My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

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white-body supremacy lives in our BODIES; it's in our blood, dna, flesh, and the pre-cognitive parts of our brains (aka the lizard brain). by Ellen Hoffenberg-Serfaty https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/WhiteBodyElderMeets.mp3 And so those types of things is what started — I’ve always thought about this type of stuff. But there were pretty seminal things that happened in my life that made it so I was able to actually sit down and write it and put things in place.

Menakem shares these exercises and techniques to help people do the difficult work of healing and dismantling white body supremacy, and (most importantly) remaining alive in the presence of traumatized police.A powerful book, a call for all of us to get to work, with practical suggestions presented in historical contexts, for us to begin to heal. I can’t praise Mr. Menakem enough, or be more grateful for the gift that he has given us all. Let us use it wisely and comprehensively. Menakem, Remaa. Sounds True video interview with Tami Simon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dAAWgpokvo&feature=youtu.be

Tippett: And we know the narrative — they fled. They fled. We never think, these were traumatized people. The Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based, private family foundation dedicated to its founders’ interests in religion, community development, and education. Menakem discusses project zero. A call to reduce American death by police from the current average over 1000 (as of 2022) to zero (in the future).Menakem: So the other thing that I say is that when people talk about the 13 colonies, the 13 colonies were filled with colonized white people. So what ends up happening is that when you have that level of brutality for all that time, and then right after the Bacon Rebellion is the first time you start to see, in law, “white” persons — not landowners, not merchants, “white” persons … Resilience can also be passed intergenerationally, although resilience is a combination of what is passed down as well as what we learn. It can be manifested on an individual or communal basis. Menakem: We’re hurting each other. We’re re-wounding each other. Some of the things that we go to that are “supposed to” help and “supposed to” heal, really are re-wounding and are violent. There is a constant need to suss out whether or not I’m safe with this white woman or this white man or this structure. And so those types of things need to be handled and taken care of with the amount of legitimacy and the amount of care that they should have. And to slam people in the room, given the histories that our bodies have experienced, and just slam people in the room willy-nilly and then say, “Let’s talk about race,” means that you are not giving the respect to the issue of race that it deserves.

Menakem: Exactly. Flaying, whipping — here’s the thing. Land theft, enslavement, imperialism, colonialism, genocide — all of that.

Cultural and Intergenerational Trauma

Phrases like soul nerve, and clean pain vs dirty pain, are introduced as vital concepts but only clumsily and superficially handled. Also included is generalized diet and weight loss advice, which is inappropriate for anyone serious about bodywork. Tippett: Well, one thing that you say — that there’s a lot of problems with the way progressives approach all this, well-meaningly, and one of them is that rather than creating culture, they create strategy — which, again, is a head move; it’s a cognitive move. Menakem: That’s it. All of your intelligence, all of the smart things you’ve done — this is one of the things that happens with me when I come off the stage and I’m doing like, a book signing. One of the first things that happens is that white people will invariably come up to me and start rolling out their racial resume: “Well, you know, I marched with such-and-such. And you know, I did this, and you know, I did that.” The idea that losing weight will make one less reactive is fat phobic/harmful and does not seem to be based on any sort of truth except for the readers opinion. His few chapters that provide breathing and grounding exercises are helpful, but 1) I cannot divorce the rest of his harmful perspective from these suggestions and 2) you can find information on those breathing and grounding exercises elsewhere without subjecting yourself to pro-cop and policing rhetoric.

Menakem: Just watching you say that, this is why I talk the way that I talk. So let me start with just a definition, first. So the premise of the work is predicated on the idea that there was a certain time where the white body became the supreme standard by which all bodies’ humanity shall be measured. If you don’t understand that, everything about America will confuse you. Everything about racialization will confuse you. The healing that results on an individual and group level can be taken into the community, for each of the groups that receive focus in the book, as well applying to the greater community. a b "Resmaa Menakem on Why Healing Racism Begins With the Body". Compassion Center, University of Arizona. 2020-04-05 . Retrieved 2020-11-26. Sewell, CheyOnna. "Artist Resmaa Menakem launches new book, gallery exhibit and album to inspire action on racial justice". Twin Cities Daily Planet . Retrieved 2020-11-26. Second, I really felt like the author was very Loosey-goosey with his understanding and application of some of the science in the book such as epigenetics. He seemed to only call to it when attempting to make a point and, in my opinion, failed.Menakem: I’m operationalizing it. The white body is used to hearing things that make it comfortable. And so when you say something like “white supremacy” — especially here in Minnesota — everybody goes, “Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.” And then what happens is, it goes — just the term, “white supremacy,” is a very intellectual term. It doesn’t land in the body.