You can’t “self-care” your way out of oppression.
This week there will be an added focus on mental health and well-being. Suicide hotlines will be shared. Taking walks after meetings and stretching at your desk will be advised. Some will suggest regular movement — Lord knows I’m all for movement — and getting sunshine, however scarce, in our northern climate.
Few, if any, will talk about the systems that have so encumbered us that we must use self-care as a way not to be crushed by them.
I’ve seen it before. Employees will say, “We’re burnt out!” The employer responds, “We offer yoga at lunchtime and remember you have EAP.” Yes, and how about reducing workload? How about encouraging people to take vacations? How about paying people enough so they don’t have to work overtime?
I went to get a massage; I was met with weight stigma and fatphobia from an RMT. Even in pursuing self-care, I cannot self-care my way out of harmful systems and prejudice.
I see lots of information on deep breathing and not enough information on how to stop police from pinning down another Black man who gasps, “I can’t breathe.” There are a lot of scented candles but not enough burning down of systems that do not serve the most marginalized among us.
So many of us have to engage in self-care to deal with and buffer against the systemic oppression that the toxic hegemonic cocktail of patriarchy, White supremacy, capitalism, ableism etc. presents. We shift the burden from the oppressor to the oppressed.
We can’t keep taking hot candlelit Epsom salt baths in a burning house. We need the waters of justice (Amos 5:24).
