COVID-19 has forced us to stay home, but have we been home long enough to tackle the way it has exacerbated the reality that some humans remain more equal than others? I wonder if we can dismantle this white privilege and if so, how? I describe a traumatizing experience faced by the homeowners in an affluent almost exclusively white and historically privileged inner-city area of Cape Town. An overwhelming influx of equally but differently traumatized homeless people – predominantly of color – into these neighborhoods has transformed them into unsanitary and dangerous spaces. The economic value of the properties has fallen. Angry responses on neighborhood WhatsApp groups reveal two dominant discourses. My emotional positioning in both, at different times for different reasons, highlights the contradictory and shameful struggle involved. It reveals the complexity of finding a way through an “us”-and- “them” traumatized way of thinking into one of engaging differently with the dilemma. I suggest that a mutually respectful dialogue, resembling a twinship/alter-ego selfobject experience, is required for all humans to become more equally human. This requires a safe-enough space for the authentic expression of both similarities and differences that have been hidden but exist within and between people.
Can We Stay Home Long Enough to Confront and Dismantle the Truth — That All Humans Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others