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

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by Ellen Hoffenberg-Serfaty https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/WhiteBodyElderMeets.mp3 Menakem: Because when you say “diversity,” that means you start someplace first, and then you diversify from it. entirely intellect-oriented exercises with "and how does your body feel?" added on at the end, which isn't actual body work; Resourcing: identifying and utilizing the resources you have (e.g. supportive relationships, comforting memories, or calming breathing etc.) to help manage stress and trauma.

Most of the book covers the history and reality of issues relating to white supremacy, trauma -and how it has affected our society, mostly relating to American culture. In most chapters, there is a section of Body-Centered Practices, easily adaptable as guided meditations.

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Caution : The author warns us about the reactions we might have as we begin to work, the result of energy releases. We need to be aware of defensive thoughts and to just experience the practices. Journaling is often recommended as a way to process some of our contemplations, reactions and after-affects. Parts of the Body: Similar to body sweeps or scans, some of these exercises encourage attention to different parts of the body. Menakem: That’s the piece that I think gets missed — and I’m so glad you read that — that gets missed in that book is that when it comes to race, specifically white people not understanding and not getting in and doing the cultural work that needs to be done, actually makes you more immature. So that’s a lot of times why, when a white person comes to a person of color and tries to whitesplain about race and what should be happening, that’s why people of color go … Like, “Are you out of your mind?” People of culture like, “How do you even get the temerity to try and explain that to me?” And so that’s the piece that there’s a level of immaturity. It’s like having my 14-year-old son try and tell me something about life. I’m like … [ laughs]

Tippett: Well, I was kind of aware that I was half-thinking about what was gonna come next. But I don’t know, I felt more settled. And there was also a feeling of — there was kind of a feeling of comfort. I've spent my entire life trying to feel comfortable in my body, and I'm still getting there. Fiction books about trauma often get under my skin (in the best possible way)and can be like a balm when couched with depictions of love and healthy relationships. What Menakem offers here that works so well in conjunction with that literature is a reminder that we are bodies as well as minds, *even when we read.* And in most situations, we are bodies first. This adds such an important somatic lens for anti-racist conversations and work. I highly recommend this book for white people, as the exercises and suggestions helped me feel out the white supremacy my body holds and figure out regular practices that can help weaken or release it. Now, if you get reps in with that — not just do it one time or just when I tell you to — what you may notice is that you have a little bit more room for other — literally, for other things to happen that can’t happen when the constriction is like that. 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 …

Cultural and Intergenerational Trauma

That’s why I put the practices in there. And so that is a very important place that I think white bodies get to, sometimes, and they either genuflect to process or strategy, and then they never —

Menakem: So one of the things about the animal part of the body is that even though me and you are in this room, this nice place, there’s a part of the body that’s saying, “Yeah, but what else is gonna happen?” Even though you know nothing’s behind you, letting the body know it actually helps some pieces.Menakem: Well, I don’t say “bodies of color” anymore, because what I’m trying to do is, I’m trying to reclaim the idea that I’m actually a human. 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.