Liberation Practices
Across each AFRE cohort fellows have a range of actions and/or practices they use to comfort their minds, hearts and bodies while working to end racism.
The goal of my project is to interview AFRE fellows across each cohort to identify and document the practices they use (e.g. somatic, cognitive, etc.), so that the practices can be shared with others across the various AFRE cohorts as a means to advance individual and collective healing.
Ideally, by sharing the Liberation Practices, fellows will be supported to continue their racial equity work, while also enacting practices and actions that deepen self-care, healing, collective healing and the long-term, sustainable impact of their work.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
One of the most significant challenges of working to address racism is the emotional and psychological harm Black people experience in their efforts to name, address and dismantle racism, especially Black people working to advance racial equity in white spaces and/or institutions.
For Black people, who likely already have racial trauma living in their DNA, racism can enact deep harm on their physical and emotional wellbeing. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention "a growing body of research shows that centuries of racism in this country has had a profound and negative impact on communities of color, affecting housing, education, wealth, and employment.
These conditions—referred to as social determinants of health—are key drivers of health inequities within communities of color, placing those within these populations at greater risk for poor health outcomes." While racism effects everyone in the US and SA, it enacts significant mental, emotional and physical harm on Black people.
By identifying "Liberation Practices" and sharing these everyday actions with fellows in AFRE, we are better equipped for long term and sustainable wellbeing and we have practices to enact in the face of racial trauma. This type of intentional healing can be passed down into future generations.
Impact
Over the long-term this project is going to support AFRE fellows and their peers to identify, share and engage in Liberation Practices as a set of healing activities that support their overall wellbeing.
Initially the practices will serve to regulate breathing, cognitive clarity and physical health, including prioritizing time to reflect on the body, heart, and mind during and after fellows encounter racist experiences. In the beginning these practices will be catalogued on a website. Eventually they will be added to a book on the topic.
Over time however, these practices will proliferate and be used across many sectors as a means to both support people of color in spaces and places not designed for them, especially systems and institutions. These practices will be coupled with other areas of healing studies to ensure holistic practices are implemented and shared intergenerationally with Black people.
Additional areas of study may include understanding shame and strategies to address it, and anxiety, including strategies to manage it, in addition to framing Liberation Practices in the healing journey, including individual and collective healing.
