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The Myth of Neutrality

You are not meant to be neutral. You are meant to be free.

We like to imagine that neutrality is a safe place to stand. Somewhere above the fray. A high, quiet ridge where we can see “all sides” clearly without being swept into the conflict below.



Photo of Paulo Freire
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Choosing not to choose is itself a choice—a choice that tilts the scales toward whoever already holds the weight of power. We call it “balance.” “Objectivity.” “Staying out of politics.” But all it really means is staying inside the boundaries that oppression draws for us.


The Chain of Neutrality

Neutrality feels safe because it shields us from confrontation. But that safety is an illusion—it is the comfort of the chain. The chain says: Don’t speak too loudly. Don’t name what you see. Don’t disturb the order that keeps others in their place.


Paulo Freire warned that this passivity is not harmless—it is a mechanism of control. It keeps the oppressed in their station and the privileged unexamined. It teaches us to mistrust our anger, to bury our questions, to prize “civility” over truth.


Anna Baltzer once lived inside this illusion. She believed she was a peacekeeper, someone who could help both sides come together—until she went to Palestine. There, she stood at checkpoints where mothers held dying babies, watched walls carve families from each other, and saw resistance crushed under military power. She began to understand what Freire meant: that “neutrality” wasn’t holding her above the injustice. It was planting her firmly on the side of those enforcing it.



Rage is a Compass

If neutrality chains us, rage rattles the links. Your rage is not a defect—it is a signal. It points to what has been stolen, broken, caged. When the streets of Ferguson rose up after the killing of Michael Brown, Baltzer recognized the same pulse she had felt in Palestine: grief transmuting into collective action. Rage, when held with clarity, is not just fire—it is a forge. It shapes movements, sharpens vision, and burns away the fog of false balance.


Contradictions are Sacred

We are not pure. We are not perfect. We are human—tangled in contradictions. Baltzer grew up a Zionist, carrying her grandmother’s stories of survival under Nazi terror as a guiding light. Yet in Palestine, she saw those same narratives weaponized to justify another people’s displacement. Facing this contradiction was not betrayal—it was liberation. Baltzer learned something new; she became more informed about the truth of the situation and made the conscious choice to change. Freire calls this the practice of becoming. One of the key pieces to remember in this practice is that liberation is never static; it is collective, iterative, and always uncomfortable.


Choosing Freedom Over Neutrality

To break the chain of neutrality is to take a side—not against a people, but against injustice itself. Baltzer offers a simple key: look at who has power, and who doesn’t. Stand with those denied the rights others take for granted.


Neutrality may feel like standing still, but it’s not—it’s drifting with the current of the status quo. Choosing a side is the only way to swim against it. You are not meant to be neutral. You are meant to be free. And freedom demands that we speak, act, and risk in the name of justice.


Citations



Learn more about Paulo Freire's ideas:


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