I think I’ve been avoiding writing because I don’t know what words to use. Then I remind myself that my intent in starting this blog is just to practice. I’m not intending to teach or to be an expert or to have my thoughts so clear that they speak unassailable truths. I’m just wanting to further the conversation in my own brain.
Things I feel bad about:
- I haven’t gone to any protests this month. There’s so much action going on, and I’ve been starting apart.
- I sent emails to a couple people I know who are Black and who I imagine must really be hurting. These aren’t folks I’m close to. I don’t know their birthdays, but I do care about them and have known them for many years. However now it’s seeming like maybe doing that was a classic dumb move. They responded with love, but I am feeling like maybe I caused a little harm there.
- I’m worried that I’ll write something here that I will later regret. Or that could be pulled out of context and could hurt me or others. But I also know that I often process by writing, and there is so much processing to do about race right now.
Here are some of the things I am doing or want to do to help educate myself:
- I am working to learn more about racialized trauma and cultural somatics. I’m interested in learning about how trauma lives in the body, and how somatic work like breathing and yoga can be integrated into healing both people who have been harmed because of their race as well as how white people, who are often disconnected from their bodies, can work with their whiteness to connect with themselves and combat white supremacy.
- I’ve been listening to this ecourse: https://culturalsomaticsuniversity.thinkific.com/courses/cultural-somatics-free-5-session-ecourse
- I signed up for a training to help develop more tools to help in talking about race. I like that it employs yoga and meditation to help would-be allies. https://otmtraining.offthematintotheworld.org/p/practical-tools
- I’m interested in going deeper into yoga to see how it can connect with racial justice.
- I signed up for a 5-day Yoga, Purpose, and Action class that’s happening in late July. It’s all virtual due to COVID (it was originally supposed to be in Milwaukee), and I’m hoping to get some good ideas about how I might use future work in yoga to help with healing and justice.
- I’m thinking of signing up for a yoga teacher training in the future, and I hope that if I do, I can find ways to apply my learning.
- I want to continue to engage in conversation with other white people as we work to better understand and get our head around our whiteness. Looking toward the next six months, it seems like movie-watching and book club groups will need to be virtual. I have people waiting to hear back on a plan for upcoming book clubs and movie-watching. Must make some plans! I think we are going to be reading White Fragility and watching 13th.
- I want to show up. I will keep my eyes open for protests and marches in which I can participate. Or other ways to physically demonstrate my support and to help.
- I’m going to listen to the book How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
- I’m going to keep attending to Nicole Kardoza’s daily anti-racism emails. She’s a yogi and activist, and I have been really appreciating the action-focused daily essays. https://www.antiracismdaily.com/
I hope that in future posts, I can focus a little more on my own thoughts and struggles rather than just having a laundry list of activities. I’m keeping notes to make that a little easier. I’d also like to include photos. What’s an article without some imagery?
Stay tuned.