When we turn against each other

I have an important question to ask you today:

How does horizontal hostility show up in your life? 

When do you disrespect or put down another marginalized group?

(The answer cannot be: “I don’t” 🙃)

Think about your company, organization, university, or maybe even family system.

It's a disowned projection towards a marginalized group (often your own or one that feels in “competition”) 

Horizontal hostility hinders societal growth and takes away opportunities.

Still unsure how it shows up in your life? I’ve got you. 

Here is a definition of horizontal hostility:

Horizontal hostility happens when we project our internalized unworthiness onto other groups that we have come to learn also as unworthy. 

Basically, we bully. We put each other down within marginalized groups.

• Maybe you shame another female colleague for her power, so you deem her as “bitchy.”

• Maybe you grew up poor, and perceive another person as “dirty.”

• Maybe you question a trans person’s “validity” as someone who had to authenticate your experience as a gay person.

• Maybe you conceal a job opening to another BIPOC person as you feel in “competition.”

In short, we basically participate in the oppression of our own marginalized groups. 

This type of bullying isn’t your fault.

You’ve been taught to put yourself down, and therefore naturally start putting down your very own people.

It’s a survival mechanism. We shift into this primal area of our brain and we attack the very people we want to be standing alongside.

We do this because we fear there is not enough space for us. That if the needs of another marginalized individual are being met, then we will be forgotten or erased. So, we get scared. 

Let’s move towards horizontal harmony and uplift each other.

👉 Click here and book a free 1-1 consultation with me to support your workplace 

In this call, we will discuss how your organization can make changes and heal horizontal hostility. 

Bringing awareness to horizontal hostility at the workplace can create more growth, empowerment and connections. We will unpack this during our call, and look at strategies to heal this.

When we uplift others, it turns scarcity into hopefulness. It turns fear into possibility.

Interested? I encourage you to book a 1:1 Consultation Session here.

Let’s shift the culture, and seek horizontal harmony.

Much care,

Nora