"Somatic Abolitionism": Healing Structural Racism Through Embodied Practice

I was harassed over a minor auto incident, and the chief of police threatened me, a middle-age white woman, with untruths. I realize recently, that he probably would not have did this to a white man AND I never worried about my safety. Didn’t even think about it until recently What a white entitlement. Listening and learning.

Resmaa,
After getting my 2nd Pfizer vaccine, I said that I would hope there would be a “Racism” vaccine that folks would take to save their lives.

Sir, I wish I could have introduced you to my parents and both sets of grandparents, may their souls be peaceful. Two generations of people who grew up with ideas and beliefs that today we are still suffering with and from, and yet . . . And yet, they didn’t like it and when my brother and I were learning from them, many things stand out. One of which is my parents making us watch the murder of Dr. King and my Dad specifically saying, “Don’t you look away from the TV young lady! You need to feel that pain, too! You watch. You learn. If I ever hear of you treating someone as less than human because of the color of their skin or any other stupid damn reason, you will find out just how angry I really can be. No child of mine is going to grow up treating others as less than themselves. Do not repeat the mistakes of my generation and the generations before me, you hear me?” My grandparents pointing out the beauty of people no matter how they look whether they are filthy and homeless or ridiculously rich and live in a mansion – that the one thing that ties them all together is us, as simple living beings with our own thoughts, emotions, dreams and aspirations. To see their inner light and respect it, never ever put a basket over someone’s light. They referenced that Bible lesson often but it doesn’t matter it came from the Bible, what matters is that they helped me, my brother, and even their kids -our parents- become people who loved, regardless.

A Link to each speech should be attached so we in the public arena can share on our social media pages to get the information out to the masses of people who truly needs to hear this. If we keep this insulated among ourselves then it only gives us a field of conversation to discuss within our own circles which is good, but not effective in meeting the mass population that needs to incorporate the info into their daily lives.

Love the idea of the word toys over tools! Hope i can nurture this in place of tools or skills. Great wisdom in this, attention to connotations…!
As a white woman from an abusive, authoritarian upbringing that traumatized me, i always have skepticism when hearing from someone like Mr. Menakem, who represent such a firm perspective of one color/race. First of all, his facts about the vaccine were wrong. Other vaccines do use live or dead forms of a virus, but at least most of these in the US do not and are using an all new technique involving RNA.
As for the onesided approach, i get it. There is a lot of trauma, inter generational trauma, in American blacks due to racist whites and violent cops, from the slave trading days to, alas, today. But there are many blacks who are racist against whites, and not just blacks. Ive been harassed by a variety of Asians , from a korean in Koreatown Los Angelse purposefully denting my car out of spite & a lack of any ampathic ability (at least toward me, white girl at the time), to being followed by a group of young ment throwing pennies at me, in Chinatown, Boston, and the general assumption that i being white must be racist, and that i must change for them. But people all over the world are racist—Chinese, Russians, Belgian, French, Korean, India, & among the Africa countries, etc, against different kinds of people from themselves. Thr Black V White American construct ignores this diversity, is innately divisive, and denies black prejudice/racism. Yes in thr US, whites invaded & took over this country, and others especially natives and blacks brought here as slaves, and their descendants, and immigrants of color, all have to deal with the institutional and cultural racism of a once predominantly white anglosaxon culture. But in other countries, it is reversed. Japan for instance—all non japanese are gaijin, foreigners, and innately inferior. And these racist attitudes perpetuate when they immigrate here.
I feel it far better for those who can teach and be heard within or without their unique cultures should help and embrace whom they can, without alienating groups and creating divisiveness and inevitable pushback, which can only stretch racist roots deeper. Think of the story of the sun vs the north wind, trying to get the man to remove his coat. Feeling attacked, the man clutches his comforting, warming coat closer. Feeling safe and warm, by the sun, the man relaxes and removes his coat.
Wouldnt it be more effective to help all people, from where they are at, to understand their own tendencies toward cognitive distortions (racism among them), assumptions, etc, and their innate power to master the selves, and most of all, the innate respectworthiness of ALL human beings, all life even, and the need, desire, to behave accordingly? Forgive me for voicing such a controversial view in this forum, in a time in which all sympathies if any are with nonwhites, and justifiably, perception is negative against white supremacist views. Mine is not that. It is humanist and focused on respect both ways, empathy both ways. Self-reflection & work on individual growth of all parties being needed. Compassion, So many assumptions of black activists are just bias, stereotypes, and as a woman in the group being stereotyped it is uncomfortable and brings out the negative reaction of feeling it is unfair. Im misunderstood, as i always have been, due to my own private history. We all have those! See B Fredrickson’s amazing work that shows when positive emotions are introduced to an experiment, brains shifts from seeing racially different people with the object recognition of the brain to the part that recognizes faces as human, ie, as One of Us. Positive emotion can push us out of fear & into a sense of oneness, not Other.
Educate without pointing fingers. All need to understand others & black history has been largely concealed. Dont make the white victims of this the responsible parties. Be one with us.
Eager to hear comments.