The Racist in Me and the Racist in You--Your Inner Karen - a podcast by Love Hive Yoga

Audra speaks about the video of Amy Cooper faking being attacked by a black man--bird watcher Christian Cooper--and calling the police on him. Watch it.
Show Notes:
As white women we are terrified of being flawed. We have built a wall within that hides our racism most especially from ourselves. Instead we create an idol out of being good, spiritual, and "right." We have built an idol out of the perception of ourselves as good and righteous, which leaves no room for the reality of what is--which is that we are human, and being human, particularly being a white human in the US, means that we are racist. Period.
The Buddha teaches that hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed--this is the ancient and eternal law. It doesn't mean we love only the good parts of ourselves. It means we begin to develop tolerance and eventually real spacious love for everything about ourselves. In this way we take the power of our racism back. In this way we stand in the power of love.
These are my steps to healing the hate that resided within us. I am welcome to feedback and approach this from a real beginners mind so I can remain open to learning all the time.
1. Witness it. See it.
2. Name it. Call it by its name. Fear. Othering.Racism. Privilege. Etc.
3. Make space around it. How spacious can you get around it? This prevents us from engaging with our bias as if it is truth.
Work with these three steps first. This might be where you stop for a while.
4. Then love these parts of yourself. Bring love to your hate. Bring love and compassion to your bias. Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed--this is the ancient and eternal law. We have to be radically honest to meet this step.
5. Say thank you. (This is controversial, but I feel passionately that gratitude is a way in which we can stop avoiding our racist tendencies and do the work of turning toward the parts of ourselves that scare us, rather than away. We have to stop othering ourselves if we want to stop othering other people. Gratitude is a way of saying and trusting that our expansive capacity for love is so big that we can be thankful, even for this most difficult aspects of ourselves--like being racist.) Thank you racism for trying to keep me safe, but this is misguided. I know better now, so I do better now. I don't need you anymore, fear, bias,racist reactions. My highest self, my most loving, most kind self is in charge now. Y
I love you.
Audra

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