Redeem Our Nation's Honor!
by Susan C. Strong
This season of
extreme political discontent in the U.S. A. has thrown a harsh new light on
what I used to call "the ideal American identity story." That story goes like this: we're the country whose
people share ideals like freedom, equality, justice, and rule of law for all. I
believe it is still true that almost everyone in our country shares those
ideals. But it has become very obvious this year that there are still a
significant number of folks among us, including the presumptive GOP candidate
for president, who don't. Those folks
are up front and vocal about not wanting
to see our American ideals extended to everyone in our nation, especially if
they are people of color, immigrants, Muslims, or LGBT. I also used to say that even if all those
ideals are not being fully realized right now, they are still precious as
lodestones for us all. I used to point
to improvements in our laws, institutions, and public behavior that have always
come from progressive leaders who raise up those ideals and push to get them shared more
widely. But the level of crisis we have
today around truly un-American violations of our national ideals requires much more than that. I believe there are many in our
country who are ready to actively
fight back against this rising tide of hate. A wonderful example of this is a story
that recently went viral on the web. It's about a whole New York City subway
car that spontaneously erupted in support of two scarved Muslim women who were
verbally attacked by a man who had just boarded the train. At the next stop,
the man got off, to a round of cheering to see him gone. (1) But real, long
term success in resisting this new level of hate will require skillful
messaging as well as spontaneous defense of the abused.
What are some of the sources we've used for studying these issues? First, let me cite a few outstanding books : Waking Up White, by Debby Irving
and Uprooting Racism,
by Paul Kivel. The first is the story of a white woman raised to believe in the
normalcy of white privilege, finding out how she was shaped by that "de
facto conspiracy," without even knowing it, until she woke up. The
second is a comprehensive approach to what to do about racism and other kinds
of intolerance, written by the founder of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), an organization
we also recommend. We found out about SURJ via an event put on by the Catalyst
Project in nearby Oakland entitled The Future of Solidarity Then there are the many-faceted programs of AFSC(the American Friends Service Committee)
on ending racism, inclusion and
equality, and the "39
Questions for White People" project. And if you have noticed that many of these
authors and organizations are also "white," you have noticed the most important
thing we've learned this year: it's the job of "white people" to work with
other "white people" to uproot racism and intolerance. We do need to listen to the people who've been
attacked and marginalized about their experience, about what they want, and to
follow their leadership to solutions. But we "white people" are the ones who
must lead America's white minority in dismantling the ""de facto conspiracy,"
that destroys our nation's honor. Of
course, The Metaphor Project works with words; but words really do matter in
this fight.
First of all, we suggest putting positive words and visions first, because that
always works best. So we would say that
every U.S. citizen or new immigrant, no matter what their color, creed or
gender, deserves respect and equity. Try
these: "Respect is a human right," "Respect
is an American right," --Respect,
not bullying." Of course, for us to
hold our heads up as proud citizens of our constitutional democracy means that
redress of these abuses must be a priority now. Deciding exactly what form that
redress will take is up to those who have been hurt by American exploitation and
discrimination. But to get there, we need to encourage everyone to "claim their right to our best national
ideals." It's also a time to remind folks to use familiar political words, phrases, metaphors, catch phrases, what we at the MP call "truth bites,"
to tell what we think are the two most important stories right now.
The first story is a "future-casting" (or backcasting from the future") story about how our best national
ideals actually got extended to everyone in our nation. This kind of
imaginative work is a very important tool in all social change work; it
involves visualizing positive changes, and exactly how they might come about in
reality. Once a vision is clear, and the paths to its becoming real are
imagined, the practical steps of organizing goals, strategies, tactics and
communications become much easier. In
the case of the ideal future story, folks might want to try out the exercise in
areas that are dear to them, such as jobs, education, health care,
environmental justice, and so on.
The second story, of course, is about how our shared national ideals have been dishonored in the past and are being so now by abuse of so many people
in our country. These stories need to be specific and detailed (no vague multisyllabic stuff here about
"institutional racism," "discrimination," or "intolerance"). These are the facts
we need to change in order to arrive in the ideal future we want. Together, these two stories, future and
present, make up the "positive x, not
negative y" framing pattern I
always recommend. You can learn more
about how to get your stories boiled down to short punchy phrases, metaphors,
and sound (truth) bites that will stick and go viral by looking at our American
Political Framing Tools at www.metaphorproject.org.
Telling a "new story" also works best if you combine two familiar frames
(ideas) to create a brand new idea: "marriage equality," or "community rights."
To help you a bit more with this story-telling project, we've also made a few
simple changes on the Metaphor Project website in our standard framing tools,
especially in the American Story
Elements section. For example, we've
added "equity" and "inclusion" to the "American Nation" piece, and a number of new
items to the American Nightmare section. (If you think of more things to add to
or subtract from our American Framing Tools, let us know. We also invite you,
your friends, colleagues, and family members to join in this dialogue about
what stories, words, phrases, and metaphors will work best to redeem our
national honor. Send your suggestions to me at metaphorproject|AT|earthlink.netEmail address )
Always remember, even if controversy is stimulated by a word, phrase, or
metaphor, it wins if it calls attention to the issue. As the saying goes, there
is no truly bad PR; a famous old saw goes something like this: "First they ignored
us, then they fought us, then they called our ideas the new normal." This is
what we can all hope for as the best outcome of our current national crisis of growing
disrespect and national dishonor. The right words can help make a big
difference, as we work together to redeem
our nation's honor. That would
benefit us all!
---------------------------------
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder
and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and
author of our book, Move Our Message:
How to Get America's Ear. The
Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997.
Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong.
---------------------------------
l. posted on Facebook by Amaira Hasan feeling
proud.
"Just now, on my way to work, a man got on my train yelling as he came onto an incredibly packed train for the "two terrorist foreigners to go back to where theycame from." These two "terrorist foreigners" were two (understandably terrified) hijabi Muslim women. Before I could say anything, the entire train erupted in anger. A black man, a Romanian, a gay man, a bunch of Asians, and a score of others came to their defense demanding that this man leave these women alone and get off this train. The man insisted that the two women go back home and take their bombs with them.
After some back and forth, one man said, "This is New York City. The most diverse place in the world. And in New York, we protect our own and we don't give a f*ck what anyone looks like or who they love, or any of those things. It's time for you to leave these women alone, Sir."
I
couldn't have said it better. Sure enough, our train was stopped. This royal
douche got off the train to the sound of cheering."
2. The Klan may be out in the open today, but most
of the bigoted activity I'm referencing is set in motion behind closed doors. Think
back to 2008, when it came out that people of color had been deliberately
targeted for the dangerous loans that brought the U.S. economy down in the end.
Or see my last blog post, U.S.A.
2016, for an account of the way the drug war was explicitly started by
Nixon in order to steal the vote from Blacks. Or the way that some police all
over our country still shoot or strangle certain people first and maybe ask questions later. Then there's the new Trans bathroom panic that
is a classic case of whipping up a ridiculous hysteria that has absolutely no
basis in fact. Or the new attacks on all Muslims we're seeing now. And so on. Who
gains from this stuff? How? Think about it. Some people actually do.
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