8/4/2019 Unlearning Seven Mental Moves that Colonize the Imagination: Habits of mind that white people often use to avoid talking about race

1/2

Figure 6d. Unmasking power: Recognizing the seven mental moves that colonize the imagination

This is based on Chela Sandovals adaptation of Roland Barthes rhetoric of supremacy. The moves are practiced when people or groups of

people uncritically see the dominant culture as normal and natural.mental move or

habit of minddescription outcomes

allowingdifference

only in smalldoses

habit of allowing difference and dissimilarity only incautious injections of small doses

incorporates only small tidy portions ofdifference to ensure that the true depth,enormity and pain associated with differenceis masked or ignored

all institutions and practices remain as isdenying of history habit of distancing all objects, practices and

institutions from the material history that madethem what they are

tames and limits imagination as viewers prevents the recognition of any responsibility

for what has and will become or any abilitythey might have to intervene

denying theextent of

differences byIdentifying

habit of comparing and weighing in order to equateall differences

habit of either brushing differences aside asunimportant or assimilating them

renders one incapable of viewing actualdifferences in the other

face to face with the other, oneblinds oneselfignores the differencesdenies the othertransforms the other into oneself

freezing meaning

habit of taking refuge behind argument oflegitimating authority where there is merely a

gesture of rationality(some example statements might be, thats just theway it is! or because I say so or truth is truth!)

*habit of using norms about how the world works todefend that which cannot stand up to reason and

debate while casting any alternative view of the worldas naive or utopian

(an example reply for the question why mustnations go to war? is because that is what nations

do!)

freezes meaning in place, protecting andlegitimating what is

*creates a closed loop where the questionrefers to the answer and then relies onauthority or history to prevent furtherdebate or discussion

8/4/2019 Unlearning Seven Mental Moves that Colonize the Imagination: Habits of mind that white people often use to avoid talking about race

2/2

mental move orhabit of mind

description outcomes

wanting neitherand choosing what

is by default

habit of feigning neutrality or objectivity by reducingreality to two or more formal opposites and then

saying I want neither this nor that.

register differences, then reject thosedifferences and falls back on what is

appear to take higher moral ground bymaking no commitment to alternativedirection

believing quality isquantity

habit of valuing images, objects, people according tothe quantityof effects they produce: the more the

better

habit of connecting the search for increase with ahigher, better, more noble existence

goodness of quality reduced to quantity ability to dismiss those who have less

quantity, as the subjugated often do, asbeing lower, worse, less noble, etc.

denying possibilityof being mistaken

habit of seeing constructed knowledge as commonsense: speaking and knowing with certainty,

asserting ones reality as if there were no other

habit of seeing what one believes as a statement offact, denying the possibility of being mistaken

become convinced that how things are ishow things ought to be

* This helpful explanation of freezing meaning (what Chela Sandoval calls tautology) comes from commentary in the onlinemagazine In the Fraythat can be found at inthefray.org