Prompts for Reflection

1) According to Resmaa Menakem, white people have a history and habit of “blowing their unresolved intergenerational trauma through Black bodies.” Think of a time you were in a racially charged situation (or witness to one). What happened in your body? What do you recognize for yourself as the signs of:

• Fight

• Flight

• Freeze

• Have you noticed any habituated bodily responses when you are around unfamiliar people of color? How does this intersect with awareness of (perceived) gender? 

3) How does resistance show up for you? How can you turn lovingly towards it?

4) What came up for you reflecting on the history of violence in European cultures? How might your family/ancestors have been impacted? How did this (imaginative) re-membering feel in the body? What effect did this have on you?

5) Have you ever sought to be comforted or reassured by a person of color that you are a good white person? How can we help each other or ourselves as white people to soothe our activated states or racial anxieties?

Practices

Practice 1 : Lowering the Center of Gravity

Set an intention to move through your day (or just an hour of your day) maintaining whole body awareness, keeping a lower center of gravity in the body. (Ref. the hara in Tada Hozumi’s presentation). What do you notice? What is the impact?

You can also explore this in formal meditation.

Notice how often or how easily you get "up in your head." When does that happen?

Practice 2 : Resmaa Menakem's recommended “small courageous actions”

These are excepted from Chapter 16 of his book:

“Confronting white-skin privilege—and sharing that privilege—often involves small, everyday courageous actions. As you’ll discover, these courageous actions will also benefit you. As you practice them, over and over, they will help your body experience more settledness in the presence of Black (and other non-white) bodies.”

• When there’s no line in a store and a Black and a white salesperson are both equally available, choose the Black salesperson.

• If you have a retail or service job, and a Black customer and a white customer walk in at the same time, assist the Black customer first.

• When you’re waiting to be served (for example, at a bakery or butcher shop), and a Black person arrived at the same time as you, let them be served first. If the person behind the counter offers to help you first, shake your head and say, “I believe it’s her (or his) turn.”

• When deciding how much of a tip to leave for a Black server in a restaurant, imagine they are white. If this inclines you to leave a bigger tip, do so. Also take note of that inclination.

• When you see a Black person in distress or in need of assistance, don’t assume it’s not your problem. Offer your help if you can. (Ask yourself, “What would I do if this person were white?”)

• If you can choose between two equally good dentists (or gardeners, guitar teachers, math tutors, personal trainers, and so on), one white and the other Black, select the Black one.

Practice 3 : Resmaa Menakem's recommended practices to help your body settle in the presence of unfamiliar Black bodies:

• When you get on a bus or train—or enter the waiting area of a train station or airport or doctor’s office—and you can choose between sitting next to a Black body or a white one (or between sitting next to a Black body and standing), sit next to the Black body.

• Join a gym (or church, running club, weight-loss group, etc.) with a clientele of mixed ethnicities.

• If you live in a place where you rarely encounter many Black bodies—for example, in many suburbs, Wyoming, Vermont, and so on—visit safe places where Black bodies congregate, such as African and Caribbean restaurants and boutiques, African American churches, concerts by Black musicians, and book readings by Black writers.