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

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All you’re doing is noticing what’s happening: noticing how much you dislike my voice; noticing how much you dislike, or you like, some of the things that Krista said.

Unlocking the Genius of your Body: Why your logic isn’t adequate when it comes to the violence of race:, Psychology Today, December 2020. Menakem uses the term Somatic Abolitionism for the groups that he currently offers, a term that for the first time incorporates the foundational principle in dealing with white supremacy, racial injustice and other forms of discrimination. Tippett: So I want to back up a little bit and talk about your particular way into this, with the focus on the trauma that is actually in all of us. In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.

I am retired, and formerly spent 45 years as a public service criminal defense lawyer, creating and leading public service organizations, mostly for children, lobbying and teaching people of all ages, including university and law school students, as well as teachers and other professionals, originally about advocating and protecting abused and neglected children, and later, here in Israel, working with students with special educational needs, including the college prep program for Blind, Visually Impaired and special needs students at Hebrew University. But you have this radical statement that “While we see anger and violence in the streets of our country, the real battlefield is inside our bodies” — in all of our — I mean, I’m saying this — all of our bodies, of every color. Current racial conflicts in America are viewed as being several centuries old, having their roots in injustices committed against white bodies in Europe, and passed onto their descendants. The reason why I’m poor is because these Black brutes that the only thing that they can do is jump and play football, or sing and dance — they’re taking my job, and I’m the rightful heir. Settling the body: Practices used for settling the body when it is experiencing stress, including resourcing, body scans, contraction and release, and other practices related to observation and soothing.

Now what I want you to do is look over your left shoulder, and use your neck and your hips — so turn, and look over your shoulder.

And so for my Black body to be born into a society by which the white body is the standard is, in and of itself, traumatizing. So I feel like those of us who lived through the ’60s — although I was a child, but still, it’s in my body, too — there was a lot of progress.

And without missing a beat — my grandmother didn’t even look at me — she goes, “Oh, boy, that’s from picking cotton. Resmaa Menakem, healer, author, master coach, and trauma specialist, is hosting a new podcast series that mixes humor with serious trending topics. Some of these things about noticing — and one of the exercises you have for white people, white bodies, is putting yourself into situations with people of color and noticing what happens in your body and how you feel. A common trauma response is ghosting , or “the body’s recurrent or pervasive sense that danger is just around the corner.

g., brutal treatment of children and criminals, torture) occurred in Europe for centuries before Europeans brought it to the "new world" and spread it during colonization.