The Inner Work of Racial Justice is the book I was seeking last month, in the aftermath of a couple years of mindfulness reading and the past two months of finishing close to 10 books on racism and racial justice. Ms. Mage’s work is a profound confluence of my learning streams, and is helping me clarify my next steps but have a robust, nuanced roadmap for the mindful racial justice work I’ve begun and am coming to view as the most important thing I do during whatever time I have left.
Magee, a law professor at ?? and a veteran mindfulness teacher, shares powerful biographical anecdotes across a five part text, each part layering seamlessly on its predecessor. threaded together by core mindfullness practices (such as sitting breath meditation, body scan, mindful walking, yoga, and reflective journaling) and the cultivation of qualities such as lovingkind And compassion in the service of relieving racial suffering.
Part 1 – Grounding
Colorinsight p24: An approach and set of skills that combines mindfulness and compassion practices with engagement with individuals from diverse groups
7 foundations for racial justice: discernment, loving kindness, compassion, patience, don’t know mind, steadfastness, courage to seek and act for justic
Core practices that ground us in awareness, insight, and resilience: The Pause, sitting breath meditation, body scan, mindful walking, yoga, and reflective journaling
Parry 2 – Seeing – awareness of racism in us, relationships and communities, and it’s personal, interpersonal, and systemic dimensions
Race a social construction but has real consequences for people
Awareness of roots of suffering described in Buddhist teaching: clinging, aversion, and ignorance
Understanding of white privilege
Seeing implicit bias
Adding the aRAIN meditation framework to the mindfulness toolbox
Part 3 – Being
Staying present with what arises
Softening sense of separate self
Healing ourselves is the first step of awakening
Creating capacity for healing Identifying and sharing our race stories
Paying attention to how identity based differences create vulnerabilities for people
Part 4 – Doing
Asking yourself, What kind of a society do I want to live in?
Deepening racial justice work
Seeking transformative chanfe
Bearing witness to others suffering
Skill building resilient relationships
Mindful listening
Developing trust
Social deconstruction of race
Mindfulness leads to emotional intelligence which leads to social intelligence
Becoming a space in which the truth can be spoken
STOP mindfulness practice
Grounding in the Flow of the Elements Meditation
Part 5 – Liberating
The fruits of mindfulness
Humanity Consciousnesses p 333: An approach to law and policy that emerges from mindfulness and compassion practice:
* We see interconnectedness
* We feel the suffering of others.
* We discern what action might help alleviate the suffering and harm.
* We take action and reflect on its impact.
If we see one another clearly, Magee writes, we’re able to see each other’s value, take on another’s pain as our own, and together be able to disrupt the patters that led to that pain
Healing in the context of community
Healing of trauma
Interbeing of all injustices
Relieve suffering
Live ethically
Lifelong work of racial justice
Policy change!
Expect resistance
Remember your mindfulness resources
Remain true to your values and intentions
