My Soul Bears Witness to Global Violence: Social Workers Speaking Up and Out in Fugitive Spaces

Pain and suffering, to use the words of Saidiya Hartman, “provide the common language of humanity; [they] extend humanity to the dispossessed and, in turn, remedy the indifference of the callous (1997, p. 18). In fact, humanity is programmed to empathize with people who are going through suffering and pain, while condemning and sometimes fighting the perpetrators of human pain and suffering (Goldstein, 1989). Yet for suffering and pain to elicit empathetic and compassionate responses, they must be witnessed in ways that recall and elicit the horror of the moment, but also, as Ulrich Baer (2002) notes, “further break through the blinding fascination with horror and trauma that often results in an aesthetic of shock” (p. 113). As social workers, we are called upon to respond profoundly with empathy and compassion, and to advocate for social justice and human rights. The world is in great turmoil, and violence appears endemic globally. As we pen this commentary, Darfur, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad and the Lake Chad Basin, Somalia, Haiti, Ukraine, Myanmar, Taiwan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and the Sahel in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — amongst other regions — are witnessing the destruction of human lives, human dignities, and properties at a scale arguably unmatched since the Second World War. The United Nations has even warned that world peace is more under threat now than it has been since World War II, with over 2 billion people caught in cross-fire in these conflict-affected places. As citizens of the world, we are confronted daily both locally (in our communities, neighbourhoods, and on the streets) and through the media with images of injured and grieving people; the destruction of lives and properties; the erosion, even elimination, of culture, language, and tradition; and the rise of mainstream politicization of anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, settler colonial violence, xenophobia, and homophobic sentiments globally. As social work scholars and educators, we note that education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels has, in several areas of conflict, become severely compromised, as students find it difficult to access education amidst ongoing violence and safety issues, and — in some places — because of the active destruction of institutions of education. We also see protest responses to global violence on university campuses. Several of the students and faculty members who have, in solidarity, attempted to speak up and out against ongoing repression and oppression elsewhere have suffered the costly effects of challenging the status quo, such as legal action being taken against them and, in some instances, being placed under unnecessary scrutiny. In the midst of it all, there is a growing concern that those who have the power to act and effect change have remained silenced and indifferent. Even as academic institutions in Canada have expressed a commitment to human rights and to the right to protest, they have simultaneously and actively used other ‘legitimate’ and legitimized avenues to stifle dissent. It is incomprehensible that there is, in all of this, an overlooking of human suffering, destruction, and pain. It appears that the eye has stopped being an organ for seeing and has become the organ for only weeping (Das, 2000). We write this editorial at a time when we feel that discourse around suffering and injustice has been silenced and indeed is viewed as unacceptable. This seems in part to be informed by a warranted fear that a naming of injustice will inadvertently hurt others. But it also seems to be guided by the sense that, in an increasingly polarized environment, only …