The statements that follow have been written in response to the Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology Conference, November 2019. For many, this event highlighted long standing issues with racism and whiteness, particularly within Clinical Psychology. This debate sits within wider debate regarding the need to acknowledge the pain and trauma of racism and to interrogate racism and Whiteness within society, clinical practice and psychology at large. We invite others from within and beyond the discipline of psychology to join us in continuing this conversation.
A collective response from Clinical Psychology trainees at the University of East London following the GTiCP conference in Liverpool in November
April 2020
This incident and its immediate response is a reflection of Whiteness in action within Clinical Psychology. This is an open letter to our profession which is intended as a response to the official apology issued by the BPS (2019), and is also intended to support the continuation of this vital conversation, giving voice to the many that have been silenced.
Re-telling the Distress
As a conference attendee from a so-called ‘minority background’, there was a personal and professional responsibility to share with my cohort what had happened, and to allow space for discussion amongst the wider group. There was a felt sense of shock and horror at how our future profession had allowed this event to unfold, the response of the BPS, and the conduct of some of our colleagues following the event. At the same time, some of us felt that the response was unsurprising considering the racism that we have consistently witnessed and experienced during training and on placement.
Initial Reflections on the Event
The profession of Clinical Psychology at present feels very unsafe for many of us who are of African, Caribbean and Asian, or of other non-white colonial descent. It is unacceptable that it required an event that caused this magnitude of distress and pain to open up a conversation about the oppressive force of Whiteness within the profession. As a cohort, we believe:
- By not informing the audience there would be a performance enacting a slave auction, the organisers took away one’s individual right to choose. This is akin to coercion. Many people choose not to watch content that includes depictions of the African Holocaust [1] for various reasons. A lack of informed consent is a key feature of psychology’s problematic history.
- ‘Ignorance’ is not a sufficient reason for how many of the white Clinical Psychologists present at the event reacted (or failed to react) to the performance.
- Conversations about Whiteness and racism are often led by marginalised voices within the profession and this demonstrates a lack of accountability within the white majority.
- White silence serves to maintain the status quo, the imbalance of power and the racist system within which we all must work and live.
Our Response to the Statement from the University of Liverpool and British Psychological Society
Firstly, we find it unacceptable that it took over a week for an official statement to be released. There was palpable silence after the conference, despite organisers having been made aware of the distress that had been caused. We perceive this as organisers and attendees shying away from having the conversation.
Here, we would like to continue the conversation by sharing our thoughts on the official response. The statement indicated that the intention wasn’t to ‘explain away’ or minimise distress, however, we collectively felt that through the publication of this response, 'explaining away' was what was attempted. We would like to substantiate this view with reference to direct quotes from the statement, following.
“We are sorry that we did not read the distress of some people in the room and act accordingly.”
We feel that the above statement is passive, relinquishing responsibility for the fact that the actions taken were the direct cause of the resultant distress. It is also telling that the distress caused was not noticed or acted upon at the time, despite a number of people of colour having left the room in tears.
“The worst outcome, as we see it, is for others to shy away from difficult conversations about race, ethnicity, and clinical psychology.”
We find this statement othering and feel that it implies that the distress experienced is other people’s problem. The conversation that needs to be had is about Whiteness and racism, not just about race and ethnicity. The statement also implies that people should not speak out too strongly, because if they do, then some white people may retreat into the silence of Whiteness further. This constructs a very complex position from which a person can legitimately, and sufficiently ‘gently’ raise these integral issues, which is ultimately silencing of any on-going discussion.
“...considered consulting with colleagues from the Minorities Group”
The above statement suggests that people who are not direct members of an oppressed group cannot empathise with or consider their position.
The repeated referencing to ‘Capoeira for All’ and their “performance”
The extensive references to the performers can be seen as a distraction from holding accountability for this event within Clinical Psychology, which undermines the distress that was caused in this context. Regardless of intent, the event resulted in people being profoundly hurt and this is what we need to focus on. The continuous use of the word “performance” masks the reality of the enactment of a slave auction. This is a way of abdicating responsibility and is a form of testimonial injustice as it questions the validity of statements offered by eye-witnesses who were (re)traumatised.
