{"id":18903,"date":"2020-05-27T09:19:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T13:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18903"},"modified":"2020-05-27T09:19:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T13:19:28","slug":"the-third-and-fourth-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18903","title":{"rendered":"The Third and Fourth Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Solidarity<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nThird and Fourth Conversions<\/strong><br>\nWednesday, \u202fMay 27, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I2IvHbXZp-I\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>We continue our conversions to greater solidarity with\nthe marginalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Third\nConversion<\/strong>&nbsp;is when we idealize some of the virtues of the\npoor that we ourselves do not have. When the lens is cleared by our initial\nawakening to injustice, it is much easier to focus on people\u2019s admirable\nqualities, especially those that might be lacking in our own group. This was\ncertainly true for me. In my travels to India, the Philippines, and many Global\nSouth nations, I saw plenty of people who were happy, generous and grateful\nwith the little they had. By contrast, I could be entitled and grumpy whenever\nthe littlest things went wrong! It was so humbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although\nit feels positive, staying at this conversion stage still places an unfair\nburden on those who are marginalized. Projecting only good qualities onto them\ntends to ease the burden of solidarity work from us. Layla F. Saad describes\nthis tendency in relation to black women in her book <em>Me and White Supremacy: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Black women are\neither superhumanized and put on pedestals as queens or the strong Black woman,\nor they are dehumanized and seen as unworthy of the same care and attention as\nwhite women. Both superhumanizing and dehumanizing are harmful because . . .\nthey fail to capture Black women in the mess, joy, beauty, and femininity of\nwomen of other races. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nit is unjust to dehumanize others, it is equally unjust to \u201csuperhumanize\u201d\nthem, applauding their ability to \u201cdo it all\u201d instead of making sure they don\u2019t\nhave to. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Fourth\nConversion<\/strong>&nbsp;is a deepening recognition of the impact of\nsystemic oppression. This tends to come about as a result of\ndisillusionment&nbsp;and disappointment with the poor, especially&nbsp;when one\nsees how they have been socialized to a worldview of failure and scarcity. This\nis internalized oppression. As Paulo Freire puts it, \u201cso often do [the\noppressed] hear that they are good for nothing, know nothing, and are incapable\nof learning anything . . . that in the end they become convinced of their own\nunfitness.\u201d [2] From the very beginning, the systems we operate in either\nsupport us or tear us down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From\nmy place in society, I was able to enter into a good education system, and I\nalways had good healthcare. I was offered so many options and encouragement to\nbecome \u201csuccessful.\u201d But when we come from a social location that has put us in\nsystems and relationships where options are limited, we are often humiliated\nand looked down upon at every stage of our life. Under those conditions, it is\nmuch harder to keep putting our best foot forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The work of\nsolidarity is to close the distance these systems have put between us by\njoining and accepting others as fully human\u2014in our struggles and gifts alike.\nThis work requires a commitment to <em>relational\naccompaniment. <\/em>What\nis needed, according to Freire, is for us to \u201cstop making pious, sentimental,\nand individualistic gestures, and risk an act of love.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solidarity The Third and Fourth Conversions Wednesday, \u202fMay 27, 2020 We continue our conversions to greater solidarity with the marginalized. The Third Conversion&nbsp;is when we idealize some of the virtues of the poor that we ourselves do not have. When the lens is cleared by our initial awakening to injustice, it is much easier to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18903"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18904,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18903\/revisions\/18904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}