Romanticization of Resilience
Let me start with a story that‘s two years old. And one that happened in a far away land — Singapore.
Singapore is not just another small country. It is a wealthy city state in south-east Asia. Colonial past aside, it is a thriving global financial hub today and is described as one of Asia’s economic “tigers”.
The story..(link below).
If you don’t read this post or if you really haven’t thought much about the context of my topic (resilience), you probably would consume this story as one of those feel-good stories that we come across every now and then, and may even get a bit mushy after reading it, like I did.
But what if I point out the fact that we as consumers of news may have completely normalized the idea of celebrating victimhood and the achievements of victims (big and small), and have let the mainstream media completely ignore the problems that caused victims in the first place?
Of course, I am not undermining the achievements of the student in this story. No doubt, Aqil Narsal’s resilience and resolve are admirable. I wish I had such resilience and resolve to get through my daily challenges. But how this story is treated is very much indicative of our current mainstream media’s attitude towards poverty (as in this case)— They sugarcoat the structural injustice that was the root cause for pushing Aqil to this situation, while his self reliance, perseverance, resolve, family sacrifices, hardships endured, etc. are lauded enthusiastically over and over again.
From Singapore, let me take you to Puerto Rico.
Another island state — But the similarity ends there. Puerto Rico is not a completely independent state and is poor.
I was listening to NPR sometime last year and caught a podcast plug which raised my curiosity. At some point during that same week, I tried to listen to the first episode of “La Brega” (a Puerto Rican phrase for “the struggle”), but gave up soon.
Because it’s a Spanish podcast and my Duolingo acquired Español skills aren’t that advanced as yet. So I did the easiest thing I could do immediately. I learnt about the host Alana Casanova-Burgess through a brief interview.
I don’t have to elaborate what Alana is saying in the interview.
You read it for yourself. The podcast link is available in the article if you need it.
“It’s on how mainstream outlets in the United States talk about the challenges in Puerto Rico — these poor people who are so good at being resilient and congratulating Puerto Ricans on being so tough. That came up in coverage of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as well, the idea that if you have a group of people who are struggling and trying to recover from a natural disaster and then, even though the state does not respond adequately to their needs, we sort of celebrate that resilience, instead of questioning why resilience is needed in first place.”
Resilience is a beautiful word. When you break it down, resilience is really people’s ability to endure. Evolutionarily speaking, resilience is a natural coping mechanism we use to survive. It is our ability to deal with pain, loss and poverty even when it seems there is no hope of positive change. People’s resilience only highlights the failure to create conditions that would not require them to battle for survival every day. If we are evolved as a species, then the struggle to survive should not become a way of life.
I also understand that there is nothing wrong with using resilience in a positive manner. But for many marginalized people, being labelled resilient — especially by media and policy-makers has other implications. The focus on resilience and applauding people for being resilient makes it too easy for policy-makers to avoid looking for real solutions.
I am deliberately not bringing your attention to the most obvious circumstances and conditions in the USA under which the mainstream media outlets celebrate resilience. From victims of racial injustice and gun violence to those caught in the cruel trappings of our disastrous healthcare system — the number of resilient stories our media must have covered, no wonder Hollywood has the capability to churn out so many tear-jerkers year after year.
Resilient as a word has become such a “flavor of this century” that it’s frequently used by mainstream media, human rights activists, policy-makers aka those responsible for the development sector, to describe persons affected by war and violence, by rape and racial injustice, by abuse and poverty.
The mothers and wives of the disappeared and deceased in war-torn countries, the survivors of rape and racist attacks, and the poor who beat all the odds are always praised for their resilience when they continue their struggle for justice despite intimidation, societal apathy, abuse, and harassment.
Resilience has become a neoliberal propaganda that individualizes poverty, ill-health, and other struggles, through self-help stories while erasing the role of the state or the system in adequately addressing the root causes.
Sometimes I wonder if those who romanticize the word “resilience” are using the word really as a code for..
“Hey! I see your struggle. I know how I can help you. But I won’t.”
The struggle to survive should never become a way of life.
Maybe we can start by not normalizing such romanticization of resilience.