“...we were not fully aware of the overall emotional tone and power of the performance as a whole”
This statement suggests that slavery is not considered as the collective and transgenerational trauma that it was - the African Holocaust.
“moving away from the typical GTiCP conference format of a ‘gala dinner’ with ‘entertainment’, to a more challenging ‘social programme’”
Here it becomes clear that it was assumed by the organisers that the audience needed to be educated about slavery, rather than considering people in the room who had been directly affected by it. This is racist, as the focus was clearly on the self-development/learning of white Clinical Psychologists centred in their own Whiteness. This depicts a colonial view of people's real and continued suffering, and a profound lack of ownership of one’s own relationship to the causes of this suffering, as a white person.
Continuing the Conversation
In the interests of continuing this conversation and improving the profession therein, we feel that following questions need to be addressed:
- If psychologists struggle to see and deconstruct Whiteness at a conference, what is happening in the therapy room with clients?
- How are experiences of racism being spoken about (or minimised) amongst our white colleagues?
- How can qualified psychologists create safe spaces for trainees and aspiring psychologists? The onus should not be on trainees to facilitate a safe supervisory space or to introduce these topics into teaching sessions and materials.
- How are psychologists continuing to interrogate their own Whiteness after training in their practice and wider systems?
- Why are we privileging discussing ‘widening access’ to clinical psychology? Barriers to access are essentially a symptom of structural racism and Whiteness.
- Attention should also focus on addressing the racist landscape which people meet upon entering the profession, and how to make the profession a place where people from non-colonial white backgrounds can feel safer.
A Call to Action
- Conversations about Whiteness, racism and de-colonisation must be compulsory components of supervisor training for all Clinical Psychologists, not just sessions centred on ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘diversity’ and the notion of ‘cultural competence’. We acknowledge that Dr Nimisha Patel and Dr Nick Wood have been advocating for and working towards this acknowledgement within the profession (Patel & Wood, 2017).
- There needs to be explicit teaching on all Clinical Psychology doctorates which discusses Whiteness, racism, structural oppression and decolonisation. Space needs to be made for ongoing reflection upon these issues within course time.
- If you are reading this letter, and you haven’t already, we ask that you commit to reading further into these issues. A suggested starting point is the Clinical Psychology Forum November 2019 Special Issue, and book recommendations (see suggested resources).
- We invite you to interrogate the language you use. The term ‘BME’ is often used as a ‘catch all’ phrase, but can be viewed as reductionist and arguably reinforces the idea of Whiteness as the norm and everyone else as ‘other’ (see Patel & Keval (2018) for further discussion).
- White Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists in positions of power need to evaluate and reflect upon how they have been using social media in order to respond to this incident. It is unacceptable for these individuals to engage with conversations where they perpetuate racism and silence voices of distress, and are not held to account.
The pain of racialised people is not being recognised. When you choose not to recognise the pain of another human being you are dehumanising both them and yourselves; the mechanism that allowed the slave trade, and that continues to condone the oppression and subjugation of racialised people today in our ‘hostile environment’.
This process has been time and emotionally intensive. We believe this could have been alleviated if our profession showed a genuine willingness to acknowledge and address Whiteness.
[1] The term holocaust defined as “[…]the killing of very large numbers of people” (Colin McIntosh, 2013) is used here in place of the term Maafa, which derives from the Kiswahili word for disaster, calamity or terrible occurrence, and is sometimes used to describe the history and ongoing effects of atrocities committed against people of Black African descent during Transatlantic Slavery, particularly by non-Africans (Ani & Richards, 1994; Cheeves & Cheeves, 2004). The term Maafa has not been used by the authors owing to its scope for allowing interpretation of these events as relating to any form of “accident”, therein removing the intent of the perpetrators and therefore minimising the continuing impact of this period of systematic enslavement and global genocide (Barndt, 2007) .
