My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

by Resmaa Menakem

—BODY AND BREATH PRACTICES— Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can reflect privately for ten to fifteen minutes. Bring pen and paper—or a laptop or tablet—with you. Think back to a time when you personally witnessed the apprehension or arrest of a Black body. This should not be something from television, film, YouTube, or the Internet; it should be a real-life incident in which your body was present. As best you can, recollect and re-experience that incident as completely as you can from beginning to end. Pay attention—moment by moment—to what you felt in your body and what thoughts and emotions you experienced. Write down each of those physical, emotional, and mental responses in as much detail as you can, including where in your body you felt it, whether it was pleasant or unpleasant, and whether it involved constriction or opening. Clear your mind and take ten deep, slow breaths. Return to the here and now. Reorient yourself by looking around, including behind you. Now, as best you can, recollect and re-experience the last time you witnessed, in person, the apprehension or arrest of a white body. As before, pay close attention to what you felt in your body in each moment, and to what thoughts and emotions you experienced. Once again, write these down in as much detail as you can. Clear your mind with ten more long, slow breaths. Now compare the two written accounts. Are they quite similar, or do they differ? If they differ, write down how they differ. How might y...