressed. I wonder how IONS could invite in more diverse experiences of Consciousness and Community. The Euro-American Metaphysical perspective is just one of thousands. I have been a member of the IONS community since 1996. I have even worked for IONS when they were in Sausalito. So, I support this work. And I feel it's time to wake up out of whatever layers of denial we're in regarding racism. Perhaps it's time for IONS to hold a conference on taking responsibility for internalized racism and internalized oppression.

Thank you.

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Member Comments:

inclusion vs. outreach

Submitted by James Hanusa on July 28, 2008 - 7:10pm.

I read through the threads and recognize the problem, it goes beyond just the IONS or CIIS communities. I have seen most environmental conferences, publications, etc also populated predominantly by middle aged, affluent Caucasians and hippy kids. We all take different paths, I think that needs to be recognized. Mine has been sustainability, through social justice to consciousness and spirit. One of the great learnings I took from Van Jones, was speaking to the concerns of the audience, when talking environment, you are not going to get anyones attention in West Oakland talking about polar bears, so the conversation goes to health, jobs and violence as concerns that are related to environment. I know of people who's path to knowing has been opened by raw food. So maybe there is a conversation around food justice. If anyone has ideas, I would like to know the issues and leaders from the Indigenousness, Latino, Asian, LBGT, Elder, Disabled communities that are leaders in sustainability/social justice/consciousness for inclusion in future gatherings.

I don't know the answer to more inclusion. But I do know that it is not an outreach issues. It is a relationship building issue over time, an understanding of the dialog that is sought, and consideration of diversity in the organization. I have a lot to learn on this issue, I think we all do. Whether it's social, environmental or spiritual consciousness being considered, we should work to expand the lens of perspective as wide as possible.

What I Have Learned So Far From This Forum

Submitted by Maria Gutierrez on February 18, 2008 - 12:49pm.

Dear Everyone,

Once again I would like to thank everyone who has participated in this discussion or has spent the time to read through the discussion and thought about it.

During the last three months that this discussion has taken place, I have felt many emotions around it. I have been willing, open, discouraged, angry, guilty, happy, sad...

This is not an easy subject to talk about. That's precisely why it is healing to open the doors and let the light in. I think we have all been courageous to walk into this room together and sit down to look at how the issues around racism are alive in our own lives.

By not walking through the door, this issue goes into the shadow realms, suppressed and dangerous.

What I have learned:
1. From the number of reads this forum has received, I have learned that this topic is very important to many people.

2. From the varied responses I have learned that we are each working through this issue in our own way, and I hope this forum has served more as a learning experience than a shutting down and getting frustrated experience.

3. No one is exempt from internalized racism (racism that is culturally acceptable and we take for granted). I certainly am not. I am more committed than ever to keep looking at the ways I act and perceive people in habitual racist ways.

4. Until we have the humility to stand empathetically in each other shoes, desiring to understand how the other feels, we will not be able to really know each other. There has historically been more of a demand for people of color to empathize with white-culture and ultimately fit in- (assimilate). There has been no demand and less of a need present for white culture to understand non-white culture. Because of this in the U.S. today, there is a huge imbalance. People of color do not feel seen or understood generally. When we ask for empathy, more often than not, we are met with defensiveness and reaction. I have felt pressure during this conversation to curb my emotions and let go of desiring to be understood - yet that I should understand others. This may not be what was really happening, but this is how I felt. This is a familiar feeling to me. I often feel I have to let go of my hurt feelings of being treated with unconscious racism, so I don't make others feel uncomfortable or shame them. This happens with my teachers at CIIS all the time. I am at a place now, that I will not be silent anymore. If an opportunity arises in which I can awaken the person or group to "micro-aggressions and micro-invalidations" that I am witnessing, I will do so, with the highest good of the group in mind.

5. I have felt very vulnerable in sharing myself with everyone so transparently, yet at the same time, I do feel respected and safe with everyone who has participated - many many thanks!

With respect and a vision for multi-cultural freedom,
Maria Gutierrez

Maria Gutierrez, CCHT
Soul-Centered Healing Arts:
Hypnotherapy
Intuition Medicine
Spiritual Counseling
Vision Quest

Diversity

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on January 6, 2008 - 12:50pm.

