Neurosis, racism and envy

Race Reflections AT WORK

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the relationship between racism, neurosis and envy. She begins by going over an earlier article she wrote which expanded on Fanon’s theories around these areas and considers neurosis in classic anaylytic theory defining it as phenomena/processes that occur when we can’t confront something in the world, or in ourselves, or in others, because it provokes too much anxiety. So that anxiety expresses itself in some other ways, usually unconsciously. She then expands this to think about racialised or White envy. She considers the distinction between jealosy (the wish to possess) and envy (the wish to annihilate)

She then talks about how she has come to these conclusions through lived experience and group analysis and psychotherapy. With a side note that often in clinical settings the gaze is turned inwards so the question becomes "What do you do to trigger envy?" rather than understanding that the white subject is born or socialised into their envy. Instead the question could be: "How do you make yourself more resilient?" or "How do you look after yourself?" And the answer to that is often to connect to your power which means connecting to the very things you are being envied for, not minimising it.

She then focuses in on what racialised or white envy looks like in the workplace, sharing experiences and anacdotes and breaking it down into:

• Dismissing/sabortaging Black authority
• Not congratulating/giving praise for achievements
• Envy creating canibalistic/bizarre behaviours

She then expands to think of envy from the wider perspective of it being a cornerstone of white supremacy, partly because racism is about fantasy and disavowed feelings.

She finishes by reflecting on ways that people of colour can navigate envy in the workplac that include:

• Acceptance
• Naming it
• Finding spaces where people are going to listen and think the envy through with you
• Reclaiming for yourself what you are envied for

And ends with encouraging all workplaces to think and talk about envy.

As Guilaine mentiones there is a lot about envy in her upcoming book White Minds that you can pre-order here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds
The open access article she begins by talking about can be read on the race reflections website here: https://racereflections.co.uk/neuroses-of-whiteness-white-envy-and-racial-violence/
And Guilaine has covered envy on the podcast before here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416-envy
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