Author Topic: Projection  (Read 2818 times)

Offline Prairie Fairy

  • Posts: 42
    • Political Blog
Projection
« on: September 13, 2008, 04:00:47 pm »
Hello, another pile of words from a big mouthed olive skinned American leftist.

Projection plays a crucial role in cultural appropriation, aka, seeing someone of a particular ethnicity in a kind of EXAGGERATED, OTHERWORLDLY way that does not relate to reality, but to states of consciousness that are part of the person having the projection.

I hate to make generalizations about the whole world on this forum, it seems so... Michael Harnerish, BUT, I'm a split up and fractured sort of cultural event, and I end up thinking about the whole world alot as I try to heal myself. In breaking down racism inside myself, I have found progress by going persistently in pulling things apart until there is a kind of common denominator where all nations are equals, and place myself on that equal footing and reject the behavior and internal attitudes of racism that have been handed down to me, both as perpetrator and as victim. Seeing the shape and history of colonialism as well as challenging the violence of colonialism has been very helpful for me here.

 In looking at projection, I believe there is a place for projection between different peoples and nations on Earth in a healthy state, which looks different than the wild projections we see in people like Rachel Hogwarts, but it's proper place is in thought and in inner life, rather than in the public sphere. Any comments?
« Last Edit: September 13, 2008, 05:11:58 pm by Prairie Fairy »

Offline Prairie Fairy

  • Posts: 42
    • Political Blog
Re: Projection
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2008, 11:02:16 am »
To be specific: White Americans will often cry free speech when confronted with their cultural appropriation behaviors. That's a situation where people from the European diaspora are projecting their old traumas around free speech on to someone who is just happening to trigger the memory by asking for accountability on something. If said European has enough damage in the ethical/philosophical arena of freedom vs. responsibility they may not recognise this and act as if they were in the same repression their ancestors suffered when the tribes were being culturally wiped out in Europe, when there was a big repression of speech and further cultural repression, and also react about the residual repression we suffer today. That's something that is a strong enough issue for somebody that they will see it wherever they go.

Or they calculatedly use it without even believing it, that's there too.