Chalmer Thompson

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/30771

What Would Our Interactions Look Like If We Were Really Serious About Ending Racism?

At its core, racism is a devastation that exists in societies throughout the world. It prevents people from engaging together humanely, genuinely, not only across but within ancestral groups, and keeps people from developing healthy identities. It thwarts societies from evolving into their potential as socially, economically and politically viable settings in which to live and thrive. Drawing from her work on racialized violence (as distinguished from racial violence), psychologist and professor Chalmer Thompson addresses how scholars and practitioners can perpetuate forms of systemic violence when they fail to attune to sound theory to guide their work. Theory-informed actions that disrupt the manifestations of oppressive forces are frequently disregarded for reasons that are consistent with the features of racism and other oppressive, intersecting forces.

But there is hope. Professor Thompson draws on interdisciplinary sources to demonstrate how a psychology of oppression that is liberation-based --- that is, situated in practices that center on the experiences of those most disenfranchised by the malignancies of racism, sexism, and class exploitation, while simultaneously inclusive of those who see themselves as minimally affected by these forces, holds heuristic value to those who want to see an end to oppression.

Professor Thompson's translation of research into creating more equitable communities free from the oppressive shackles of racism is another excellent example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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    What Would Our Interactions Look Like If We Were Really Serious About Ending Racism?
    (Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2023-01-27) Thompson, Chalmer
    Racism is a devastation that exists in communities throughout the world. It thwarts societies from evolving into their potential as socially, economically and politically viable settings in which to live and thrive. Drawing from her work on racialized violence, Dr. Chalmer Thompson addresses how some scholars and practitioners perpetuate forms of systemic violence and she demonstrates how liberation-based psychology can help end oppression.
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    Introduction to Chalmer Thompson & Her Work
    (Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2023-01) Thompson, Chalmer
    Dr. Chalmer Thompson briefly discusses her research interests and goals. Her research focuses on how people interact with one another verbally and non-verbally, and on creative ways to reach children in resisting the negative manifestations of racism while simultaneously, advancing strategies that build their identities as sociopolitical beings. She also talks about the work she does abroad in Uganda and the work that she does locally in Indianapolis.
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    On Pan-Africanism, Feminism, and Psychotherapy: The Perspectives of Three Black Scholar-Practitioners from the U.S., Uganda, and St. Kitts/U.S
    (Taylor and Francis, 2021-04-03) Thompson, Chalmer E.; Namusoke, Jane; De Barros, Khym Isaac
    Three African-descended psychologists discuss the case of a psychotherapy dyad in which the first author, a U.S. national, and a Caribbean student who had immigrated to the U.S. served respectively as therapist and client. We discuss the relevance of Helms’ racial identity development theory to the cultivation of psychological health among African-descended women, proposing that this form of health is intimately tied to our association with other African-descended people. With particular focus on the client’s disclosures about certain groups of Black people in stereotypical ways, what we term “othering by the other,” we offer a conceptualization that knits together issues of personal vulnerability, the reproduction of structural violence, and racial identity development. We conclude by presenting our views on the process and outcome of the therapeutic case and the significance of the theory to addressing the violence that continues to disrupt the lives of Black men and women around the world.
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    Racialized violence in the lives of Black people: Illustrations from Haiti (Ayiti) and the United States
    (APA, 2019) Nicolas, Guerda; Thompson, Chalmer E.
    Notwithstanding the cessation of the transatlantic slave trade in the 19th century and the end of "classical" colonization in African and Caribbean nations in the last century, racialized violence persists and continues to adversely impact the lives of African-descended people throughout the world. In this article, racialized violence involving Black people refers to physical acts and structural processes that prove injurious or deadly to Black people as Black people. The structural manifestations of racialized violence include unjust laws and normative practices that constrain the fulfillment of Black people's basic needs (like safety) and diminish their pursuit of liberation from persistent oppression. Using Nicolas's systemic and long-standing work in Haiti (Ayiti) as an illustration, we describe how the objectives of ending Black racialized violence and achieving genuine liberation from racism are integral to Black psychological health. Highlighting how racialized violence "works" in maintaining societal racism over the course of history in 2 settings-Ayiti and the United States, we urge psychologists worldwide to improve their practices with Black people by (a) instituting (new) norms that unsilence Black voices in treatment and research, (b) (re)committing to a process of peace promotion that forcefully disrupt the systemic perpetuation of racism, and (c) advancing an agenda of every-day activism aimed at increasing the health and life chances of Black people within and across the diaspora.
