Francesca Maximé shares her thoughts about the Black Lives Matter protests and explores how American culture was founded around the concept of white body supremacy.
Resources from this episode: White Awake | Dr. Joy DeGruy | Tara Brach | Maximé Clarity
White Body Supremacy
In this special edition of ReRooted, Francesca begins by talking about her journey of awakening to the concept of white body supremacy, and how she misunderstood the Black Lives Matter movement at first. But if nirvana is seeing clearly, we all need to commit to the path of seeing racism and white body supremacy clearly.
“There’s a certain idea of disassociating, like if we don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist… But there isn’t really this coming out to say, racism is a thing, white body supremacy is a thing. It’s not just for the KKK. It’s for us to understand how, as the Buddha would teach us, ‘not clear seeing’ is the root of the problem.” – Francesca Maximé
Francesca speaks with Resmaa Menakem about white body supremacy on ReRooted Ep. 13
A History of Racism (12:40)
Francesca shares some of her personal experiences with racism, and how she was finally able to start working through the suffering and grief it has caused. She talks about learning the true history of racism in America, and offers some great online courses and resources to help people on their own learning journeys.
“What is our commitment to our path of liberation? Where does that live? Can we commit to being anti-racist? Being non-racist isn’t working.” – Francesca Maximé
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ARREAA (24:38)
Francesca reads a poem she wrote during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in New York City, and a poem shared by a listener who was wrongfully imprisoned. She talks about a new initiative she’s working on called ARREAA: Anti-Racism Response, Embodiment, Accountability, and Action.
“It’s an invitation to name whiteness as the real thing that needs to be interrogated, and to really look at white body supremacy as the elephant in the room, the carbon monoxide that’s killing us all.” – Francesca Maximé
Join Francesca for a weekly drop-in process group for white-bodied therapists, coaches, teachers, executives, mindfulness folks, professionals etc. Click below to learn more about ARREAA:
