Many people engage the idea of racism from a personal perspective, which is common. The majority of people reflect on whether they are hatefully racist, like those who would promote the lie of white supremacy in their varied organizations and militia. There are those who are beneficiaries who have no idea about any of it. One of the characteristics of systemic racism is that it is hidden, especially from the beneficiaries. Then there are those who are focused on the systemic areas of racist oppression, which exists in all areas of human activity/expression.
This is the reason no one needs to really leave their life to effect a change in the status quo. The status quo lives in and emanates from each of us. We can just look around our environment to see what changes can be made, starting with us. That is why it is important to locate ourselves in whatever ways we keep the system going instead of interrupting it; that way it is a choice and not some robotic thing one is doing out of an unexamined habit. Most people I have worked with choose another path, some don’t, mostly because ego got in the way at the time of our season together. I usually say, humans need stamina and humility to get through life. Suffering seems to be built into growing into human maturity. I think it is just part of the vulnerability of being human.
The problem has become, no one seems to be doing the personal work of identifying where they are in relationship to systemic racial oppression, not calling people out, but calling them in. I personally only refer to those who promote the lie of white supremacy “racists”. I think they would be proud of that. People who want to learn another way are those who I facilitate individually and in small groups. I facilitate conversations that empower people (any people) to:
identify where systemic racism probably is in any area of their life,
engage a question/topic they want movement in related to any -ism, but racism is the doorway,
locate themselves and hear their own heart about the matter in a way that allows a different choice to be made,
and I am available for one-on-one ongoing coaching as well.
Some people wonder why BIPoC would need this opportunity. It is because we may be targets but we have few words about our experience. Many people are doing trauma work with people just so we can have a conversations beyond our pain. Dr. Kenneth Hardy addresses the silence of the Black community in this 2-minute video.
We are all taught the same system, some of us are targets, some of us are beneficiaries. Some in each group do not embody their prescribed role in the system, whatever they experience. And in every generation of white people, there are a small percentage of those who know of their indigeneity and identify all others as connected to them. You know, like the abolitionists who implored and died for the idea that people should not own other humans?
Racism is one of the toxic affects of generations and generations of an ice existence. I am sure if I asked mental health professionals, they would tell you that some of the things we are seeing in the white community, or identified as “whiteness” can be attributed to what would happen to people who spent generations and generations in an icy existence. That is why it is not errant to make these general statements about cultures, but important acknowledge the exceptions because they have been essential to progress.
Some affects are toxic because they are often imposed on others instead of remaining internal to the group, or shared as accepted by another group. There are some positives as a balance to some aspects of sun people culture, and within that group, there are toxic supremacists as well. And there are those who are oblivious to the system although they are just feeling the pain of it, maybe like US Senator Tim Scott 🤷🏽♀️. Some positives of that thinking as a Yin to sun people's Yang is the tendency to categorize, and other stuff, but not to value these approaches more than those of other cultures. As I reflected with a friend today, he spoke about how many Asian groups had boats and whole empires but did not spread beyond a certain boundary. I reflected that they were definitely trading with Africa and other parts of the world, and probably honoring their agreements (treaties) with each others, unlike some people. 🙄 People require facilitation back to their humanity. Mental health professionals have to do a better job with BIPoC. I understand that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) wrote a letter of apology to the BIPoC community for it’s treatment of us. I am thankful. I pray that my brothers and sisters find help for their trauma. I pray that all people, especially white people find out what the system is, find where in it they are standing, and make new choices about interrupting the system. New choices need to be made. This is work that white people need to do as the meme below says, "(The lie of) white supremacy won't die until white people see it as a white issue they need to solve rather than a black issue they need to empathize with." Even my friends who are lock step in communication with me about these issues keep checking themselves, that is the humility part. The other humility part is they don't care how the correction comes, they are thankful ⚫.
*** Logynn, thanks for the first photo.
*** Thanks to Dr. Tanya Takla through Ontrack Program Resources for sharing the work of Dr. Kenneth Hardy in workshops through Soul Space.
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