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

by Resmaa Menakem

Here’s a simple practice I encourage you to develop into a habit: Starting now, each time you encounter a white (or yellow or red or police) body, pay attention to your own body. What do you experience in it? Where does it constrict? Where is it relaxed? What does it want to do? Does it sense a threat? If it does, work with the practices in Chapter 12 to slow yourself down and notice what’s actually happening. Use your discernment to evaluate the situation. If you experience a sense of danger, is this a reflexive response, or is the threat real? If your body’s response is a reflex rather than a response to the unfolding situation, use one or more of the strategies you learned earlier to help your body settle. If the threat seems genuine, use what you learned in Chapter 12 to move through the situation as mindfully as you can. Afterward, orient yourself to the space around you. Look around, including behind you.