Black history cannot be contained in a mere month because it never ended. There is no separating Black history from American history. Black history is American history. It is world history. It is human history.
– D’Anne Witkowski for the Guerrilla Politic
Join me in honoring the contributions and experiences of our Black brothers and sisters every day and in honoring our humanity as a way of life.
My Decolonization Coach, Lettie Sullivan, is impacting my life in powerful ways.
Her unwavering commitment to stopping the injustices against Black people while upholding spiritual principals of Love and Oneness resonates deeply with me.
Lettie’s compassionate and insightful support is allowing me to release my fear, embrace my truth, and free my voice to stand for justice. She arrives to her work with white people with a clear and open heart, generously sharing experiences of systemic racism from her own life,
When Lettie was in college, she and her friends agreed it would be a good idea to build their credit. So they applied for credit cards. Lettie and the other black woman in the group were given $250 lines of credit. Their friends of other races were given $2,000 lines of credit.
They were all starting from an equal status of not having credit, so why the vast difference?
We can point to the systems that began when our country was formed and built on the backs of enslaved Black people.
These insidious systems keep Black people from gaining economic advantages that most white people take for granted.
Home buying in the neighborhoods of our choice, receiving fair pay for our work, fair loan terms, access to health care, quality end of life services…the list goes on.
We have to release our inherited trauma and metabolize change at the body level. We have to rehabilitate the infection of the soul that is racism.
How can we change the system? In Lettie’s words, “We have to release our inherited trauma and metabolize change at the body level. We have to rehabilitate the infection of the soul that is racism.”
Lettie recommends the book My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem as a starting point. Watch this powerful interview with Resmaa and Tara Brach.
When you join the waitlist for the next De-Colonization group program coming later this year, you’ll receive the free workshop: The 4 Agreements of Diverse Spaces.
Here are some additional resources to support your racial justice journey:
Support Black Authors
I am currently immersed in The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 38 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year.
Next on my list is Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (Saidiya Hartman)
Donate to causes that support systemic change toward equity and justice
ACLU
Color of Change
Movement for Black Lives
Learn from media
I just watched Judas and the Black Messiah which is a difficult and impactful movie demonstrating the systematic killing in our country of powerful black leaders. Available in theaters and online.
The you for standing with me for a better world.
