In this groundbreaking book,
therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from
the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our
instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma
inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will
continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white
supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony
doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own
secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.
We started by humming together – take a deep breath, hold for 2 minutes, and then do a really long exhale on a note (oxygenate the brain and then activates the parasympathetic which tells your body to slow down)
Things we liked:
- Valuable for the physiological response
- Have to work through the trauma
- He’s a therapist and has great strategies and body practices (mindfulness, meditation, yoga, singing, dancing)
- 2017, before Floyd, from Minneapolis
- How trauma of racism lives in white bodies/ ie: violence of white people (burning witches, drawing and quartering, tar and feather) has affected them, too, in how they now react to racial violence
- Didn’t address issues of gender, men, and women
- the question of, “Have you ever been harassed by the police?” or “Have you ever witnessed someone harassed by police?”
- A very different kind of book about the experience of racism.
- He has an entire chapter about policing and how to change/ intervene into bias
Things that were “out there” and we’re not sure we would do:
- Washing feet
- Inviting ancestor
- Puppy story
