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Decolonizing Our Identity
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Who you are is greater than the narrow-mindedness of our current world. We have one primary way of teaching and learning, which not everyone excels in. We have one major value system which revolves around finance and popularity. We are trained to judge ourselves by these limited definitions. When we don’t “add up” within the system, in which we are forced to interact, we are pushed to the outskirts.
I surmise that about 12% of the population can work well within any singular system. If we were to look at the economic system we’ve built, 12% of the population owns 70% of our economic wealth. The rest of us are relegated to eke out a living while supporting that 12%. Our school, entertainment, and value structures train us to obediently, and increasingly, support that them. If we only have one value system we are not all heard, nor can we openly live our lives. All too often struggling to align with a system we don’t value. This is the goal of colonialism. Not aligning, or being seen as having value in the world, will cause push many to escape, one way we do that is through drugs and alcohol.
There is so much in this episode that we can glean as people in recovery. I want to begin by addressing community, we learn that Mujer Muralista, my guest in this episode, half Mapuche and Ashkenazi Jewish, was able to associate with the Lakota people in North America in order to further understand her culture. We have AA, Smart Recovery, and hundreds of other groups where we can find the same sort of community that tackles a common problem, for my guest it was colonization for us it might easily be identified as addiction.
There is another running message in this episode that addresses the beliefs we hold of how the world works. When we confront those, so we can mature into ourselves, there is a blossoming. This blossoming is the core of Recovering ourselves. We have to recover something always possessed but never had the opportunity to engage. Thoughts, coming from a colonial mindset, are within us wreaking havoc and coaxing us to be increasingly homogenous to the world around us and what a lie that is turning out to be.
A number of weeks ago we spoke about identifying in my evolution episode with Allen Baker. Your identity is a box. It needn’t keep you from growing, but it can. When it does, that identity is no longer helping you and needs a good reevaluation. It is often the case that a thing that helps us grow, this can be an identity, can be the very thing that keeps us from continuing to grow. I encourage each of you to continue to grow and continue to reevaluate. This may mean trusting your innate values over those which are ever-present within our small-minded colonial culture.
Photos of Mujer Muralista by Karla Flores
Questions to consider and discuss for yourself and for recovery groups:
What do you value that others don't?
Do you get mad when others can do what they want and you cannot?
What aspects of colonialism do you resonate with? What aspects are you averse to?
Politics
Economy
Education
Policing
Real Estate
Employment
What other aspects of our current culture are dictated by a colonist perspective?
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