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It is time for all of us to tell each other the truth about who and what have brought the Negro to the condition of deprivation against which he struggles today. In human relations the truth is harder to come by, because most groups are deceived about themselves. Rationalization and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our individual and collective sins. But the day has passed for bland euphemisms. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth [emphasis added].
Systemic and structural racism is ubiquitous within psychoanalysis. It appears within psychoanalytic institutions including leadership, administration, and faculty, and throughout training. Racism is embedded in teaching, curricula, and supervisory and candidate experiences. Its psychosocial existence is so entrenched and seamless in its representation that it is often only in the presence of a minoritized people or BIPOC that racism is revealed, often with an enactment.
Simultaneously, the poor representation or absence of minoritized people at the institutional and national organizational leadership level is a stark demonstration of the effects of systemic and structural racism. While many more white candidates and faculty are becoming aware of and speaking to these systemic and structural problems, there continues to be active preservation of the status quo. The ubiquitousness of these phenomena across institutions and governing bodies focused the Commission study on systemic racism rather than individual racism.