End Rightlessness

An Emotional Intelligence Approach:
Educational Intervention to Advocate for Social Justice & DEIB. 

Ayaka Mawarida

Abstract

This ePortfolio follows the development of my research as a graduate student in the Social Justice and Human Rights Program at Arizona State University and as an experienced instructor of Emotional Intelligence (EQ). My learning focuses on how personal emotions can be affected by political and social factors, and how "feelings of suffocation" stems from society could be mitigated by EQ approach educational intervention. This ePortfolio consists of three main parts: (1) explaining the theoretical frameworks and concepts of “Intersectionality” by Crenshow, and “Rightlessness” by Hanna Arendt, (2) referring to “a Sense of Belonging” is the counterpart of rightlessness, in other words, what is social justice and DEIB for, and (3) proposing educational interventions that advocate social justice & DEIB to increase a sense of belonging through the presentation of my original research. The original research creates a sample of educational interventions to understand intersectionality, foster a sense of agency to take part in social justice movements, become an ally, or work for DEIB, and contribute to nurturing a sense of belonging through an EQ approach. The research was conducted with 17 participants inclusive of politicians, bureaucrats, and educators. EQ is essential to the driving force of activism and the society that 'Social Justice' is trying to achieve. At the same time, EQ can be greatly complicit in preserving social injustice without the concept of social justice. The overarching takeaway from my learning journey is the need to know and acknowledge that social hierarchies and structures that justify oppression and exploitation do exist under capitalism and to be critical of current laws, heroism, and even humanitarianism built upon capitalism. They are kneaded into society and meticulously embedded within social systems to a point where people unconditionally believe they are legitimate and just. People under oppression or in lower positions of hierarchy tend to blame themselves without questioning the society or the rules themselves. As long as someone is in a state of "rightlessness," social justice and DEIB must continue to be advocated. Both "rightlessness" and "belonging" are emotions that society can intentionally challenge to end or create and increase before each individual needs to struggle.

Introduction

In this intersectional society where privilege and vulnerability could coexist in any individual, yet still it is prone to multiple layers of disadvantage to some groups of people, how could we advocate social justice or DEI effectively--?


Emotions are the key—.

In 2021, I left Japan where I had lived for over 30 years, and moved to the U.S., Washington State with my two children. Now, in 2024, we are a family of five in Florida. 


While I was in Japan, working for a large Japanese corporation, marriage, childbirth, divorce, parenting, single-mother, self-employed, and children's education— after graduating from college, my life got filled with a much greater sense of suffocation. After moving to the United States, however, I felt less suffocated. The kinds of emotions that tend to occur in my heart and mind on a daily basis became markedly different. Living felt easier than when I was in Japan, and emotions, thoughts, and actions have all changed. This transformation aroused my curiosity in understanding how these changes took place.

My hypothesis was that "emotions, which are the source of behavior, are originally spontaneously generated by the individual brain, although the brain itself is already influenced by external environments including society in the first place. Society or community–where we belong–influences thoughts and controls the emotions to a certain degree that are likely to arise in the individual." This hypothesis was explained in my first semester of this MA program, when I encountered Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, and later read The Origins of Totalitarianism.


As a professional emotional intelligence (EQ) instructor, I am in charge of a global EQ program for a non-profit organization within the U.S.A. to raise awareness of children's rights, and also the founder and CEO of a non-profit in Japan as a learning platform for EQ and equity. Emotions are energy, messages to ourselves, and contagious to those around us without our intentions. I always believe in the power of each of our diverse emotions, whether anger, sadness, joy, and all forms of emotions. By treating our own emotions as one of the most important pieces of information, EQ approach education fosters the ability to utilize emotions not only in business setting such as leadership or team building, but also in parenting, relationships and in various situations, it is known as Social Emotional Learning in the educational world.

