I originally wrote this blog as a post on Facebook hours after I found out how our nation was up in arms and on fire due to the cruel killing of George Floyd. Many had and still are reaching their limit. Here is my heartfelt response. I pray that it serves as a beaconing call, a call to rise, a call to healing, and a deep dive into the steadying love that never dies. ❤️
I am in tears…
Our nation is enraged, on fire, and on its knees!
This is a moment that has been long-simmering.
As one protestor’s sign said, “Justice Long Delayed Is Justice Denied”.
Raised in the South
I was raised in the south and I have been wracked with grief around everything that has been happening and my own past.
Racism was and is steeped deep in the collective unconsciousness in the south.
So many around me took on racism as if it was a mantle given to them from their forefathers. Never questioning the validity of it.
My (now deceased) father was racist…as was so many in my family.
He told me that he would disown me if I ever went out with a black man.
Then I did. I was so afraid my father would find out. My mother asked me if this man was worth being disowned…
I wasn’t in love, so I broke up with him. Disgusted at the society I lived in and my father’s racism…so entrenched that he threatened to disown me.
My heart aches at how many in my family, in southern communities, and in our country refuse to see the truth that there is more that unifies us than divides us no matter the color of a person’s skin.
Walking In Their Shoes
All of us are being called now to look down this rabbit hole of racism and take personal responsibility for the healing that we need to do to free ourselves of racism once and for all! This includes standing and speaking up (loudly if need be) for our brothers and sisters of different colored skin.
Fear also runs deep in our shared collective unconscious.
Fear that’s present no matter who you are, but especially if you live in a body with dark skin.
I am not black.
I acknowledge my “privilege”
I also acknowledge that I remember lifetimes of forced servitude and slavery under fear of torture or death. With this, maybe I have an inkling of what it could be like to walk with dark skin.
And in the highest level of respect and honor for my brothers and sisters of color, if you are white, I invite you to imagine walking a mile in their shoes…and in their skin.
A child, mother, father, brother, son raised with the ancestral pain and trauma of slavery. A wound so deep it can prevent you from seeing who you really are and from achieving your highest dreams. Instead, until healed it hangs a heavy cloak over you pushes you down, and whispers lies about who you are not and how you have to small to stay safe.
The everyday fear of those who are racist who subtly or not so subtly shuns, ridicules, or hurts you or those that you love.
Fear of what could happen if the men in white hoods or with swastika tattoos got a hold of you or a loved one.
Even more confusing and hurtful is the fear of those who have sworn to protect “us” the police. Perpetrators, racist and victimizers are on the loose in the “force.” People who have no right to be in league with those who are sworn to protect us…but they are. So who do you trust?
When you imagine walking in these shoes, your eyes open.
And, you notice perhaps that what arises is a deeper understanding of the pain, the unjustness, and the inherited fear those with dark skin have walked with for centuries.
The Victim-Victimizer Program is Exploding
There is so much underlying energy of pain and victimization in racism.
Our society is hearing A RALLYING CALL to take the next step to end racism and, more specifically, what holds and contains it..the victim-victimizer program.
This program exploits those of color, women, and children as property, as victims, as less than human.
THIS PROGRAM IS EXPLODING, especially in relation to racism.
And explode, it should!
It is a painful program whose time has come to end.
Restorative Justice with Love at the Center
Let’s pray that we find a way to embody the truth of change, as Gandhi and Martin Luther King showed us how to do!
As MLK said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.
I DO believe, with all my heart, that the powerful, real, and raw *Ahimsa Love that MLK and Gandhi embodied can and will eventually shift the tide and bring healing.
So I pray for THE PEOPLE…I pray for Humanity. I pray that we find a way to open to this powerful *Ahimsa Love and let it lead us to justice, peace, as well as, healing of the victim and yes even healing of the victimizer.
There’s much pain to heal!
Let us call upon the balm of restorative justice and this great power of love that underlies and heals all!
We call upon that which restores justice which includes an alignment to right and wrong. But more significantly the love and understanding that restores the balance and healing of us all, especially our brothers and sisters of color.
Then we will bring this healing all the way into the Heart of Humanity and step into the oneness that we truly are.
WE ARE ALL ONE…but right now it’s hard to see this truth.
Yet I know it is true and hold this truth in the deepest levels of my being.
So, I hold a candle of Unity and Healing.
Of Love.
And Of Peace.
THERE IS MORE THAT UNIFIES US THAN SEPARATES US!!
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
And So It Is!
If you are white and want to be part of the solution check out this post:
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice:
https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
Ahimsa: respect for all living things and avoidance of violence toward others. It is the fundamental principle that non-violence is based upon which both Gandhi and MLK led their social movements by.
