Sometimes I meditate. It helps decrease stress and it helps me focus on the tedious task of applying facts to law - the basic work of lawyers. I usually do it alone using the Headspace app. Sometimes I use the Calm App. Sometimes I join group meditations. Top attorney and psychologist Lisa Blue was holding Monday morning sessions for awhile which was great. And locally I have attended in person and (more recently) remote Zoom sessions through SIMS. Tuere Sala is my favorite teacher. She is a former prosecutor - meditation helped her deal with the stressors of law school and litigation. She also teaches Qi Gong, and I was lucky enough to score an instruction and practice DVD from her before the pandemic hit. It has been one of the tools I use to stay sane during this time.
Recently, as a member of WSAJ's diversity committee, I was searching out anti-racism resources and discovered that SIMS has a wonderful list of resources. I share them below for your convenience. This is a time of great upheaval and change. I hope as a country we rise to the massive opportunity afforded us to make real and lasting change towards a more just and equitable society.
Antiracism Resources
Seattle Insight Meditation Society adds our voice to the outrage and heartbreak over the continued violence, prejudice and oppression directed at our Black and brown fellow citizens. While the outrage has a new expression, this is not a new problem. Our Black brothers and sisters live with racism daily, fearing for their lives, struggling against discrimination, and being treated as second-class citizens. The barriers to success and financial stability are very real.
The shock and anger at George Floyd’s death are waking up a country that too easily forgets the daily oppression, racism, and violence that is a fact of life for our Black sisters and brothers. The comfort and security the dominant white culture enjoys are entrenched and risk putting us back to sleep. The unconscious white supremacy and fragility must be overcome. We must not go back to sleep.
We must seek to understand and heal the racism in our own hearts. We must act with wisdom and compassion, confronting and uprooting all aspects of racism. As Dharma practitioners, we are dedicated to understanding suffering and the end of suffering. The root of suffering is the illusion of a separate, isolated sense of self. Racism is a profound manifestation of the separation between self and “other”. By creating a separate self, we create an “other” to defend against, to oppress, to control. Healing racism is Dharma work. It requires inner transformation and outer action.
Please join us in taking concrete, specific steps.
Sincerely,
Guiding Teachers and Board of Seattle Insight Meditation Society
Here are resources for both inner transformation and outer action. They offer a wide range to provide a starting point for your own work and engagement. Some information may be outdated. Find out more about Sims here.
Resources for Inner Transformation and Outer Action
There is a tremendous amount of resources to educate yourself in how to be an ally and not create harm in this time of transformation. Take the time to look through this long list and find areas that resonate with your heart.
ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION (COMPILED BY BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES)
- Books, articles, and videos on social justice and race and Dharma
- Glossary of Helpful Terms
- Organizations and Actions to Engage in Anti-Racist Work
Local Resources
CONTACT PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Our public officials respond to public input. Everyone’s voice is important right now.
- council@seattle.gov. (206) 684-8888
- jenny.durkan@seattle.gov. (206) 684-4000
BLACK-OWNED BOOKSTORES YOU CAN SUPPORT RIGHT NOW
- Consider multiplying your impact by ordering from a Black-owned bookstore
- Here is a great resource with a purchase link to many of the books above directly from a Black-owned bookstore.
RESOURCES TO BE AN ALLY TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY BY ASUW DIRECTORY OF DIVERSITY EFFORT
- Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) provides an excellent list of 8 actions you can take against injustice towards the Black community, tools specifically to educate white people, and more.
- Ways to Help - an excellent list of current resources from protest gatherings to places to donate
RESOURCES BY THE STRANGER
- Black Lives Matter: A Guide to Resistance Events, Black-Owned Restaurants, and Other Ways to Stand Against Racism in Seattle
- List of Black-Owned Businesses by The Stranger
- List of Black-Owned Restaurants in the Greater Seattle area
Reading Lists
AN ANTIRACIST READING LIST BY IBRAM X. KENDI
GOODREADS/LISTOPIA
#BlackLivesMatter reading list
LETTERS FOR BLACK LIVES
Letters for Black Lives is a set of crowdsourced, multilingual, and culturally-aware resources to help talk about racial injustices with your own family/community. Translated into various languages
WHY IS THIS ALL HAPPENING?
This page on the 100 Year Hoodie website steps you through different layers of what has led up to this moment.
WHITE PRIVILEGE: UNPACKING THE INVISIBLE KNAPSACK BY PEGGY MCINTOSH
Podcasts
- Code Switch
- About Race with Renni Eddo-Lodge
- The Stoop
- The chicken and Jollof Rice show
- The Nod
- GirlsLikeMe
- Identity Politics
- Uncivil
- Seeing White series
- The Stacks – book discussion podcast with episodes on ‘How to be Antiracist’, ‘The Bluest Eye’, and more
- Brene Brown’s interview w/ Ibram X. Kendi
Films
- Slavery by Another Name (PBS Documentary)
- 13th Directed by Ava DuVernay (can be found on Netflix)
- When They See Us (can be found on Netflix)
- Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap – Netflix
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story – Netflix
- Just Mercy – free to stream in June (YouTube, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play)
- Malcolm X (Netflix)
- Hello, Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea (Netflix)
- Teach Us All (Netflix)
- Hidden Figures
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Amazon Prime)
- I Am Not Your Negro (Amazon Prime)
- Notes from the Field: Full Film (HBO, available on YouTube)
In this adaptation of the Off-Broadway show, playwright Anna Deavere Smith dramatizes the accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators affected by America’s school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged, minority youth out of the classroom and into incarceration.
Series
- They Gotta Have Us (Netflix)
- Hip-Hop Evolution (Netflix)
Comments
Post a Comment