I keep looking, and I can't find it. Somewhere on these pages, someone said middle class people don't have to worry about survival the way people of color do. That is true in part. Still, the middle class is becoming smaller (a fact). Middle class people lose their jobs, and don't necessarily feel a true sense of security when they have one (full stomach tho'). I know so many people who were born into poverty, and have then become affluent. They know a hungry belly. Even if caucasian, they know the class system. I think of my brother-in-law who was born in a mill village in SC. He later became an accountant and a manager in a school system. Still, in his hometown, there would never have been a way for him to be considered socially elite, even if he had gone on to make millions. The class system in his town is based on "old" families. I guess I'm just trying to say that just because a person is white doesn't mean everything is perfect. White people experience hardships. In the not too distant South, poor white people without blueblood pedigree were called "poor white trash". These people ranked beneath those of color, and this was not based on anything rational, nor on individual personality. Also, behind the closed doors of those lovely suburban homes can be a hell. An alcoholic nighmare might live there, unexposed to the public. I am particulary sensitive about this issue of race because I just spent 3 years teaching in the So. Bronx where I was amazed that people of color though it was OK to talk disrepectfully about "white" people in my presence. I eventually made friends with some of these same people, but still do not understand why people do not "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

As for myself, I have been both affluent and nonaffluent, nonaffluent at present due to illnesses and business failure. Yes, I am white. Does that give me a certain type of world view that a person of color would not have? Yes. Do you know just by the color of my skin what that view is? No.
BU
PS: In large cities today, due to the particular economic situation, both the poor and the rich have advantages which are not shared by the middle class, particularly in the areas of healthcare and housing. This situation exists regardless of color.

Home from Peru and Checking In

Submitted by Maria Gutierrez on January 23, 2008 - 10:37am.

I can't write much now, but wanted to say that this discussion is very rich. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and feelings.

A thought for the white middle-class participants of this discussion: A few of you have talked about the many obstacles middle and lower class, as well as under-educated Euro-American folks have to face. These common obstacles are not what I was referring to. There are many challenges that run across the board for humans and Americans have their own as well. I was talking about the obstacles that are specific to people of color, that white Americans will never have to deal with. For example, a black family starts to make more money and move to a better neighborhood with a better school system. The 11 year old son goes to his new school. He is one of the few black students. He makes some friends. He gets into a playful punching match with a white friend - neither are hurt. The white boy goes home and tells his parents. The parents call the authorities. Next thing you know, this innocent black boy is sentenced by a judge to 300 hours of community service, to see a parole officer for a year, and to pay money to the white family for their distress. In court, once the boy was sentenced, the white mother ran up to the black mother begging for forgiveness, because she expected the judge to "just scare" the black boy (like he would have done to a white boy), but because the youth was black, the court came down hard and the child now has a police record, and a blow to his self-esteem which he will hopefully be able to overcome as he becomes a man. The black mother tried again and again to reason with the Principal of the school, asking him to go easy on her son, because he's a good kid. No one in the school administration would listen to her and in fact they out and out ignored her (like she was invisible to them). They were white, she was black. The mother decided to move back to the poorer neighborhood, that had more crime, to the poorer school district, because her son would not be singled out and harassed there.

This is a true story.

These kinds of stories happen daily for people of color - on top of all the general obstacles that everyone goes through (unemployment, money stress, disability, agism, sexism).

Peace,
Maria

PS: Isis, loved what you wrote about the conference. Would love to comment on that when I have time.

Maria Gutierrez, CCHT
Soul-Centered Healing Arts:
Hypnotherapy
Intuition Medicine
Spiritual Counseling
Vision Quest

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on January 26, 2008 - 2:15pm.

Beyond Understanding
There is something I am just not understanding here. I understand that a black person walking down the street cannot pretend to be white. In fact, my Jewish husband has always pointed this out to people during conversations about race. Even though Jewish people have been persecuted since who knows when, they do not necessarily stand out if dressed liked others nearby. Still, a Jewish person could receive a harsher sentence than an Anglo. They were in a Holocaust. My brother-in-law who lived in a mill village would definitely have received a harsher sentence than a rich white kid.

Somehow we have got to stop the racial divide. In NYC, racism is at some kind of height. When I lived there in the 1970's the races got along better. Last year, I watched 3 teenaged African-American youth stand over two Irish firemen (in a subway car). The kids were talking about killing cops. The firemen just had to sit and say nothing. My husband, who was raised in a happily integrated school now has to ignore baiting behavior of young black males in the streets of Manhattan. He finds this hard to believe. The hatred is focused mostly on white males who are just going about their own business. So, actually, I found it not such a happy experience walking down the street in NYC because I am white.
I don't want to upset you, but I think the more we point out racial differences, the more problems we will have. If you have been reading much, you will see that I really, really want to preserve different cultures. I just don't want people to be accused of racism where it doesn't exist. I don't think it exists on these pages.
I hope you are feeling well.
Blessings,
Barbara

Racial Differences

Submitted by Isis on February 12, 2008 - 12:23pm.

