I would say something though about shame and racism. This is absolutely true. But this is not unique to racist violence. Most if not all abuse victims struggle with shame at one point or the other. All trauma survivors must content with shame, often guilt too.

Multiple reasons, partly internalisation of society & persecutors/abusers own shame. Partly self-blame, due to internalise meritocracy & ‘the world is fair’ discourses. Partly because of ostracisation...the stigma of abuse is located in the abused...

Partly wounded sense of power & omnipotent. Narcissistic injury is in there as well. Partly internalised racism...it’s quite complex.

We tend, as a society to avoid those seriously abused. We struggle to deal with injustice as it forces us to connect with our own vulnerability or...aggression. We tend to turn away which reinforces a sense of ‘there is something wrong with me’, ‘I deserved it’, ‘it’s my fault’.

Which brings more shame...These responses are typical in those who experience racial trauma & as they are in those who experience any other trauma.

If you do a lot clinical work with sexual abuse and racism then you see the parallels. The same parallels exist too in experiences of mass trauma & persecution. That is why I proposed that the experience injustice (precisely the breach of our sense of justice)...

Is central to psychological distress. I proposed that it leads to a form of ontological insecurity & chronic feelings of unsafeness in the world. I wrote this up for Race Reflections but maybe, I should seek to publish this model, I think it’s an important one.

Which sadly takes me back to the foolishness of this ‘letter’ only someone utterly dissociated from the human condition hence their own humanity, can ever believe injustice can be extracted from the way we think, feel, behave, relate, make meaning in the world.

But whiteness is dissociation per excellence, but that’s for another day.

I want us to think about orgasm in sexual abuse as another source of shame and something we hardly discuss. That too is for another day.