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Signed:
Second Year UEL Trainees Ruth Mintah Leanna Ong Tumu Johnson Sasha Nagra Samantha Harrison Sarah Clark Kerrie Sprigings Roisin Curtin Shrina Patel Amelia Presman Ben Peters Lucy Payne Nadia Daer Heidi Grafahrend Natalie Roswess - Bruce Kellie Robinson Theodora Ioannides Fatma Mehmet Isobel O’Reilly Lily Edwin Grace Leonard Sally Gascoine Hannah Frenken Hanna Yousefzadeh Stacey Barkley Emily Dixon Orla Gibbons Sabiha Kalam-Polli Aisling Daly-Eichenhardt Robin Lamb James Byrne Kassmin Tong |
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Racism is not entertainment
November 2019
History is important. Whiteness and its effects of racism is part of our history – centuries of slavery and colonialism, eugenics and its influences on racist policies in the UK and beyond, continued scientific racism evident in our theories and research, the privileging of the norms of Whiteness in our clinical and research practices and training institutions and services. Only last month the CPF published its third special issue on racism (CPF323), alongside other burgeoning literature on Whiteness and racism, in other disciplines.
The Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology annual conference was held in Liverpool between 4th and 6th November 2019. The conference venue was next to the Slavery Museum, a reminder of Liverpool’s three century history as a slave trading port that transported 1.5 million African slaves, half all Britain’s slave trade, across the Atlantic. The three keynotes, a public lecture, workshops and symposia all related to the theme of the conference ‘human rights, social justice and resistance’. The choice of the theme was a courageous and bold step by the hosts, Liverpool’s Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme team and their experts by experience group. It was a clear statement that human rights and social justice should be the business of all clinical psychologists and a responsibility for all trainers to address in training.
One workshop, led by some of us, on ‘Whiteness in clinical psychology training’ attracted nearly 60 participants, where colleagues were invited to reflect on the meaning of Whiteness and on our own observations and experiences of its manifestations in our profession and training. We began to (struggle to) talk about Whiteness and racism, to feel and hear each other’s discomfort, pain, guilt, shame, anger and compassion. It felt like déjà vu for many, and for others a sense that this was the beginning of a journey – despite more than 30 years of racism being raised and confronted repeatedly in our profession.
Then came the evening’s “social programme”, with a welcome glass of sparkly wine, dimmed lighting and dinner. The “entertainment” was a Capoeira performance, a martial arts dance form originated in Angola, used by African people enslaved by the Portuguese in Brazil, to fight, resist and escape their captivity. Forty per cent of all African people enslaved via the slave trade were received by Brazil. The performance enacted slavery, specifically, a slave auction, over dinner. The audience participated and responded to the invitation by the dancers, to bid for a slave. The ‘slave’ was asked to show that he had all his teeth, to shout out so the audience could hear “how good his lungs are” and to run around to “show the strength of his legs”. Entertainment. The audience was not all White and most of the Black and minority ethnic people (trainees and experts by experience) left the show in disgust, immense distress and outrage. The majority stayed, the performance continued – clearly intended for White people. There was no recognition that the audience may include people whose ancestors were brutalised by slavery, with wounds which cut deep, through generations – and who did not know what the social programme was going to be, and who certainly do not need to be educated on their history. Trainees and experts by experience watched how their peers, colleagues, tutors and Course directors watched and applauded the performance, and then joined in with the dancing towards the end of the performance. A ‘fun’ quiz over drinks followed, including a question on drapetomania – the diagnosis of mental illness which used to be given to slaves who were ‘addicted to trying to escape’.
