Negative Stuff

A Psychiatrist's Racist and Violent Quote

Here is an excerpt from psychiatrist's lecture that went towards a requirement. The speech was called "The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind," and it was presented to students at Yale's Medical School.

The psychiatrist, Aruna Khilanani, is a "forensic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst."
A forensic psychiatrist "assess[es] and treat[s] [...] offenders in prisons, secure hospitals[,] and the community with mental health problems. It requires a sophisticated understanding of the links between mental health and the law" (https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/doctors/roles-doctors/psychiatry/forensic-psychiatry).
Psychoanalysis, according to Google, is "a system of psychological theory and therapy which aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association."
... That doesn't make it any better. In fact, it makes it worse.

The quote: "I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step - like I did the world a f*cking favor... White people are out of their minds, and they have been for a long time."

I am sorry, but what

The

F*ck.

First of all, this woman is clearly a psychopath, describing a murder (clean-up) so casually - and even implying she'd be happy about it!

Second, this is racist. I...I just can't even fathom how someone could actually believe - never mind saying out loud - that they literally fantasize about killing a certain race.

Third, I am terrified by this. Any white person should be! I mean, "any white person that got in my way" - what exactly does that mean? Does that include people who say something without intending to "get in your way"? For example, if her goal was dividing blacks and whites, saying something like "I think all races are equal," would she kill that person? Or even worse, could it be something as small as you walking, and you're "in her way," despite that when you notice you're on a collision path, you move out of her way?

Fourth, this is a highly regard individual?!!! Yale is a super famous and intellectual school, and yet they supported this as an academic lecture?!!! They said later, after negative comments regarding this speech, that it was contradictory to their values, but if that were so, they wouldn't have accepted her to speak in the first place!

Fifth, I am so offended by this! I know I say I'm insane, but not every white person is!! And despite my issues, I'm apparently way better than this psychiatrist because I would never want to kill another human being, no matter what!! (Wanting them to die is a different case, but I would never even think of actually making any actions to hurry someone's death!)

Finally, I want to address the arguments to the speech's criticisms.

So, people are saying that it was taken out of context or whatever, but I listened to the recording, and she sounded very serious (I know I'm not the best judge of joking vs serious, but in my opinion, even if she was joking, that's terrifying, racist, etc.), and that quote is terrible, no matter how "taken out of context" it could be. The only way it could've originally been okay was if there were omits like a "no" after "had" and before "fantasies" (although I'm not sure why she'd feel the need to say that). That isn't "out of context." I would call that incorrectly quoting because you should have ellipses where stuff is omitted.

Then another argument is free speech. The Fox lady (I don't know any names, sorry) had a good point when she said that they could have a counterargument after that speech, if they didn't want to ban it. Another good point made was that we wouldn't have Nazis or white supremacists speaking. Now, I'm all for free speech, but personally, I don't think any of them should talk in an official lecture (unless they'd changed)....

I suggest you try to find the recording if you can to listen to it for yourself though. Like I said, I'm not the best judge of joking versus serious, so if you can find it, listen to it for yourself. That's why I included all that information up there at the top.