A SPECIAL NOTE ON ‘WHITENESS’: This article refers a lot to whiteness. Heck, its in the title. If I am honest with you, I have lately been developing a lot of weariness around how language such as whiteness or (toxic) masculinity can imply a person’s body is the source of violence. As a somatic therapist, I…
My ancestors came to me and told me: No is sacred. It is important for our No to be witnessed. We deserve for it to be upheld. And they also told me that some ways of saying No can end up traumatizing us in ways we don’t intend. This isn’t our fault. This is because colonialism and patriarchy…
For a long time I have asked myself: what does it mean to decolonize activism itself? The answer I have come to is: it means building my understanding of ‘social justice’ on top of practices that are ancestral to me, rather than constantly refer to dominant activist discourse, which is inevitably informed by patriarchy, capitalism…
Cultural complex trauma Resourcing the immense amount of emergent learning from members of the Authentic Allyship Coaching Group and the work of my many colleagues*, I want to conceptualize Whiteness, a set of internalized unconscious behavioral patterns that violently upholds White supremacy, as something born from what we might call cultural complex trauma, a product of painful…
I finally had the chance to see the Vice news documentary on Charlottesville, prominently featuring Christopher Cantwell. At first, it felt like the beginning of my worst nightmare. Shattering. As a POC, it is terrifying to see how real white suprematism is. Of course, I have a visceral experience of white supremacy all the time -…
I’m writing this post today as I was beginning to launch my Authentic Allyship Coaching Group, a support program for white allies who are committed to healing their personal and cultural traumas. I had just announced the end of the test phase to my pilot group when a participant commented that they were looking forward…
The problem with Heart-centredness Heart-centred has become quite a popular word, especially embraced by communities devoted to social change. No doubt, having empathy allows us to relate to people we don’t share the similar life experiences with. Its especially important to be able to relate to those who we have more privilege than. Yet, we…
NOTE: When I say ‘white’ this doesn’t equal European. I understand that there are long and unique histories of European peoples that I can’t speak to as I am not the expert. For me white begins in the ‘enlightenment’ era where reason came to the forefront of European society. From this understanding, I believe that…
