The Call to End White Supremacy
The desire to uphold white supremacy is an issue of empathy, awareness, consciousness, love, and respect. When it all boils down, it’s an issue of how we as a people, as human beings, can meet each other in the middle; how we can empathize with each other; how we can see, listen to and recognize each other, even though our paths and our life experiences may differ. The continued modern-day lynchings of black folks has inspired me to do more for my own community, to help in the best way I know how: through fair and honest resource sharing.
In honor of everything going on, I want to use today’s entry to acknowledge and share my thoughts on the observations I have concerning the racial injustices and unrest that affect those in our world. I see people all of a sudden “waking up” to the systemic racism that plagues America… *cough cough* as well as the self-proclaimed “post-racial” nations around the globe. At the most basic point, it’s becoming clear to me that this isn’t a race issue per se; although it physically manifests as the manmade social construct.
It’s a fear issue. It’s an ego issue. It’s an issue of empathy, awareness, consciousness, love, and respect. When it all boils down, it’s an issue of how we as a people, as human beings, can meet each other in the middle; how we can empathize with each other; how we can see, listen to and recognize each other, even though our paths and our life experiences may differ.
As a being that has been exposed to, related with, and connected with various people, communities, cultures, and walks of life, both personally and professionally, I’ve witnessed firsthand the implicit bias that threatens people and communities of color. I’ve seen their voices be stifled, their chances and opportunities be dwindled. I’ve also seen the trauma, the backlash, and the punishment for them:
Speaking their minds
Asking to be considered
Begging to matter
Demanding fair and equal access to resources
Demanding fair and equal justice
And sadly — when confronting racial injustice, racist systems, racist social norms, and racist acts — they are met with the conditioning of white supremacy, the attempt to defend white supremacy, as well as continued beliefs and acts based on white supremacy. From the outside looking in: the message of racial justice, of the BLM Movement, and other social issues stem from a lack of empathy, acceptance, tolerance, individual wholeness, and compassion.
I think most of the time, the conversations or perceptions of non-white communities are based on the idea that people and communities of color want to: take, steal, control, outshine, or dominate white spaces. That these communities want to ''aggressively'' assert their will and presence, which is funny because they’re only asking to be considered; yet, their culture and sense of being have been aggressively asserted on. They’re only to be allowed in white spaces, to have and receive the chance to shine [in white spaces] at all. They’re asking to have an equal opportunity to advance, exist, thrive, to be, to be considered as equals, to be seen as matter that matters… *cough cough* as does the rest of the world.
After all, this is a free world.. right? Free Earth, right? It’s in times like that that I ask: who and when was it decided that certain people had to pay? We’re all paying in some way, of course, but does it have to be that way? Can the middle exist? Can balance exist? Can harmony exist? How do we get there, i.e. to these elevated planes? How do we get to the actualization of higher love and consciousness? And there again, I say: with empathy, acceptance, tolerance, individual wholeness, and compassion.
For example, why is it okay for someone to tell a black person they have to earn their right to be seen, considered, mattered, or supported? That they have to earn the right to basic needs and access? Then when they do that, they are told to: shrink, be quiet, take the bare minimum, go somewhere else? Not even considering that they have to rediscover and reclaim their own worthiness (thanks to the downtrodden beliefs of society), establish and uplift their own communities? And not considering that they are trying to heal generations of trauma? But, with what help? With what resources? With what grace?! How is THAT fair? And from what I mentioned before, I ask again: how? How do we as a people, as a human race, expect that to happen? How do allies expect that to happen?
I’ll give you another example of white supremacy. At the most surface level, black women can’t even find shades that represent them when shopping for makeup (cue in the endless list of makeup brands that see medium-to-dark complexions as an afterthought). Why is that? Do they not matter? Why are they not considered or allowed in the beauty space? In the beauty standard?
Secondly, black men are gunned down for walking, running, driving, and sometimes for just existing with their presence alone, in addition to black women. And why is that? Do they not have the right to live? Why are they not considered or allowed to practice self-care, leisure, routine, or life?! Why aren’t they protected when engaging in these activities or while just existing?
Socially, any outsider can see that it’s a lack of empathy and awareness. Morally, it’s a matter of corruption, privilege, and entitlement. Spiritually, it’s a matter of warfare, alignment, practice, attachment, and judgment. Physically, it’s a matter of color, space, and access. Emotionally, it’s a matter of fear, avoidance, and trauma. Universally, it’s a matter of lack, imbalance, and abuse of power on all sides (speaking to leadership, politics, and systems/structural bodies here).
So what do we do? Where do we go? How do we progress? What now? After the summer the black community has had, we: listen, we observe, we accept, we are patient, we have faith and we continue to practice. The biggest thing is practicing *ding ding* empathy and radical acceptance. Acceptance that experiences, opinions, perspectives, and intentions differ. Empathy for that experience, the tolerance, and for that difference. That’s all.
No one is saying that everyone must conform to the same idea, path, beliefs, or practices even! We need to reach the middle ground by practicing MORE compassion, MORE acceptance, MORE empathy (have I said this enough yet?), MORE unconditional love for ourselves and each other. That’s easy to say, I know. We’re getting there. I’m getting there, too.
Honestly, I think the overall lesson is all about humility as well as empathy. And that’s to be applied on a global, universal scale. “That” being the energy of love by way of empathy, humility, and compassion, I mean. That’s my perspective, and others are allowed to exist in the same space with me, with a completely different truth, with a completely different experience. That’s the point—my point exactly! We need to be able to meet in the middle if we truly want to end white supremacy and invest in our greater, collective, generational healing.
Are you threatened by that? If so, why?
Recently, as tensions calm here in the U.S., this weekend is allowing me to see how I can take better care of myself as a black person; and therefore, have enough in the tank to nurture the collective. Sure, I’ve been through this lesson before, but that doesn’t mean I can't relearn it or learn something new this time around. Now, I’m recalibrating. Today I’ll be retreating, deviating into my spiritual healing and practice. For me and my well-being? Detoxing, releasing, shifting, taking it easy and slowly.
This time? With the present moment and year being 2020, it has been a huge trial period it seems. With the North Node in Gemini, it makes sense. It all feels like one big social experiment not only for myself but also the collective. With it, I ask myself and the collective:
What can be changed?
What can be reformed?
What can be added for perspective and context?
What’s the bigger picture?
What’s the exchange?
What can be sustained or removed?
What can be trusted?
What is allowed to flourish and grow, and who is making that decision?
What is allowed in new spaces of said growth, and who is making that decision?
How do we trust and become more open to that growth?
These are questions I would’ve only asked in meditation a year ago, but it’s more than that this time around. We can’t just observe these collective energies right now, or at least I can’t. We actually have to feel them and work our way through them, and as a black person, the same goes for me too. I’m trusting and believing in the outcome, in a better day, in a better tomorrow; but, we’ll see how it goes because this is just another awakening in itself.
The continued modern-day lynchings of black folks has inspired me to do more for my own community, to help in the best way I know how: through fair and honest resource sharing. Please find resources to heal racial trauma and injustice here if you, too, identify as being part of the black community. If you aspire to be or consider yourself to be a BLM ally, I have compiled resources for you as well. Check them out here to discover how you can be part of the solution — i.e. how you can help us all dismantle the dangerous stronghold of white supremacy.
Do you prefer podcasts? Get the audio version of this journal entry here on the Seeds of Alchimie Podcast. Join the Alchimie Ascension tribe, if you want to continue this conversation or share in these aspects of ego death. If you want to connect with me more or follow my journey, find me here.