Yeah, I do agree that witnessing it is important. I guess what I am struggling with is a sense of guilt over how much grief seeing this causes me — like, I’m not one of the people being subject to this ruthless oppression.
But I suppose that I should probably follow my own good advice that I gave to a friend recently in a different area. A mutual friend of ours had been going through a rough time, and my friend was one of the primary people supporting them. It was difficult for them, because although they were able to help a little, the problem our mutual friend was faced with was a bunch of big, concrete systemic problems that no-one could do much about besides lament the unfairness and offer emotional solidarity.
When I was checking in with the friend who had been doing the supporting, with the comment that “it’s never easy to see someone you care about suffering”, she handwaved away her own feelings and exhaustion at first. I reminded her that even if she wasn’t the “primary victim” of the injustices our friend was facing, she was still someone harmed by it all, and that her own feelings were valid — that her upset at bearing witness to injustice was not taking away from our friend, but rather a distinct facet of the problem that deserved space to process.
Of course, it’s necessary to do that processing in an appropriate context; it wouldn’t have been appropriate to vent to our mutual friend about how difficult she’d been finding it. Instead, one should carve out dedicated space for emotional processing whenever one has bore witness to injustices.
I think it was very good advice in this small, interpersonal context, and maybe I should try applying it in this context — because feeling guilty about how upset this makes me feel doesn’t help anyone
Yeah, I do agree that witnessing it is important. I guess what I am struggling with is a sense of guilt over how much grief seeing this causes me — like, I’m not one of the people being subject to this ruthless oppression.
But I suppose that I should probably follow my own good advice that I gave to a friend recently in a different area. A mutual friend of ours had been going through a rough time, and my friend was one of the primary people supporting them. It was difficult for them, because although they were able to help a little, the problem our mutual friend was faced with was a bunch of big, concrete systemic problems that no-one could do much about besides lament the unfairness and offer emotional solidarity.
When I was checking in with the friend who had been doing the supporting, with the comment that “it’s never easy to see someone you care about suffering”, she handwaved away her own feelings and exhaustion at first. I reminded her that even if she wasn’t the “primary victim” of the injustices our friend was facing, she was still someone harmed by it all, and that her own feelings were valid — that her upset at bearing witness to injustice was not taking away from our friend, but rather a distinct facet of the problem that deserved space to process.
Of course, it’s necessary to do that processing in an appropriate context; it wouldn’t have been appropriate to vent to our mutual friend about how difficult she’d been finding it. Instead, one should carve out dedicated space for emotional processing whenever one has bore witness to injustices.
I think it was very good advice in this small, interpersonal context, and maybe I should try applying it in this context — because feeling guilty about how upset this makes me feel doesn’t help anyone