Hi Barbara,

Just a couple of comments about your opinion piece.

You wrote:

1. "I understand that a black person walking down the street cannot pretend to be white." - True, and why would it even occur to you that a black person would (or should) want to? Why, in your mind, is "whiteness" a standard to measure races by? Isn't this the sort of mentality we need to move away from?

2. "I don't want to upset you, but I think the more we point out racial differences, the more problems we will have." Being a person of colour, I am not upset at all. Actually I'm very glad to see that this dialogue is taking place because clearly those of us on a so-called "spiritual path" cannot neglect the fact that we are still very human, living on this earth, and having to relate with other humans who are at different stages of their own journeys. No sense in running up into the hills and meditating in a cave forever while the rest of us tackle the huge challenge of having to balance being human and being spiritual beings. All the more reason why, Barbara, it is unacceptable to try to turn a blind eye to the racial differences that exist. They exist. We were created different for a reason and it serves no one if we try to get on in life pretending that we're all the same, because one look around tells us that we're not. And you know what? THAT is the beautiful thing about the human race. We are so very different, and it's the differences of race, culture, sexuality, gender, etc. that makes this journey so awesome and provides such a rich spiritual training ground for us.

AND...

with that being said..

WE ARE ALL ONE ALSO.

Blessings of Light,
Isis

Answer to Isis

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on February 15, 2008 - 2:32pm.

Unencumbered
1. I do not think a person of colour would want to be white (Although I have had some students who would not go out in the sun. They did not want to become darker...a sad situation.) I only
say this because it has been pointed out to me not only by my husband, but by people of colour. It means that it is more likely a person of colour would be singled out for prejudice. A person of colour could not hide. The standard-
as you see it - of measuring people by whiteness did not originate
with me. You won't believe me;still, I will tell you that I do
not measure people by their colour, ethnicity, etc.

2. If I could go meditate in a cave forever, I would.

3. I now quit this conversation.

Why stop at "color".

Submitted by StreamSource on December 31, 2007 - 4:14pm.

Why stop at "color". The organization seems to appeal to primarily affluent intellectuals. Not only the worldly and academic elite are on this journey, folks.

But then, maybe it's not possible to craft a message that works for everyone?

For all the great good this organization does, I am grateful. It, like all of us, still has lots of room to grow.

Blessings to all,

Crafting A Message That Works For Everyone

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on January 7, 2008 - 5:37pm.

This is reminding me of a philosphy course I took many years ago. The professor, whom I greatly liked, explained how our society is becoming more diverse rather than a "melting pot". Each little circle he drew on the board represented a different group of people who had significantly different values and beliefs. He felt this would be the disintegration of our country. I stated that I believed if we had one common value "tolerance" we would be fine. Of course, he didn't agree. Maybe it is somewhat Pollyannaish, but I still feel that way. If only we could respect differences, rather than feel insecure because of them...

Non-affuent Intellectual chimes in...

Submitted by Jeffery DeCelles on January 4, 2008 - 1:21pm.

I agree, ss, crafting a message that works for everyone is improbable. Communication is so dependent on cultural context, only modes like music, dance, and maybe visual arts show potential for approaching "universal" connectivity.

I consider myself "on the journey", but not elite. I emptied my savings and drove 1500 miles in my 16 year old Subaru to attend the IONS conference last year, and seldom regret it.
I do strive for intellectual excellence, and have some gifts to offer, no big deal.
My understanding of the cost of membership is, it helps fund the basic costs of keeping the site up and staffed, and maybe some research.
I'll take Bob's pledge for one membership, with the proviso that the candidate be under 30, female, and live in the Southern Hemisphere.
Still Growing-

JED

Female Under 30/Southern Hemisphere

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on January 7, 2008 - 5:44pm.

Jeffery,
I spent two years teaching with one of the most decent and beautiful young women left on earth. She is young though...24. This wonderful person did not go on one date the whole time I taught with her. What gives? People can't seem to get together...not for long anyway.
BU

Establish Free Membership Fund?

Submitted by Bob Johnston on January 1, 2008 - 4:09pm.

Hello ss,

Your point is well taken. What would you think of establishing a special fund for providing free SIA memberships for disadvantaged, or some equivalent thereof, folks. I'll be glad to donate one membership if SIA decides to set up such a program.