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    Decolonization and liberation psychology: The case of psychology in South Africa
    (Cambridge UP, 2020) de la Rey, Cheryl; Thompson, Chalmer E.
    This chapter focuses on psychology in South Africa as a discipline and profession embedded in a history of colonialism and apartheid. It a describes South African psychology as a site of epistemological contestation shaped by historical racial identities and relations of power and asserts that liberation psychology is central to the contribution of the profession to eliminating human rights violations and fostering well-being. National student protests in 2015–2016 called for the “decolonization” of the curriculum, bringing into sharp focus the decades-long debate about the relevance of psychology and the need for transformation. While the focus is psychology in South Africa, the chapter broadens the discussion of decolonizing the field to other nations plagued by histories of racial oppression such as Australia and the United States. Changes in the decolonizing process are not without their challenges, yet in a field of study that is one of the most popular among students, a cogent move toward decolonizing the psychology curriculum entails the invention of new voices and theories as well as liberation psychology practices that center squarely on the needs for equity, violence prevention, and social justice.
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    A study of Ugandan children’s perspectives on peace, conflict, and peace-building: A liberation psychology approach
    (APA, 2018) Mayengo, Nathaniel; Namusoke, Jane; Byamugisha, Gastone; Sebukalu, Paul; Kagaari, James; Auma-Okumu, Santo; Baguwemu, Ali; Ntare, Edward Rutondoki; Nakasiita, Kirabo Nkwambe; Atuhairwe, Richard; Goretti, Maria Kaahwa; Okumu Oruma, Gerald Ojok; Thompson, Chalmer E.; Dennis, Barbara
    Bulhan (2015) urged psychologists to advance their research and practice by attending to metacolonialism, a structural phenomenon built on a history of violence and oppression that assaults all manner of individual, community, and societal well-being. In line with this urging, a primarily Ugandan team of researchers conducted a study of primary schoolchildren’s perspectives on conflict, peace, and peace-building. In the original study, which is briefly reviewed in this manuscript, the children were drawn from 2 Ugandan schools, one located in the northern region and the other in the central region. At each stage of the research process, the team members sought to recognize and resist the reproduction of metacolonialism while move toward more emancipatory practices. In this theoretical article, we explain how we applied a liberation psychological approach to the design, conduct, and analysis of the study. We also show how the findings of the study contribute to our ongoing work in fostering structural changes in one of the schools, its surrounding region, and the nation as a whole.
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    Children’s conceptions of peace in two Ugandan primary schools: Insights for peace curriculum
    (Sage, 2017-03) Kagaari, James; Nakasiita, Kirabo; Ntare, Edward; Atuhaire, Richard; Baguwemu, Ali; Ojok, Gerald; Okumu, Auma S.; Kaahwa, Goretti; Byamugisha, Gastone; Semakula, Paul; Namusoke, Jane; Mayengo, Nathan; Thompson, Chalmer E.; School of Education
    Oppenheimer urged communities all over the world to study how children come to understand peace, conflict, and war. Set in various countries, their review of studies, as well as more recent examinations reveal trends in how children view these phenomena, often differing by gender, age, and extent to which they were exposed to highly dangerous and traumatizing situations, like being forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves. No such research has been published in the contemporary post-war Uganda context. Using focus group methodology, we asked: How might Ugandan primary school children’s stories about peace (traditional and otherwise) help them navigate conflict? What sorts of conflicts do these children observe in their home, school, and community, and how do they describe peace as being resolved by themselves or others? The purpose of our study was to contribute to the knowledge base on peace education in Uganda and to ultimately develop written materials that students can use as part of their learning in their respective schools. Local studies like this one are relevant to the global situation because racial and economic conditions are global phenomena. The local manifestations can speak to those racial and economic conditions as perspectives not often used to put the global situation in relief. This paper explores the findings related to the children’s overarching conceptions of peace and their ideas of peacebuilding, including activities that both hinder and encourage peace. The voices of the children speak strongly of the connection between peace and access to basic necessities in the community.