Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence

Photo by Anna Shvets

Presented by Resmaa Menakem with Krista Tippett (Source: OnBeing)

Tags: history, nervous system, race, trauma

Background

Trauma & Racialization 

  • Trauma (in childhood, adolescence, adulthood) can be:
    • Historical
    • Intergeneration
    • Institutional 
    • Personal 
  • Time decontextualizes trauma 
  • There was a time when the white body became the supreme standard by which all bodies of humanity was measured 
    • Racialization makes us walk around with a braceness from being infected with this idea that the white body is the supreme standard 
      • Is traumatizing in and of itself 
  • Trauma and resilience can cross 14 generations 
    • If my mom, as a black woman, is born into a society that predicates her body as deviant, the amount of cortisol [stress hormone] in her nervous system when I’m being born is teaching my nervous system something (passes down)
  • Trauma decontextualized in a person looks like ➡ personality
  • Trauma decontextualized in a family looks like ➡ family traits
  • Trauma in people looks like ➡ culture

“While we see anger and violence in the streets of our country, the real battlefield is inside our bodies. If we are to survive as a country, it is inside our bodies where this conflict needs to be resolved. The vital force behind white supremacy is in our nervous system.” – Resmaa Menakem 

White “Body” Supremacy

  • White supremacy: an intellectual term that doesn’t land in the body the way that “white body supremacy” does
    • The idea that, “That’s not me. You’re talking about them.”
    • White comfort trumps my liberation

The Middle and Dark Ages

“The trauma in black bodies is born not just of white bodies and white people, but with the history of trauma that white people have inflicted on themselves and each other.” – Krista Tippett

  • ~ 500 AD to 1500
  • Medieval torture chambers, land theft, enslavement, imperialism, colonialism, genocide, plagues
  • Happened over a thousand years and the bodies of that trauma came to America
    • The embodiment of race and the energy that has stored from that trauma needs to be dealt with 
  • After the Bacon Rebellion was the first time you see in-law “white” persons and is when the white body became the standard of humanity (not merchants, not landowners) 
    • The white body had dominion and everything else was a deviant from that 
    • Poor white people saw their allegiance more with white landowners than the enslaved Africans that they were rebelling with
  • What you see now is like the flower of the seed of that

The Vagus Nerve

  • The “wandering nerve”: a nerve that comes out of the brain stem, connects to the face, pharynx (throat), chest, gut
    • Can be associated with our “gut reactions” 
    • Most of that nerve ends up in the gut
      • When stressed the gut opens or constricts
    • A change in your voice can be noticed if the vagal nerve in the throat is open or constricted 
  • The voice is what carries the body 
  • We are hardwired to pick up on what’s authentic or not
    • Bodies of culture had to pick that up before even coming on this planet
    • Bodies of culture are uncomfortable every day

“I don’t say “bodies of colour” anymore, because I’m trying to reclaim the idea that I’m actually a human.” – Resmaa Menakem

  • Psoas muscle: connects the top part of the body with the bottom part of the body
    • If you’re braced, it also manages whether or not you mobilize or immobilize
    • The body needs to condition to be able to deal with the aches, doubts, difficulty
  • The vagus nerve is also about safety
    • If we haven’t dealt with that, the facts will not penetrate 

“We’re hurting each other, re-wounding each other. Some of the things that are “supposed to” help and “supposed to” heal, really are re-wounding and are violent.” – Resmaa Menakem

Race & Healing Body Practice

  • Many times bodies of culture are waiting for danger 
  • Body practices help the body physically acknowledge its surroundings  
  • Helps to feel at home in our bodies
  • Trauma is in the eternal present (it relives itself) 

“One of my ancestors, Dr. King, talked about how, when people who love peace have to organize as well as people who love war. And for me, what that means is that it’s about work. It’s about action. It’s about doing. It’s about pausing.” – Resmaa Menakem

The following are resources to deepen learning and understanding:

Visit:

Resmaa Menaken’s Racialized Trauma Course (Free)

The OnBeing’s Race & Healing Library

Yoga Flow for Black Lives Matter

Explore: Resmaa Menakem’s Resources (below)

More from Resmaa Menakem

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