When people talk about Black on Black crime or male on male crime or Black male on Black male crime... LATERAL VIOLENCE lateral violence is: “the organized harmful behaviors that we do to each other collectively as part of an oppressed group, within our families, within our organizations and within our communities.” “It’s the expression of rage and anger, fear and terror that can only be safely vented upon those closest to us when we are being oppressed,” he said. […] lateral violence is endemic to oppressed minorities around the world, particularly those who have survived colonialism. He defined the cause of lateral violence as the deflection of aggression. “Hostility is directed towards those who will not retaliate,” he said. “This means that we attack within our own group of oppressed people or we attack another minority oppressed group. Richard said the root of lateral violence is that oppressors have instilled oppressive behaviours into oppressed communities so the oppression is perpetuated from inside the oppressed communities. “In every facet of our lives we were told that we were sub-human so naturally we began to look at those closest to us as sub-human, as a problem, not because we’re bad people but because it was a way to survive,” he said. “Lateral violence works to maintain power in an oppressed group when someone is seen to threaten that power in some way.””
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 03:55:02 +0000