Victimhood

 All the news on cable is about Joe Manchin. He declined to support the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill and its pretty hefty price tag, and some of his colleagues in the House are calling him, essentially, a racist, especially one African American fellow from New York. That seems to be especially non-collegial. Manchin’s pretty clear about the financial implications. However, some elements of politics right now have no problem throwing insults at members of their party who won’t get in line. This is as true of Dems and GOP; in fact, it may be more true of GOP, given the lunatic fringe that represents my district, one in Colorado, and others. 

But this easy application of the “race card” or “racist epithet” has got me thinking, as I have been for awhile, about the subject of victimhood. We have an epidemic of victimhood status and the desire to get it, maintain it, and trumpet it. And I’m not going to lay the blame to politics. I see it especially in higher education.

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s I worked for the Technical College System of Georgia. Every year we had a “contest” for the teacher of the year and the student of the year. Part of my job was to help pick the winners from our college. In late May there was a big celebration in Atlanta, which I attended six times as the coordinator, a teacher sponsor, or a contestant. After a couple of years of my involvement in the program it became very clear that the winner had to have a “story.” That was code for proof that they had, in some way, had a “bad life” or bad circumstances that they overcame and especially were able to overcome it through being involved in the Technical College System of Georgia. The System was part of their salvation, their escape from whatever it was that was negative before. It could have been poverty, having a single mother, being in the foster care system, a disability (although that was usually not the case because folks with disabilities don’t photograph well), or some other past event or condition. Being a convicted criminal didn’t fit. It had to be something over which the student had no control, and they had to make it sound dramatic. 

In other word, a main criterion was victimhood.

Of course, the Technical College System of Georgia has never been woke, so it came more from a public relations perspective than from an ideology, but the message was just as potent. Victimhood was a positive thing. The student couldn’t just have a stellar academic and service record; he or she had to pull at the heart strings. 

Twenty years later, this generalized expectation in college has only grown. Having something in your background you have or are “overcoming” is what education is about. It gives you more access; you are more deserving; you also have more excuses. I see it in scholarship funding applications and in disability services. The ADA was designed for people with physical disabilities and then learning disabilities such as ADD and dyslexia. Today, the requests I get for accommodations are for anxiety. Anxiety is now a disability, and depression a source of victimhood. 

That sounds harsh, and I’m not belittling the idea that anxiety and depressions can get in the way of learning in college. Of course it can. My point is that there has been a shift from physical and learning disabilities to psychological and mood states. You can find this corroborated in the literature. We cannot question it because to question ADA accommodations puts one on the outs with “the feds” and in danger of litigation. After I am retired I will write about this without fear of reprisal. That said, accommodations that a faculty member must provide are never onerous (just a bit time-consuming), and our complaints about providing them are just a sign of our own victimhood.

That victimhood has become the new equivalent of high SAT scores or grades in terms of achievements is far more complicated than I can get into here; I’m just saying I’ve seen it coming for a long time. I’ll never forget my first and only semester at Georgia State where I was exposed to the idea that I was oppressed. How could I, a middle class, educated professional white woman be oppressed? But I was, whether I knew it or not; that was what my co-student affirmed for me. (I still think that’s nonsense.) The reason: I am a woman. Yes, I said, there are oppressed women on this planet, but I’m not one of them. It didn’t matter. Because of my gender, I was oppressed. I was a victim because of my chromosomes.

This morning I read in the John MacArthur book The Gospel According to Paul:

“That attitude toward guilt has created a society full of people convinced hey are purely victims, not malefactors. They won’t hear of their own culpability, much less confess; and therefore they cannot hear he good news of the gospel, much less believe it.” The attitude he refers to was that self-forgiveness was more important than asking for forgiveness from another.

Yes, victimhood can cloud our judgment. It can make us self-righteous and unable to see that we victimize others at times. White people are not the only group capable of racism; I know that’s unpopular, but I’ve seen and heard Hispanics denigrate other Hispanics and Asians devalue other Asians and African Americans speak negatively of other groups. No group has the corner on sin and prejudice, regardless of power status (and yes, White people as a whole are more powerful and privileged, let's not kid ourselves with nonsense about white victimhood. I'll add here that I was saddened by the Kim Potter verdict in Minnesota, which would have been different in another state. I hope she gets a lighter sentence, but she did kill a person by unintentional malpractice, so to speak. I fear the repercussions, though.)

Victimhood as a self-definition will get you nowhere in the long run, but it might work in the short term. In fact, yes, it will work but it eventually chokes your ability to see yourself honestly. 

Now, if you have read this far you are probably mad. I am not denying victimhood exists; it very much does. I am talking about victimhood as self-definition and a means of navigating the world.  I am also talking about every inconvenience in life becoming a source of victimhood.  I'm getting grumpier in my dotage, so if anyone reads this I might get some blowback. There is no such thing as bad publicity, maybe?