Imagine a performance, over dinner, re-enaction of the concentration camps or gas chambers, with survivors or descendants of the Holocaust in the audience. Imagine a performance of genocide and mass rape to an audience of largely men and some women survivors, in the name of ‘raising awareness’ and a ‘social programme’. Imagine a performance re-enacting the horrific realities of Apartheid, with audience members with intergenerational experience of legalised racism and State-sanctioned violence and torture. Imagine a performance re-enacting physical restraint, seclusion and chemical restraint or ECT, with an audience of people with lived experience of the same, where psychologists in the audience are invited to, and participate, in the mock abuse. We may choose to attend such shows, we may choose when we see them, who with and in which context. But this was not an informed choice, nor the right context – with dinner, music and dance.
The following morning a group of trainees, experts by experience and aspiring psychologists from African Caribbean and African heritage and from other minority backgrounds stood in solidarity, as one of them read out a statement confronting the audience of mainly staff and Course directors of training programmes. One of the Black experts by experience then courageously and generously asked the audience if there were any questions, or feelings about what they had heard. An apologetic statement was made on behalf of the conference organisers. Very few spoke. The sound of Whiteness.
The invisible privileges and the normative and universalising structures and practices which lead to the systematic perpetration (and denial) of racism in all its guises, which provide its continued fodder, which ensure its structural maintenance and which ensure non-accountability is Whiteness. To stop and prevent racism, we must first learn to see, acknowledge, name and understand the architecture and machinations of Whiteness, the racialised operation of power.
In this situation, Whiteness is:
Slavery is considered an egregious human rights violation, alongside torture. The prohibition of both constitute the only two absolute, fundamental human rights which can never be justified or derogated from. Both can amount to crimes against humanity. This is for a reason. The gravity, horror and the harm of slavery, and its continued legacy, is important to understand – not intellectualised, minimised, sanitised, denied or dismissed as ‘that was in the past’ or ‘nothing to do with us’. The oppressive weight of Whiteness lives on, and its manifestations in individual, institutional, overt and covert, indirect racism are all around us, in us and in our practices. Racism and complicity in racism are always wrong. Racism is brutal. Racism is always an assault. Never entertainment.
Nimisha Patel (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of East London) on behalf of
Kat Alcock (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University College London)
Lisa Alexander (Expert by Experience, University of East London)
Julie Baah (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Catherine Butler (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of Bath)
Adam Danquah (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of Manchester)
David Gibbs (Expert by Experience, University of Birmingham)
Louise Goodbody (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, Canterbury Christ Church University)
Willemina Joseph-Loewenthal (Expert by Experience, University College London)
Zhenreenah Muhxinga (Expert by Experience, University of East London)
Leanna Ong (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Ashley Peart (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University College London)
Samantha Rennalls (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University College London)
Kassmin Tong (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Nick Wood (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of East London)
Correspondence:
Nimisha Patel [email protected]
The Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology annual conference was held in Liverpool between 4th and 6th November 2019. The conference venue was next to the Slavery Museum, a reminder of Liverpool’s three century history as a slave trading port that transported 1.5 million African slaves, half all Britain’s slave trade, across the Atlantic. The three keynotes, a public lecture, workshops and symposia all related to the theme of the conference ‘human rights, social justice and resistance’. The choice of the theme was a courageous and bold step by the hosts, Liverpool’s Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme team and their experts by experience group. It was a clear statement that human rights and social justice should be the business of all clinical psychologists and a responsibility for all trainers to address in training.
One workshop, led by some of us, on ‘Whiteness in clinical psychology training’ attracted nearly 60 participants, where colleagues were invited to reflect on the meaning of Whiteness and on our own observations and experiences of its manifestations in our profession and training. We began to (struggle to) talk about Whiteness and racism, to feel and hear each other’s discomfort, pain, guilt, shame, anger and compassion. It felt like déjà vu for many, and for others a sense that this was the beginning of a journey – despite more than 30 years of racism being raised and confronted repeatedly in our profession.
