The Dark Side of the Enlightenment: How Intellectualization Normalized Racialization

The 17th century influence on our modern reality

When, in 1951, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, introduced the concept of "the shadow"(1), he did so standing solidly in the tradition of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment - an intellectual and cultural movement that emerged in Europe during the late 17th and 18th centuries - ushered in modernity. The Enlightenment lay the foundational pillars of so much of our current [modern] reality(2), including common values and belief systems, as well as expectations and assumptions that power so much of our organizations. In other words, the Enlightenment has created many of the implicit associations and biases that reverberate in our present-day lives. So much so, that we often take them for granted, rarely stop to examine them critically, and are surprised when they are being challenged (3).

1. Reason and Rationalism: Enlightenment thinkers championed the use of reason and critical thinking as the primary means to understand the world and solve problems. This emphasis on rationalism sought to move away from superstition and dogma. 
2. Scientific Revolution: The Enlightenment was influenced by the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. The scientific method and empirical observation were seen as powerful tools for acquiring knowledge about the natural world.
3. Individualism: Enlightenment thinkers emphasized the worth and autonomy of the individual. They believed in the inherent rights and freedoms of individuals, promoting the idea that people should be free to pursue their own happiness and fulfillment.
4. Secularism: Enlightenment thought often promoted a separation of “church” and state. There was a push for a more secular society where religious authority would not dominate political and intellectual life.
5. Humanism: Human reason and the potential for human progress were central to Enlightenment thought. The movement emphasized the importance of education and believed in the capacity of individuals to improve themselves and society.
6. Critique of Authority: Enlightenment thinkers criticized traditional authorities, including absolute monarchies and religious institutions, advocating for political and social reforms based on reason and justice.
7. Tolerance and Liberalism: Enlightenment thinkers called for religious tolerance and promoted ideas of political liberalism. They argued for the protection of individual rights and freedoms, including freedom of thought, expression, and assembly.
8. Progress: Enlightenment thinkers were optimistic about the potential for human progress. They believed that through reason, education, and scientific advancement, society could improve and move towards a more enlightened state.

These can be considered to be the implicit assumptions that power the "modern" world (4). They mark significant historical, social, cultural, technological, and economic achievements that have structured important aspects of our current reality. And they also cast a "shadow" in the Jungian sense; i.e., unconscious and repressed aspects. The shadow includes hidden, less visible, or unacceptable traits, desires, and emotions that one may not readily acknowledge or express. 

Modernity's shadow is the forging, perpetuating, and expanding of brutally extractive relationship to the natural and human worlds for the benefit of those in command of the technological, social, and cultural resources to do so. This shadow transformed nature into natural resources and commodities. The human world was divided and categorized to justify the domination, exploitation, extraction, and reification of people. One particular cultural invention was critical to establishing, rationalizing, and perpetuating this pattern: the invention of "race.” 

The biological concept was used to categorize people based on physical attributes such as skin color, facial features, and hair type and ascribing cognitive and moral meaning to them. Racial classification rationalized and justified the subjugation of groups by propagating the idea of inherent superiority and inferiority as a biological fact - a mere feature of the natural world. Scientists elaborated, propagated, and most importantly legitimized enslavement through their growing influence and authority. They became the under laborers that justified debasing, subjugating, dehumanizing, and oppressing vast groups of people in service of systematic exploitation of their labor and resources. 

The idea of "race" meant that the superiority and inferiority of human groups could be considered "natural”, and so too the associated violence, discriminatory and segregationist behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and senses of self. In most European colonies, racism became a key organizing principle of society well into present day. The racialization of “black" and “white" or, as in the Nazi version "Jew” or "Aryan”, became shorthand for the division of human dignity and worth, and legitimized inhumanity, brutality, and genocide. And of course, the racisms of today do not always cling tightly to a presumed biological basis for dividing human dignity.

It's critical to emphasize that the notion of "race" lacks any basis in reality – biological or otherwise. As a social construct, however, race profoundly structures our current and lived realities and shapes societies, institutions, communities, cultures, and identities, as well as individual beliefs, attitudes, senses of self, and daily experiences. The legacies of racism and racialization stubbornly persist. They create paradoxes and painful dilemmas.

For example, although race is a social construction, every time we use it in an objectified way (as if it were real), such as in check boxes on forms (census forms, application forms, or employee surveys), we are perpetuating it, even when our intention in collecting the data is to mitigate race-related bias or inform equity oriented actions. At the same time, simply avoiding the idea because there is no objective basis for it, also denies the lived experiences and social identities associated with race.

