From here to…

We spent time recently creating our first radio program "EmergentVoice" (a project of the EmergentSee Collective) discussing the topic of cultural appropriation. The discussion was lively and dynamic! It will air on Alverno Free Radio (we'll keep you posted on the date/time). I went to sleep with numerous ideas (the origin of 'whiteness', cultural appropriation, guilt, pain, white supremacy, healing and reparations, etc.) buzzing through my mind! When I woke-up, these thoughts had crystallized...

From here to…

Life gives us the opportunity to develop our collective humanity. We are invited to notice discomfort in its mildest form and ultimately pain. We are invited throughout our lives to tune in and first notice pain, then move through it.

White supremacy and racial oppression dulls the human capacity to notice, wonder, ask, listen, and allow. It’s very premise requires numbness to pain (comfort) and denial of collective suffering. This is its own trauma. A trauma of the human spirit to see itself, know itself, remember itself and love itself.

Moving through pain is a skill developed through life’s offering itself to us.

When waking up to racial oppression, like through cultural appropriation, we are invited to notice the pain, like guilt.

This feeling of guilt is an indicator that work/exploration need to take place. To move through the guilt, we must grieve. Grief is a process, not a destination. Getting stuck in grief ensures that others will be responsible for the healing action. Grieving can be the never-ending spiral abyss of “poor me”. It is easy to get lost in the ego feeding frenzy! It is easy to get others to buy into our smallness and victimization. This co-dependent sharing of pain will feed our ego, not our soul. It will nourish our smallness, not our humanity. It will stimulate addictions, not our humility

We must flow through guilt while expanding our awareness of our oneness. This is an essential step on the healing journey. The gift of life is the capacity to move through pain. This brings us closer to our humanity.

From Guilt ….exploration/wonder/research

Through Grief….questions/listening

To Action…allowing

Repairing Racial Harm….Letting Love Be.

Yvette Murrell

November 27, 2010