Then came the evening’s “social programme”, with a welcome glass of sparkly wine, dimmed lighting and dinner. The “entertainment” was a Capoeira performance, a martial arts dance form originated in Angola, used by African people enslaved by the Portuguese in Brazil, to fight, resist and escape their captivity. Forty per cent of all African people enslaved via the slave trade were received by Brazil. The performance enacted slavery, specifically, a slave auction, over dinner. The audience participated and responded to the invitation by the dancers, to bid for a slave. The ‘slave’ was asked to show that he had all his teeth, to shout out so the audience could hear “how good his lungs are” and to run around to “show the strength of his legs”. Entertainment. The audience was not all White and most of the Black and minority ethnic people (trainees and experts by experience) left the show in disgust, immense distress and outrage. The majority stayed, the performance continued – clearly intended for White people. There was no recognition that the audience may include people whose ancestors were brutalised by slavery, with wounds which cut deep, through generations – and who did not know what the social programme was going to be, and who certainly do not need to be educated on their history. Trainees and experts by experience watched how their peers, colleagues, tutors and Course directors watched and applauded the performance, and then joined in with the dancing towards the end of the performance. A ‘fun’ quiz over drinks followed, including a question on drapetomania – the diagnosis of mental illness which used to be given to slaves who were ‘addicted to trying to escape’.
Imagine a performance, over dinner, re-enaction of the concentration camps or gas chambers, with survivors or descendants of the Holocaust in the audience. Imagine a performance of genocide and mass rape to an audience of largely men and some women survivors, in the name of ‘raising awareness’ and a ‘social programme’. Imagine a performance re-enacting the horrific realities of Apartheid, with audience members with intergenerational experience of legalised racism and State-sanctioned violence and torture. Imagine a performance re-enacting physical restraint, seclusion and chemical restraint or ECT, with an audience of people with lived experience of the same, where psychologists in the audience are invited to, and participate, in the mock abuse. We may choose to attend such shows, we may choose when we see them, who with and in which context. But this was not an informed choice, nor the right context – with dinner, music and dance.
The following morning a group of trainees, experts by experience and aspiring psychologists from African Caribbean and African heritage and from other minority backgrounds stood in solidarity, as one of them read out a statement confronting the audience of mainly staff and Course directors of training programmes. One of the Black experts by experience then courageously and generously asked the audience if there were any questions, or feelings about what they had heard. An apologetic statement was made on behalf of the conference organisers. Very few spoke. The sound of Whiteness.
The invisible privileges and the normative and universalising structures and practices which lead to the systematic perpetration (and denial) of racism in all its guises, which provide its continued fodder, which ensure its structural maintenance and which ensure non-accountability is Whiteness. To stop and prevent racism, we must first learn to see, acknowledge, name and understand the architecture and machinations of Whiteness, the racialised operation of power.
In this situation, Whiteness is:
- Assuming that everyone in the conference needs to be educated about slavery
- Assuming that people from African and African Caribbean heritage will not be present (perhaps unsurprising given the make-up of the profession), or will simply tolerate the performance
- The enlistment, collusion and active participation of the predominantly White audience of qualified clinical psychologists in a re-enactment of a slave auction, choosing to do so and not saying no
- Choosing not to stop the performance
- Choosing to stay, and to applaud the ‘education’
- Justifying ‘our’ learning, and privileging the feelings and needs of White people - at the expense of the ongoing suffering and pain of ‘others’- those victimised and brutalised by slavery, colonialism and continued racism in the UK today. There are many better ways to learn about history – and the daily repetition of racism
- Choosing not to notice and acknowledge who in the audience has left the performance, and choosing not to question why
- Being able to choose to not speak, having witnessed the performance, even when people are visibly distraught and in tears
- Explaining away, sanitising, intellectualising and excusing the above, in the name of ‘learning’ and ‘awareness-raising’
- Not naming or minimising the profound hurt, harm and devastation caused to people from African and African Caribbean heritage in the audience and to many who have since heard about this
- Denial of the harm caused to people from African and African Caribbean heritage by describing their visible distress at the performance as “an odd reaction” or saying “we could not feel or share the same pain and outrage - as our histories are different (from yours)”
- Explaining that “we did not know what the show was going to be about”, without due diligence and care to find out first
- Explaining the lack of intention to hurt (“we didn’t mean to cause offence”) without acknowledging that regardless, the effects and harm were horrendous, and continue to inflict deep and enduring suffering on those present and others who have heard about this
- Offering an apology for causing hurt to “some people” but then collectively allowing the apology to be diminished and dismantled by ensuing statements that “it (the performance) was necessary and important to do” and as “useful”. For who?