World Children's Day 2023, at UNICEF New York

It is explained that emotions occurring within oneself or others are already influenced by external environments, such as society, community, or family environments, resulting in broadening or limiting the options of thoughts, decision-making, and actions. For instance, large numbers of Jews were transported to places where brutal killings took place by Nazis, and some of people could not even notice that they were suffocating due to extreme limitation of options and oppression (Arendt, Eichmann 11). My interest in this course shifted to understanding “suffocation” through the lens of social justice and human rights and suggesting an EQ approach educational intervention as one of the solutions to mitigate these suffocations.  


Although my learning in this program had started being centered on my position as a Japanese female, during my last JHR505 class: Migration, Asylum & Refugees, caused me to reflect on my current life as an Asian immigrant in the United States in an unintentionally impactful way. It allowed me to view suffocation through a multifaceted lens, and I found a thread to connect my learning journey.


Rightlessness---.


Hannah Arendt, the most influential political thinker of the 20th century who had articulated compelling vision of the human needs for a public and political life, looked into the challenges posed by the emergence of statelessness on a massive scale since the end of World War I and wrote in The Origin of Totalitarianism after World War II:


"The calamity of the rightless is not that they are deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or of equality before the law and freedom of opinion–formulas which were designed to solve problems within given communities–but that they no longer belong to any community whatsoever" (Arendt, Totalitarianism 295).


In addition to people who had legally lost their nationality, she also used the term "stateless" to describe people who were no longer able to take advantage of their citizenship rights, including economic immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and even naturalized citizens who were in danger of having their citizenship revoked in an emergency (Gundogdu 2). She argued that exclusions from any community leave people in a condition of rightlessness (Arendt, Totalitarianism 282). Helping people in this state of rightlessness with a place to live, food to eat, and help to prolong their lives is not a matter of right, but of mercy (Arendt, Totalitarianism 296). They are only rightless.


The suffocation is connected to rightlessness. This rightlessness is not only in terms of laws and institutions but also stems from a need for a sense of belonging.


As an EQ instructor, I developed and facilitated several classes, such as leadership training, creating a curriculum, and creating a psychologically safe classroom or team, using emotions effectively. I have witnessed many times, both myself and through the participants, the moments when individuals learn the power of their emotions and can relax and live with them instead of letting tension, anxiety, and anger rule over their lives. However, no matter how much individual transformation occurs, it takes time or does not lead to transformation on the part of the society or community that has impacted the individual negatively.


EQ does much to help individuals, especially vulnerable individuals, to become smarter with their feelings. However, it does not provide any fundamental solution to the structures that have created that suffering for people. The DEIB programs would need to be cautious as well. Who exactly is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for? Who exactly believes they have what rights, and with what feelings, belong to that team? Lacking the perspectives of emotions and social justice, DEIB can easily fall to a superficial level. 


A social justice and human rights perspective is essential to EQ. We can become wiser about ourselves and build positive relationships with others while setting healthy boundaries. We can use the powerful emotions (anger, frustration, emptiness, etc.) that arise within us as resources to create a more comfortable society in which to live. When EQ is utilized to maintain harmony in dysfunctional communities without questioning the norms that govern the environments, it instead becomes complicit in maintaining structural oppression and exploitation. At the same time, the EQ perspective is essential to social justice activism. Emotions motivate activism, the driving force supporting the continuation of activities. Emotions are the contagious energy that encourages people and society, and emotions are the words to describe the future we want to create. EQ, which seeks to understand and utilize the science of emotion, will significantly contribute to accelerating social justice.

Education is a cornerstone of our collective responsibility to combat “rightlessness” due to human rights violations. A combined approach of social justice and EQ education helps global citizens learn about intersectionality, the state of “rightlessness,” and the historical, social, and political factors perpetuating it. It also encourages us to discover ourselves and others marginalized and vulnerable in diverse categories such as gender, race, nationality, and others. The EQ approach evokes emotions, stimulates imagination, connects themselves with the topics, and inspires them to take them on personally and rise against structures to solve problems.