Recover Your Humanity
tend the compost ∞ Transform Yourself
Unraveling and uprooting the conditioning of white supremacy culture within us~~~ is akin to the process of tending to compost and its continuous cycles: We help cultivate the conditions for our food scraps to decompose, and in doing so we create the possibility for new food/plants/beings to grow well. Similarly, our process of shedding the layers of white supremacy—is a death process, which yields more life, if we tend it well.
In order to be good stewards of culture change, this “life-death-life” process must take place many times, as we are obliged to die over and over, so that the most nutrient dense, fertile, life-giving soil can be created within the space of our own being.
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We believe that when white people wake up to the falseness of the conditioning, the brainwashing, and the trauma of reenacting, perpetuating and being complicit in the continuation of such massive harm, that we we will begin to heal the wounds that allow white supremacy to continue to fester.
And yet, the process of doing so much shedding can be terrifying and exhausting- it can honestly feel like death. The truth is…. something in us does need to die. The pain of this process does not make it any less necessary.
As we begin to extricate ourselves from the falseness of the lies that white supremacy has taught us— we need to trust that there will be something left after all this stripping away of the old. Of course, this is a natural principle of Life: on the other side of death, is always a kind of birth.
We need to be reminded that when we shed something that is born of falseness, it does not kill the very core of us, it merely peels away a layer that has been eclipsing our true nature all along.
We also need to be reminded that there is a wider field of possibility that we ARE stepping into, simply by engaging in the process of letting go of the old. It might feel like totally losing control or like being at the edge of a black hole… and yet the reality is we are leaning into a new space, and the unknown can be exciting and mysterious.
When we are letting an old world and old way of operating die off— and we cannot yet see what will be on the other side— we might be tempted to turn back. Yet, when we have others around us, with whom we can co-regulate and make sense of things, it often feels easier to perceive the death process that we are being invited into as a doorway to the great mystery, rather than a black hole in which we will be destroyed.
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Having a place where we are held and reminded it is okay to keep walking on this journey, makes all the difference. This is why we are passionate about creating a space that allows us to collectively breathe into this wider field of possibility, and move closer towards discovering and embodying the antidotes to white supremacy culture. We hold the shadows and the light with equal importance, using both to engage deeply in our own integration and alchemy.
Understanding the way white supremacy drains our vitality, our soul’s life force, and wreaks havoc on our relationships and society at large, can help begin to point the way towards what might be more life-giving, more-life affirming, more liberatory for everyone.
As we look forward to what else is possible, we need a space to vision, we need to figure out– as white people– how to ground ourselves, how to center ourselves, how to show up in a way that is not inflated, or deflated– but “regular sized.” We need to begin to create a new culture together, a new way to be in these white bodies that calls us to deepen our humility, our self-love, our curiosity and care for others, and our fierce devotion to justice.
We want to be a part of ushering the beast of white supremacy to its death— lovingly, fiercely, and with as much humility and haste as possible.
We want to nourish the roots for a new world, water the seeds of a new embodied culture for white folx, and create the possibility for an ecology of relating that centers LOVE and JUSTICE for all people.
So. . . What does that look like?!
The following questions are examples of how we draw ourselves to vision bigger, expand the field of possibilities, and practice living into our values.
- What is my role in ushering white supremacy to its death, from the personal, to the political? What would a society no longer formed by the toxins of white supremacy look and feel like?
- How do we bring love and compassion to ourselves and others in a way that transforms the lies of white supremacy?
- How do we show up with a love so deep to the work of racial justice, that all defensiveness, attachment to being right, to getting it, to proving who we are can just drop, so that we can show up to movements for racial justice, and our relationships with people of color in a way that makes space for the full range of who we are and who they are?
- How do we show up spaciously and humbly ready to interrupt harm without centering ourselves in the process?
- How do we show up authentically and committed for the long haul to make change in the areas we have most influence?
We do not provide answers to these questions, but we do create contexts in which we (white folx) can begin to discover, practice, and step into our own healing and transformation, in community.