Quantitative Unease

A column dedicated to demystifying psychotherapy research – love it, hate it, or both…at least try to know what it’s all about!

Why We Must Research Cyber-Racism

Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus has a long history. Sadly, so does racism. Racism is a central force in our history. At least that is what Ibram Kendi suggests. Nobody is immune to the seductive power of racism, he states. Accepting that this is true, must we not research racism in order to escape its seduction? And examine its alienating racial enactments? Is it not high time that we re-evaluated racial discourses and concepts of race?

Whatever race is, it was abandoned as a biological category in the 1950s. At least politically. However, viewing race, and by implication racism, as originating in biology meant that both originate in science. What are the implications? When race was deemed unscientific, so was racism. It was no longer an issue for scientists. This is where the myth of its abolition began.

When Europe celebrated being a non-racial society, people’s hearts were full of joy. Who doesn’t like a heart-warming story? Easter became again a rite of spring. Racism had been put to rest and rendered invisible, unlike the crucifixion of Jesus. His sacrifice was the starting point for our salvation.

There were tears and smiles when he rose again. But racism only shares the disgraceful and inhumane form of Jesus’ execution. Racism lacks the happy end. In its history, there is no sign of the Easter goddess Eostre/Ostara, the light of the rising day is missing in colonialism. In the present, racism, like Jesus, is alive and walks with us. Its wretched footsteps are echoing through the matrices. In the hall of mirrors, the internalisation of inferiority through mechanisms of racism is reflected back. And so is the internalized idea of the inherent superiority of white, Western culture.

Some theorists of colonial studies have shown us the road that leads to salvation. But not everybody has discovered her or his own dignity yet. The resentment and anger of those, who were marginalised, ridiculed, demonised and declared inferior, is borne out of a grinding experience of being impotent in the face of daily racism. Its barbaric expression is hard to forget.

Having a white identity means being racist, Robin Di Angelo writes. When asked, most people would deny this and claim that they oppose racism. This begs the question, who and where are the racists? When nobody is racist, why does racism exist?

Such denial and negation make it difficult to discuss racial beliefs, attitudes, institutional structures and acts that denigrate individuals and groups because of their phenotypic characteristics or ethnic affiliations. Skin tones in other words. We are not enlightened. Racism has left a specific imprint on our psyche. Nobody knows the hurt and discrimination better than traumatised people from marginalised and persecuted ethnic groups. An ethnic group is a social group, characterised by a distinctive social and cultural tradition, that is maintained within this group from generation to generation through identification. There is an intertwined relationship between ethnicity, culture, race and racism, even if these typologies are illusory, because the notions of black and white characterise them. Without these loaded colour descriptors, race as a category is hollow, Dalal reminds us. He refers to the naming of people as black and white as a racializing process.

Racism is a complex social phenomenon, which causes avoidable and unfair inequalities in power, resources and opportunities across ethnic groups. But racism is far from just being a simple description of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination. Anything that uses the notion of race as an organizing principle is racism. Racism does dehumanize. It is painful. Just like the crucifixion of Jesus. The prophets of the past did not bestow upon us the saintly power to heal its pain. Instead, we’re left with a disturbing legacy.

Faith and racism are intertwined in peculiar ways. Religion isn’t unblemished. The Black Madonna is an anomaly, religious figures tend to be white. Is it therefore surprising that we reproduce the racist behaviour of the colour-coded world we inhabit in every sphere of life? Whilst group analysis is built on liberal democratic ideas, how can it escape the aftermath of colonialism, slavery, exploitation and class oppression? It is naïve to think that it could and has. These are unpleasant realities, which can’t be swept under the Easter carpet. So what can we as group analysts do to ameliorate the pain, guilt, shame and hatred of our inheritance?

To start with, we have to recognize the racist within us. Racism must be addressed at an individual level, before we can move on to the interpersonal and collective level. Through deep self-reflection in attending experiential, therapy, median and large groups, notions of whiteness and blackness can be explored. Within these forums, racist beliefs and hidden feelings can be analysed and hopefully transformed.

Written-up case studies can lay bare refuted racism. Conductors can show that through open discussions about race and racism, unspeakable truths can be expressed. Staying with the pain of being implicated in the power differentials of white privilege may shift something. Marginalization and being kept as the Other may stop. Distance may be bridged. Exclusion may be transformed into inclusion and may lead to feelings of belonging. At least there is the potential for this to happen in the group.

But how many group analysts, who have observed positive transformations, publish their findings or research racism? Looking at the content pages of Group Analysis, there is a dearth of studies on racism. Whilst several group analysts have written about the emergence of racism in group analysis, processes of detachment, dehumanization, power, racial trauma, post-colonial subjectivity, white and black groups, and the experience of being black, I could only find the odd research projects relating to racism. Considering the impact of (cyber-) racism on social cohesion, cultural tensions, inner- and outer-group conflicts, and on mental and physical health, should we not put racism on the top of our research agenda?

We are in a good position to research it, since racism is group-based, because it often relates to differential treatment of groups. Conducting focus groups with members from different ethnic backgrounds can help unpick racial discrimination and hatred. Consulting with community and religious leaders, politicians, and elders can make them (more) aware of the psychosocial consequences of and responses to racism. Why is this not a subject of study within group analysis?

With the exception of a recent pilot study on the processes in multicultural focus groups, on the whole, group analysis still fails to ask critical questions related to racism and research these. This silence is astonishing, given the knowledge, experience and expertise within group analysis. There is a lot that could be done. Group analysts, who are familiar with quantitative research and/or come from a medical background, could design sensitive measures to explore the experiences of diverse, ethnic groups in epidemiological studies, for example. I am not advocating that we should favour ‘empirical science’ and abandon our group analytic approach. We can engage with the study of race and racism in various, creative ways. However, we need to have some basic scientific understanding in order to evaluate and carry out research. Working with an ethnically diverse population requires consideration of factors that may affect the validity of results. To state the obvious, including only white participants limits the generalizability of findings to other ethnic groups. Nevertheless, the literature is full of examples where this has been done. Hopefully, we can learn from these mistakes.

By carrying out research that is not ethnic-sensitive, we may also foster an epistemology of invisible racism. Cultural differences may affect how a person answers questions in a survey. Participation rates in (epidemiological) studies tend to differ by ethnicity. Whether ethnicity is an illusory or hallucinatory category does not really matter when the consequences of ethnic discrimination are real.

Researchers could meet with members of ethnic groups to gain insight into their lived-experience and explore the reasons for people’s reluctance to take part in studies in order to increase their participation and the overall response rates. Unheard voices can be heard, it may give people a sense of empowerment. Searching for our own identity isn’t easy in a racist society. Listening to narratives may yield a better understanding of the effects of racism on self-perception. Researchers may also benefit from the experience and expertise of other colleagues, who have worked with different ethnic groups.

Reading about different cultures, joining discussion groups about racism in health care and other settings, and analysing racist societies are equally important. I disagree that theorising about race and racism is dangerous, because one might stay at an abstract level. Theoretical understanding of racism is necessary in order to research it. Political analyses of deep-seated structural racism remain more crucial than ever. In the age of modern technology, cyber-racism is on the rise. It is not the happy rising from the dead like that of Jesus Christ. Neither is it a change-bringing political uprising. Jesus remains white. Only chocolate eggs are brown. And they are eaten. If religious racism is (inadvertently) perpetuated every Easter, and social media plays its role in this, why does group analysis not explore this?

The study of cyber-racism has been undertaken by various disciplines and this diversity is reflected in different methodologies. Group analysis could and should join in and research cyber-racism. Alas, there are only few group analysts, who concern themselves with internet groups.

Whilst qualitative research lends itself to the study of cyber-racism, quantitative or mixed-method studies can also be used to explore racial identities and racial tensions. Specific linguistic analyses to identify hidden racial processes may be of particular interest to group analysis, because we pay so much attention to language. Software is available to carry out linguistic analyses. So when reading Easter adds and munching on brown eggs, think about how you could study racism.

If doing research sounds too daunting, why not take part in collaborative research projects? In this way, you can help remove the masks from the white or black skin, offer clinical, literary or political analysis, and stop the cycle of shameful history repeating itself. Jesus died on account of sin, but he is alive. In our earthly reality, people are being killed every day as a result of racist hatred. They don’t rise from the dead. Paradoxically, racism does, even though it has never died.

Happy Easter and Passover to all of you.

Susanne Vosmer
s.vosmer@gmail.com