Lateral Violence

I just got an email about lateral violence. This is an extremely useful concept, which goes a long way toward explaining why people who have been oppressed often turn on each other instead of the oppressor. See the work of Pablo Freire for another view of this phenomenon

Lateral violence happens when people who are both victims of a situation of dominance, in fact turn on each other rather than confront the system that oppresses them both.

Lateral violence occurs when oppressed groups/individuals internalize feelings such as anger and rage, and manifest their feelings through behaviors such as gossip, jealousy, putdowns and blaming.

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Here's a great video of Rod Jefferies explaining it at a First Nations conference hosted by AMC in Winnipeg. See it here. (link corrected)

Here is another description article by Carol Warthall, which you can see on this interesting blog from New Zealand.

The term "lateral violence" describes what happens when, out of anger and frustration, an oppressed group turns on itself and members begin to violate one other. It takes shape in many forms in our communities and workplaces. This workshop was excellent and discussed the origins of lateral violence including the relationships between historic trauma, trauma, grief, oppression, colonisation and shame. We discussed the impact lateral violence has on workplace morale, teamwork, goal progression and we looked at ways to prevent the harm it creates in our communities and workplaces.