Section 1
Shame Hurts All of Us.
Stigma and shame push people into isolation, can contribute to ongoing trauma, can be the reasons why people don’t feel comfortable seeking services, or can push people to lose touch with the support systems that may otherwise keep them well. Stigma and shame create community norms of fear around making mistakes or being judged by others. Learn about how stigma and shame affects people, and how our communities fit in.
IN THIS LESSON
In the world we live in, people who exhibit trauma responses are often stigmatized because these responses may disrupt social norms, be unusual and thus uncomfortable to witness, or are associated with criminalization. When people already dealing with trauma are shamed for the ways their trauma responses come out, they can be pushed even further into isolation.
Across California’s Native communities, historical and ongoing violence are a shared trauma across everyone. Sometimes, these traumas compounding, such as with the War on Drugs’ effects on people: the trauma of historical violence in addition to the traumatic fracturing of cultural practices, land access, and sense of community. Though these harms have always been resisted and our ancestors did their best to shield us from them, the impacts and echoes of these legacies have shaped most of our lived experiences.
Some of us today experience intergenerational trauma, which is where the effects and responses felt by previous generations are essentially learned or passed down to the next generations. Important to note here is that intergenerational trauma isn’t the only thing that was passed down – the love and joy that our ancestors felt for us are also with us, and those are rooted in many more generations than these traumas.
Stigma: Examples in Action
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The Actions: Rushing care for people we assume are homeless, assuming they’re “drug-seeking”, ignoring their health concerns, avoiding people who “look homeless” on the street.
The Language: ”All these ‘homeless’ just use drugs, are ‘crazy’, and are an eyesore. I’m tired of seeing them everywhere.”
The Impacts: Dehumanizing people for conditions they didn’t choose; making it normalized for people to exclude homeless community members from participating; causing further trauma to people already living in traumatizing conditions; making it the norm for people to recieve sub-standard care, which leads people to stop seeking care altogether.
The Reality: People living on the street are usually dealing with daily conditions that are incredibly difficult for anyone to survive. People from all walks of life, all experiences, and all personalities can find themselves homeless because there are often not enough resources or services to get people housed. Homelessness is both a cause of and sometimes a secondary effect of trauma.
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The Actions: Brushing off people’s unrelated health conditions, assuming they don’t care about their life or their health, assuming they don’t care about their loved ones or family, assuming they don’t care about their culture.
The Language: ”Wow, I can’t believe she’s an addict now. She used to have so much potential but she went and messed up her life.”
The Impacts: Making people hide their drug or alcohol use in order to maintain their relationships; isolating people or making them feel like it’s not safe to talk about their challenges; increased overdose risk; making it the norm to associate drug use with being a “bad” or unworthy person; causing people to lose access to their support systems.
The Reality: People use drugs and alcohol, or relapse, for a huge variety of reasons. In the Native community, the isolation of drug and alcohol related stigmas also mean people lose access to spiritual and cultural connection. A shaming and stigmatizing approach is traumatizing for those who face it.
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The Actions: Avoiding people or showing visible discomfort, not welcoming or not hiring people with criminal records in community spaces, assuming people in prison are “bad”, assuming they don’t need the same level of kindness or compassion as others because of their “tough” background.
The Language: ”There he goes. You know he just got out of prison, I can’t believe people like that are just walking around. I’m sure he’ll end up right back where he was before long.”
The Impacts: Isolating people out of care during transitional periods, putting people at greater risk of recidivism; extending social punishment despite having “put in time”; increasing people’s risk of homelessness; making it difficult for people to reach out or access services.
The Reality: People are incarcerated for a variety of reasons. Many people are wrongfully convicted or given enhanced charges due to systemic factors like racism. Many are in prison for non-violent and/or non-abusive charges, ranging from things like drug possession to felony shoplifting. While there are understandable community safety concerns when it comes to topics like domestic violence or child abuse, and that boundaries around those can/should be made with community safety in mind, there are countless people who face stigma simply because of the fact that they were incarcerated at all, not because of the nature of their charges. Each person has a story that doesn’t begin or end with prison – the details and the context matter.
Stigma and shame aren’t effective tools in shaping or changing behavior. While some people may be able to make lifestyle changes through social pressure or shame, the root causes or conditions which led to their stigmatized behaviors are often unaddressed. People aren’t given the space or tools to process their feelings alongside others, or to learn more about themselves through self-compassion. The cyclical nature of shame instead creates deeper divides between a person and the community, cultural practices, and ceremonies which could provide the deeper healing they need to transform on a profound level.
The trauma of experiencing social stigma also leads people to cope through the means available, and these are often unhealthy or harmful behaviors. Because people who are isolated are left without other resources, things like drugs and alcohol can become the only option people have to self-soothe and navigate the pain of isolation. Shame becomes a disempowering force that gradually erodes at a person’s self-concept and connection to the world.
Every community is different, every tribal government is different, and every individual has their own story and context. For any form of punishment, but especially when it comes to topics like banishment and disenrollment, we encourage everyone to reflect on the deeper impacts and effects associated with them. These are some of the most severe forms of punishment a person can experience and is a unique form of trauma, one which often can’t be undone or resolved. We must also consider that like all tools of power, they can be implemented for nefarious or spiteful purposes. If you are part of a community who has been considering or implementing these paths, we encourage you to push for deep community-wide reflection on the effectivity and impacts of these models, the unintended ripple effects it can have on the community, and to continue having conversations on ways we can collectively and compassionately support all of our people.
Instead of Shame…
