Hey, it’s Pam 🦋
I don’t know how this happened (or maybe I know exactly how it happened), but we’re having three paperwork parties in March, two of which are free and open to the public with Artist Resource Collective and one of which is IN PERSON in NYC! 🎉
RSVP to the in person Paperwork Party on March 21
RSVP to the virtual Paperwork Party on March 25
See all our upcoming workshops at getshameless.com/workshops
So, why a Paperwork Party you might ask? Paperwork is just paperwork, right? Actually, it’s not.
If you get anxiety from filling out paperwork, you are not alone. Just googling paperwork anxiety can make you feel a little less alone:
The (racist, classist) History of Paperwork
So many of my clients felt anxious about filling out forms and calling or interacting with financial institutions that I had to figure out why. So I did some research on the history of paperwork.
Phase 1:
Paperwork used to be internal documents businesses filled out for you 🤯 They’d use it to build a relationship with a client (can you imagine??) while streamlining internal processes:
“Earlier public administrations also used forms and questionnaires, but these were filled by officers instead of by citizens, and thus by members of the same organization.” - [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms
Phase 2:
*Somewhere* along the way, it became the customer’s responsibility to fill out these forms, but they stayed just as complicated and confusing:
“20th century governments delegated the increasing administrative workload that resulted from large social welfare programs to citizens – who then had to fill out forms on their own.” - [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms
People of color are the majority of welfare recipients (23% Black, 26% Hispanic, 8% Asian/Pacific Islander) and there is more likely to be a language barrier so completing paperwork to get these benefits is a larger obstacle.
Phase 3:
Then somewhere *further* along the way, paperwork became a barrier to access:
“Forms took over the role of officers as mediating interfaces between citizens and public administration.” - [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms
In the summer of 1947, three thousand VA home loans were issued in Mississippi, with only two of those loans being granted to black veterans.
In 2023, Black homebuyers were more likely to get denied for a mortgage than white homebuyers (1 in 4 Black borrowers vs. 1 in 10 white borrowers).
Paperwork has become a way to keep people out instead of letting people in:
“Contracts have gotten exponentially longer than they were a generation or so ago. So here we are with more complicated contracts, more complicated legalese, while the American consumer has less and less time to deal with and read these materials.” - Devin Fergus, Land of the Fee
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacres were called a “riot” by local newspapers. Buried in the fine print of the business owners’ insurance policies, it stated that claims could be denied in the event of a riot. Black Wall Street could not rebuild.
The interpersonal neurobiology part:
Paperwork as a tool for oppression has been happening for generations. Genetic memory has taught many of us to not trust paperwork, and for good reason. The anxiety you feel when you are required to fill out a form is most likely a protective adaptation you inherited and your mistrust of paperwork has continued to be proven right.
Completing paperwork shrinks your window of tolerance. It feels inherently transactional, dehumanizing, and designed for you to fail. It is presented as a seemingly mundane and “easy” task, which makes you feel lazy or inadequate if you can’t get it done.
Paperwork Party is designed to help you unlearn all these harmful, false beliefs about your abilities and self worth:
You are human. You are not less of a person because you can’t fill out a random form someone designed in a silo. Your ability to move in this world should not be determined by forms and boxes.
You are not alone. You are not the only one who has trouble filling out paperwork, who may have missed out on something because you couldn’t submit it by the deadline, who struggles with life admin.
You don’t have to do this alone. Let us be your paperwork money buddies for a day! Even if you can’t make it to one of our upcoming paperwork parties, find a money buddy or two who also has some forms to fill out that have been following them like a shadow and get them done together. Make it a date, put out some food, good music, and set up planned breaks.
If you want to learn more about my utter loathing of paperwork, check out my response to the first question on the Culture Study piece I wrote in 2021 (still can’t believe I got to write for Anne Helen Petersen!).
Community beats capitalism. Every. Time.
RSVP to the in person Paperwork Party on March 21
RSVP to the virtual Paperwork Party on March 25
See all our upcoming workshops at getshameless.com/workshops
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