- Being able to sit, and choose to stay silent, having witnessed the courage and pain of those with the least power in the room who dared to stand up in solidarity with each other the next day and to publicly speak out
- Saying “we will think about this more”, but collectively and individually saying and doing nothing - because you can; or doing more of same
- Not acknowledging that the responsibility to learn, to speak out, and for reparation, lies with all those who choose not to speak up, not with those subjected to the microaggressions and assaults of racism
- Not acknowledging the collective mistakes made; the collective collusion in the harm caused over the two days; and subsequently, the lack of collective reparation
- Not providing a full, unequivocal apology to all and to each of the African Caribbean and African heritage individuals in particular (not just by the organisers, but by the bystander audiences, including Course directors in the audience setting an example)
- No mention of the concrete steps which will be taken by the BPS and by every Course to ensure both the ongoing learning of their staff, the changes in practices and the non-repetition of these events
- Not being held accountable, because you can
- Finger-pointing without acknowledging individual and collective responsibility in the silencing of those affected by racism, in speaking on their behalf and in reproducing racism in words, actions and inaction
- Collective silence on racism.
Slavery is considered an egregious human rights violation, alongside torture. The prohibition of both constitute the only two absolute, fundamental human rights which can never be justified or derogated from. Both can amount to crimes against humanity. This is for a reason. The gravity, horror and the harm of slavery, and its continued legacy, is important to understand – not intellectualised, minimised, sanitised, denied or dismissed as ‘that was in the past’ or ‘nothing to do with us’. The oppressive weight of Whiteness lives on, and its manifestations in individual, institutional, overt and covert, indirect racism are all around us, in us and in our practices. Racism and complicity in racism are always wrong. Racism is brutal. Racism is always an assault. Never entertainment.
Nimisha Patel (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of East London) on behalf of
Kat Alcock (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University College London)
Lisa Alexander (Expert by Experience, University of East London)
Julie Baah (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Catherine Butler (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of Bath)
Adam Danquah (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of Manchester)
David Gibbs (Expert by Experience, University of Birmingham)
Louise Goodbody (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, Canterbury Christ Church University)
Willemina Joseph-Loewenthal (Expert by Experience, University College London)
Zhenreenah Muhxinga (Expert by Experience, University of East London)
Leanna Ong (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Ashley Peart (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University College London)
Samantha Rennalls (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University College London)
Kassmin Tong (Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of East London)
Nick Wood (Clinical Psychologist and Tutor, University of East London)
Correspondence:
Nimisha Patel [email protected]
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Books
Books
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Being White in the Helping Professions Judy Ryde
- White Fragility Robin DiAngelo
- Superior: The Return of Race Science Angela Saini
- How To Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
- The damaging psychological impact of constantly having to explain racism
- ‘I thought I was a lost cause’: how therapy is failing people of colour
- What is white fragility – and should you be offended by the term
- UK doctors' coronavirus deaths highlight crucial role of BAME medics
- 'Coughing while Asian': living in fear as racism feeds off coronavirus panic
- Patel, N., & Keval, H. (2018). Fifty ways to leave…… your racism. Journal of Critical psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, 18(2), 61-79.
- Baima, T., & Sude, M. E. (2020). What White Mental Health Professionals Need to Understand About Whiteness: A Delphi Study. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 46(1), 62-80.
- Wood, N., & Patel, N. (2017). On addressing ‘Whiteness’ during clinical psychology training. South African Journal of Psychology, 47(3), 280-291.
- Vital Conversations on Racism with Dr Robin DiAngelo
- Noughts and Crosses: BBC One's adaptation of Malorie Blackman's novels
- Dear White People: TV series on Netflix