Best wishes,

Bob

Sincerity

Submitted by StreamSource on January 1, 2008 - 4:43pm.

Hi Bob,

That's a nice gesture. However, it may be a band-aid solution and one where there is a risk of it being perceived as gratuitous.

It seems to me that if IONS really wants to be an inclusive organization, it needs to be inclusive starting at the top.

True diversity (race, gender, education, socioeconomic, etc.) needs to be represented (in some way) so its voice can become a part of the organization through its publications, promotions, content, etc.

Bandaid?

Submitted by Bob Johnston on January 1, 2008 - 6:56pm.

Hi ss (I find your aka fascinating),

Thank you for your response.

I agree our whole system needs transformation, no question. However, would you call college scholarships for disadvantaged students a "bandaid solution" for meeting their education needs? Probably not because we all know it is just one challenge among several if we are to effectively meet the challenge systemically . . . but it is a significant one, arguably a key one.

I would like to continue with this discussion but I'm departing tomorrow for a vacation in that far off land called Kalifaunia (Gov. S. told me how to spell it ;-) until Jan 16 and my vacations are invariably off-line.

In the meantime I hope there will be much cocreative discussion by many brilliant minds about this vital subject and that it results in significant substantive systemic action. I'll be glad to help upon my return.

Warm wishes,

Bob

Unless I missed something...

Submitted by StreamSource on January 1, 2008 - 7:21pm.

Unless I missed something... it seems you took a "quantum" leap from free memberships to college scholarships =)

Clarification . . . Hopefully

Submitted by Bob Johnston on January 2, 2008 - 6:32am.

I probably didn't make myself clear enough. I see SIA memberships as equivalent in principle to college scholarships in that both in their own way are educational . . . further, SIA 'scholarships' would provide at least one avenue for our disadvantaged colleagues and friends to interject their unique voice into and enrich our forum. Hope that helps clarify . . . I've gotta go catch a plane to visit my grandkids. Will be back to pick-up this thread , if its still running, in two weeks. Best, Bob

SIA Scholarships/Memberships

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on January 2, 2008 - 12:17pm.

I agree that free memberships for some might be helpful. It would have to be enough to consitute a critical mass.
BU

I agree

Submitted by Bob Johnston on January 23, 2008 - 5:51pm.

Thanks, BU, I agree. Bob

Internalized Racism and Internalized Oppression

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on December 28, 2007 - 4:49pm.

Maria,
It may be time for IONS to take responsibilty for internalized racism and internalized oppression. It may also be time for people of color to log on and start a conversation. Go out...get your friends...hand out flyers and fly!
Beyond Understanding

Internalized Racism and Oppression

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on December 28, 2007 - 4:58pm.

It might also be time for IONS to offer some free memberships to economically deprived folks. If all of this sounds too simple, maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.
Beyond

Thanks

Submitted by Johannes on December 18, 2007 - 10:47pm.

P.S. Much of my convoluted previous comment ("beaten with the shadow shunning stillness stick") will not seem to have a direct or immediate relationship to your posted share or the comments of others regarding your share... however, the issue inspired a unique path of associations and thoughts of their own in me... and give me much to reflect upon. Thanks again.
Best,
Chris

Beaten by the shadow shunning "stillness stick"

Submitted by Johannes on December 18, 2007 - 10:09pm.

