Healing Conversations from the Front Lines of Activism - Insight and inspiration at the intersection of healing, spirituality, and social transformation.
Greeting, David! I am now a 71 year elder who is of Eurasian descent. Born to a beautiful mother I did not know well and raised by my white father I was fortunately raised in Los Angels amonongst all people who were our friends and neighbors. I then had to leave my stomping grounds to all white suburba land where I was often greeted with comments “do I eat rice every night?” I then felt more and deeper I was not okay. I had no other female Asian role models. It is only now, still living in a rural uptight white community that I realize I cannot expect someone else to make it okay for my voice to be heard. I sing to my ancestors who I feel all around me and draw my strength from KwaunYin, an ancient goddess of compassion. I first love myself and radiate outwards like the sun shining slowly around. Thank you for your work with white folks for it is time to hear the collective call for deep healing on this beautiful planet Gaia. Aho. Lisa walking STAR
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Lisa. And thank you for the energy you bring to the world. So glad this article was meaningful to you.
This approach to history should really be the basis for social studies curriculum. I’d love to see some great minds get together to suggest a path of learning appropriate for 7+ years old to support this understanding deep into the developing mind
Thanks for this comment! One day (once this book gets done) I'd love to join others to do more curriculum development in K-12 settings... Feel free to let me know if concrete opportunities for that arise that you know about.
Thank you, Amy. I appreciate your vision for introducing this approach into school curricula. As I try to imagine that happening in the current sociopolitical climate, I hear Dr. King's voice calling for a revolution of values...
Absolutely. I can’t imagine it happening where I live now (in rural NE USA). The possibility would be perceived as an unwelcome challenge of values here. But places in Canada, for example, are much more open and curious. We’re moving to Vancouver Island in a few years and the local communities there currently integrate indigenous wisdom from active local communities. Regardless, it would be nice to supplement learning in the home :)
Love this conversation, thank you Liza. As someone with a white European Communist great-grandfather, who I know little about, but what little I know has been told with pride and affection, I was struck by David's sharing that some of his relatives tried to burn his great-great-uncle's books, or inform on him to the FBI. Ouch!!! Seems like David's work is (or could be) in great conversation with the recent wonderful book by Sandhya Jha: "Rebels, Despots, and Saints: The Ancestors Who Free Us and The Ancestors We Need to Free."
Katie, thank you so much for your comment! I just interviewed Sandhya to include in a post here later this fall! Great suggestion about her book. I'll make sure David is aware of it. Love back to you! <3
I hear you, Gino!... I'd like to believe that the wisdom is still there in the bones... or in the ancestral memory of white-bodied folk... but all the strategic indoctrination into the ideology of whiteness needs to be unlearned for it to surface. I'm grateful for folks like David who are committed to helping people remember! <3
Love David!!! Such a brilliant and powerful person who has brought a vital piece to the work of unlearning racism and finding wholeness and purpose in the white bodied experience.
Greeting, David! I am now a 71 year elder who is of Eurasian descent. Born to a beautiful mother I did not know well and raised by my white father I was fortunately raised in Los Angels amonongst all people who were our friends and neighbors. I then had to leave my stomping grounds to all white suburba land where I was often greeted with comments “do I eat rice every night?” I then felt more and deeper I was not okay. I had no other female Asian role models. It is only now, still living in a rural uptight white community that I realize I cannot expect someone else to make it okay for my voice to be heard. I sing to my ancestors who I feel all around me and draw my strength from KwaunYin, an ancient goddess of compassion. I first love myself and radiate outwards like the sun shining slowly around. Thank you for your work with white folks for it is time to hear the collective call for deep healing on this beautiful planet Gaia. Aho. Lisa walking STAR
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Lisa. And thank you for the energy you bring to the world. So glad this article was meaningful to you.
Very powerful article. Thank you!
This approach to history should really be the basis for social studies curriculum. I’d love to see some great minds get together to suggest a path of learning appropriate for 7+ years old to support this understanding deep into the developing mind
Thanks for this comment! One day (once this book gets done) I'd love to join others to do more curriculum development in K-12 settings... Feel free to let me know if concrete opportunities for that arise that you know about.
Will do. Are you only interested if it’s through public school?
Awesome! I'd be curious about any opportunities out there, though won't have much capacity to engage for at least a year or so.
Thank you, Amy. I appreciate your vision for introducing this approach into school curricula. As I try to imagine that happening in the current sociopolitical climate, I hear Dr. King's voice calling for a revolution of values...
Absolutely. I can’t imagine it happening where I live now (in rural NE USA). The possibility would be perceived as an unwelcome challenge of values here. But places in Canada, for example, are much more open and curious. We’re moving to Vancouver Island in a few years and the local communities there currently integrate indigenous wisdom from active local communities. Regardless, it would be nice to supplement learning in the home :)
Yes... May it be so. <3
Love this conversation, thank you Liza. As someone with a white European Communist great-grandfather, who I know little about, but what little I know has been told with pride and affection, I was struck by David's sharing that some of his relatives tried to burn his great-great-uncle's books, or inform on him to the FBI. Ouch!!! Seems like David's work is (or could be) in great conversation with the recent wonderful book by Sandhya Jha: "Rebels, Despots, and Saints: The Ancestors Who Free Us and The Ancestors We Need to Free."
Love you, Liza.
Katie, thank you so much for your comment! I just interviewed Sandhya to include in a post here later this fall! Great suggestion about her book. I'll make sure David is aware of it. Love back to you! <3
Can we get this wisdom implanted into the consciousness of every person who identifies as white and forgets where they really came from?
I hear you, Gino!... I'd like to believe that the wisdom is still there in the bones... or in the ancestral memory of white-bodied folk... but all the strategic indoctrination into the ideology of whiteness needs to be unlearned for it to surface. I'm grateful for folks like David who are committed to helping people remember! <3
Love David!!! Such a brilliant and powerful person who has brought a vital piece to the work of unlearning racism and finding wholeness and purpose in the white bodied experience.
Thank you, Kusum. I agree, and appreciate your work in that field as well!