Similarly, celebrating and commemorating Black History is an essential part of recognizing and affirming the unique experiences, traditions, identity, and dignity of people who have been marginalized or entirely omitted from the Western historical record. Originally(5) aimed at encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of Black Americans in the United States public schools, it has grown in importance, recognition(6), and observance, including in corporate settings. Yet, while celebrating Black History every February, we often forget to also develop and champion a more inclusive sense of human history. A history that includes those of marginalized, oppressed, and exploited Peoples in a more complete and equitable account. This would acknowledge a shared and often painful historical tradition that each of us as well as our institutions and organizations are embedded within - to embrace, acknowledge, grieve, and take pride in together.

And these are just two of the most obvious paradoxes that illustrate how much nuance, sensitivity, and courage is needed to face our collective shadow.

Facing our shadow together

According to Jung, growth involves confronting and integrating the shadow. Ignoring or suppressing these hidden aspects can lead to inner conflict, projection onto others, or even self-destructive behavior. Jung believed that acknowledging and embracing the shadow is essential for achieving balance and authenticity. Exploring the shadow involves bringing unconscious elements into conscious awareness. By embracing and integrating the shadow, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and foster psychological wholeness and well-being. The same also applies to groups, institutions, communities, and entire societies. 

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the #BLM movement and protests worldwide found wide resonance among leaders and organizations that made anti-racism pledges and fortified their DEI commitments externally and internally as a result. It seemed that this was a moment in history where the shadow became undeniable and we could face it together with all those whose lives have been defined by it. Sadly, 4 years later, it seems that the attention has given way to many other crises and that the shadow receded from collective attention and resolve. 

The role of inclusive leadership

If Inclusive Leadership is motivated by creating cultures that promote well-being and thriving for all, it must entail confronting and integrating the long, terrible shadow cast by the trauma of racism in all its forms that has dehumanized and disconnected everyone along the way for generations. 

The following are important ingredients:

1. Articulating a clear and compelling vision for the culture is an important anchor. Leaders need to articulate, in a way that is authentic, credible, and resonant, a detailed vision of success and set expectations for what it will take to bring it about. This includes being specific that culture is built by everyone and requires co-creation. 
   
   
2. Promoting and modeling honest and open dialogue based on compassionate curiosity. This dialogue needs to be built on an acknowledgment of how deeply our shared reality is impacted and structured by racism, and that each of us - our histories and traditions - are implicated in it. Racism is after all a shared experience. Importantly, such dialogue needs to surface the ways in which biases, stereotypes, and stigma impact everyone, but everyone differently and nestled in a multi-dimensional or intersectional experience (racialized identity in interaction with the other social constructions, such as gender, class, and sexuality). 
   
   
3. Identify and mitigate systemic biases that reproduce the historical inequities and patterns of exclusion. This needs to start with formal policies, processes, and business practices and extend to the more elusive, but most stubborn, informal managerial practices and relational norms. This requires that organizations spend time and resources to make the implicit explicit. A cultural diagnostic is a process that can surface these patterns and anchor a cultural development strategy. Such as strategy may entail policy changes, modification to recruiting or hiring practices, or instituting mentorship or sponsorship programs, for example).
   
   
4. Working at the informal, relational level requires engaging everyone in the development of new skills. Acknowledging personal biases and the dynamics of social stigma working together and supporting one another to develop more inclusive behaviors and patterns is an important aspect to make a culture of inclusive leadership real.
   
   
5. Acknowledge, honor, and celebrate differences in perspectives, experiences and traditions in a way that is nuanced, connected, and inclusive. It is important to counteract stereotyping or homogenizing (casting a different group as a monolithic other). 
   
   
6. Maintaining focus and taking pride in progress, particularly in challenging times when external attitudes and events present additional challenges, is perhaps the most important ingredient for credible success. 
   
   
7. Perhaps most important for long-term success is the cultivation of a shared leadership culture in the organization that embeds sensitivity to historical trauma and equity, and a diverse perspective on health, well-being, and thriving. This means that organizations are well advised to embrace and cultivate the ethos of Inclusive Leadership as their signature leadership paradigm. 
   
    

Footnotes

(1) Jung's ideas about the shadow were first introduced in his work, "Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self," which was published in 1951. In this text, Jung delves into the complexities of the psyche and the process of individuation, emphasizing the importance of integrating the shadow for personal growth and psychological well-being.

(2)  Also called late modernity.

(3) That much of it is being challenged in today’s social, political and cultural discourse is noteworthy and worthy of deeper reflection and conversation 

(4)  Prominent Enlightenment figures include John Locke, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and others, who contributed to the development of these ideas and ideals during this transformative period in intellectual history.

(5) A precursor movement was created in 1926 in the United States. Historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) proclaimed the second week of February to be "Negro History Week" because it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and that of Frederick Douglass (February 14). Both birthdays had been celebrated by Black communities since the late 19th century.

(6) It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently in Ireland and the U.K., where it is observed in October.