Thank you, Maria. Indeed... the way the spiritual "stillness stick" is wielded by the 'majority' needs to be seen in all it's reflections and influence so that we don't unduly priviledge and become inflated with any color or tune of embodiment, expression, and being... or inflate our egos with certain 'non-identified' identifications that result in "shadow" discriminations and projections in all that is not 'still' in the same uni-color and tune of expression. If I may share a bit of my own experience: I live in Kyoto, Japan, where I am a minority and where I am 'cast' and projected on just by my white-maleness (which is taken to be falsely transparent and superficially easy to comprehend because of white "majority" history in the world)... and where I have grown enornmously from a culturally unique "stillness stick" (symbolically and literally, in Zazen - Bushido practice). Some of my experiential studies of the way of the Samurai have taught me much of how stillness and spiritual attainment may not necessarily express in manifest ways in the spaciousness priviledged in some stereotypically California spirituo-elite circles... who often take and make a very 'individualistic' "my spirituality" stand on the matter... hitting everyone else ...regardless of constitutional, tempermental and cultural differences... with their "stillness stick" in the way that sometimes opposes the very healing and integration it is intended to facilitate! Inside the fire, passion, fury, and or also the mundane and seeming attachment of manifest behaviour that may not "look" 'spiritual' to the culturally uninitiated (who tend to priviledge non-identified manifest spaciousness and manifest behavioural stillness), there is a constellated "flow" (see also research on the stillness in "flow) of action naturally arising from a conscious disciplined anchor to 'DYNAMIC ground stillness'... phenomenologically meaning this "stillness" anchor for lived expression is manifested and dynamized by one's inner teleological purpose and emotive force (paradoxical non-still stillness of opposites) within the 'really real' levels of "lived" relational experience... with a conscious choice to fully be and meaningfully act in the "marketplace" (think Ox hearding, not stockmarket) each day "AS IF" the attachments, identifications and manifest things WERE real and taking the suchness of THAT constellated enlightenment anew in each lived moment of fulfilment. For a variety of reasons, many of my ethnic cultural peers appear to have a strong "ego" investment in their "non-ego" disinvestments... in other words, they become so inflated and enamored with one uni-polar (e.g. toward heaven or earth, masculine or feminine) version of a "not this, not that, ALL that" identification that they neglect and forgo on many of their graced human responsibilities and privileges for 'choosen' identified meaning... and with that some of the wholeness (and inherent healing path) comprising the joys and pains of the "as if" reallnesses of their manifest, embodied, incarnate, social, and cultural choices of lived meaning in their daily "marketplace". Unless we get all color, all tune, all body... in short, unless we stop the Self-inflated beatings with the shadow shunning stillness stick... unless we truly commit to being INTEGRAL and chose "lived stillness" in the rich matrix of life... we will not realize the full benefits of our healing, wholeness and evolutionary spiritual intent. In this effort, as a noetic community responsibly grounded in the loving stillness of the source, we need to be more conscious of how we wield the 'stillness stick', and not use it as a club of 'majority' spiritual rule.
Peace,
Chris

Involuntary conditioning, internalized racism and oppression

Submitted by Bob Johnston on December 18, 2007 - 7:37am.

Dear Maria,

First, just to make sure I am accurately interpreting your terms "internalized racism and internalized oppression" as synonymous with my understanding of involuntarily conditioned beliefs, values, attitudes, motives, intentions and behaviors, may I ask you, are they in your mind, in fact, basically the same? If not, would you explain what differences you see?

If you see these terms as basically synonymous, for more on this subject please see my SIA blog titled "Isms That Can Undermine Empathetic Intentions" http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/4602. You also may be interested in reviewing my blog "My Transforming Encounter with Ageism" http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/5019.

I would appreciate any feedback you want to give me relative to the strengths and weaknesses of my approach to this huge challenge we share relative to cocreatively coping empathetically and healthfully with seemingly entrenched, even intransigent, "isms" of many different kinds.

Yours with empathy and trust in evidence-based integral natural science and our common timeless aware, caring, omnipresent, mysterious Source of all mutual understanding.

Bob

IONS and OUR Universal Consciousness

Submitted by Rev Dr Charles ... on December 17, 2007 - 7:33pm.

With all due compassion and love for the IONS Community, the Oneness of Humanity's Spirituality can not be embraced by "people of Color" if there's been no accountability for the institutional oppression that still holds us all prisoner.

The institution I'm refering to is the "Economic Competition" that demands more from the bottom of humanity's family tree, than it gives from the top.

People of color are not interested in thinking higher thoughts, as much as they are interested in the truth that will free them from generations of negative, oppressive, stigmatizing perceptions.

Those who feel comfortable with their lofty "spiritual enlightment" know nothing about the darkeness their ego walks in, if they do not seek to give their insights freely to the least knowledgeable.

We are all children of one source, formed from the same atomic materials of the same universe and the erroneous perceptions of racial differences, coupled with competitive ideologies have conjurred legions of separate paradigms.

Churches, synogogues, mosques and temples have to do better at teaching all people to see who they really are, instead of making them feel worse about what they've done out of ignorance.

They will have to start by teaching people why and how to forgive their own ignorance and their ignorant oppressors.

Jesus is The (Archetypal) Way to knowing who we are; He is The (Exemplary) Truth about what we're genetically designed to become; and He is The (Genomic) Life we're intended to manifest spiritually.

If great luminaries have not found this foundational understanding and embraced it, they are essentially exalting themselves by tickling the ears of those who want to appear knwoledgeable.

Being what we are is far greater than enlightened lectures and books about what we are.
Therefore, if we are children of a creative universe that freely gives us knowledge, wisdom and understanding, then we should imitate the true source of our being.