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[thread] Following the racist-letter-in-BPS fiasco, I just wanted to remind ppl that there's no reason for qualified psychologists to NOT be racist. Therapy is not an apolitical space, and psychologists aren't impartial to moral panics manufactured and circulated in society/1
The problem is often that people expect "psychologists=accepting". But racism isn't (only) about overt hostility--if anything this is the least controversial aspect of it. I've been made aware of many really terrible incidents of "well-intended" discrimination in therapy. /2
Stories of (white) therapists focusing particularly on Muslim clients: sexual repression (for males, also written to be associated with pol. violence), liberation of hijab/niqab, regressive parental roles (this comes often), Islam as delusion or source of distress. Why?/3
It's not difficult to understand. Islamophobia appears as a common-sense which sees: Islam (faith) as antithetical to the West; a cultural racism towards non-Europeans; Orientalist imagery of Muslims as regressive/savages/irrational (among other things).../4
These are all normalised in our era. Psy-professionals do not exist in a political vacuum. Having 'good intentions' and 'empathy' is insufficient to address dominant ideological paradigms, notwithstanding policies (Prevent, host.envir.) which legitimise them/5
Institutional racism, which is so prevalent and in fact increasing in times of hyper-nationalism, is when (increasing) policies legitimise normalised prejudices and render their excess an individual problem rather than a political one. /6
Point is that psy-pratices often reflect (racist) public consciousness, as displayed in that letter. Publicly "celebrated" paradigms (such as nationalism) allow for racist logics revealing how White, liberal-capitalist ideals remain the 'standard' of 'well-being'/end
@BPSOfficial deleted Kirsty's letter cuz of the outrage. But the BPS's inability to see letter for what it was, adhering to this dubious, pol. shifting 'middle ground' (as if 'all ideas' are equally valid...yea right) explains our inching towards fascism https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/why-i-no-longer-wish-be-associated-bps
