Me and White Supremacy

I recently took a moving program in Foundations of Somatic Abolitionism with Resmaa Menakem, therapist, healer and author of My Grandmother’s Hands.

This program has had me reflecting on my experience as a white woman and how I have both benefitted from a culture built on white supremacy and the ways in which I have been harmed by this.

Today I want to share some of my reflections on how white supremacy has harmed me, because I see it as an important piece in healing and something we don’t talk about much in the white circles I have been a part of.

White supremacy has robbed me of my ancestral roots and left me cut adrift. Because my ancestors came to the US and had the privilege to assimilate into whiteness, they shed their culture, their traditions, their foods and their stories to become Americans.

Then in my childhood, my parents relocated us from the Midwest to San Diego, leaving what extended family we had behind, further unmooring me from my roots and connection to family.

I now understand one of the reasons that feminism has called to me. It offered a sense of connection and community to others that I felt lacking in my life. I feel a kinship with other women and because of that a shared history, to some degree.