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Johnsonįor those involved in justice work, our experiences with personal trauma, systemic oppression, and ongoing toxicity provoke anger in particular ways. “Justice is anything that makes way for joy, that makes the condition of joy a possibility again.”-Lacy M. Self-care helps us channel our anger to serve progress and change-for both personal and political purposes. Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon, says, “The truth will set you free but, first it will piss you off.” Liberation requires rage. Self-care includes learning to accept, access, and activate our anger. Like the planned burning of fields to propagate better crops, anger can engender growth. As Brittney Cooper writes in Eloquent Rage-A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower, “Rage is great at helping us destroy things… can help us build things.” Anger can be fuel for moving forward and energy to be used in resistance. The fire of fury can incinerate or purify. Assuredly, I became super-duper ethical (wink!) and learned about harnessing righteous rage.Īnger is a potent form of power as such, it can be (mis)used ineffectively, improperly, and/or harmfully. Wanting to emulate his zealous rage (and other characteristics), I took additional elective ethics courses with Dr. In my mid-20s, I was enthralled that this man in his 70s could sustain such fiery anger, without burning out. Barnette was intensely angry-as well as hilarious, kind, and brilliant. My ethics professor, Henlee Barnette, would storm into class, ranting about a current issue, declaring, “Doesn’t that just make you MAD?!” Even after decades of justice work, Dr. I’ve been studying anger since graduate school. My self-care journey includes reclaiming righteous rage. Self-care involves more fully and freely experiencing our human-ness. We have the right and, thus, also, the responsibility to care for ourselves. In many ways, wholistic self-care is a human right. It is not a dismissive distraction from oppression. Self-care is not some superficial antidote for injustice. “Focused with precision, anger can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”-Audre Lorde This interpretation is yet another self-care myth. If they know my work on self-care, they may seem puzzled because they think self-care is supposed to make one blithely happy. Often, those asking that question seem offended or “concerned” about my anger. I respond: I think rage is an expected human response to the insidious injustices of our world. “Why are you so angry?” People who don’t know me well sometimes ask me that question. By Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE, lead co-editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals
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