A Love Letter to Us
Hello and welcome to the first Soulful Insight! I am so honored that you are here, in this moment, reading these words. I never considered myself a writer, but I have an incredible amount of passion when it comes to connecting with others and building a sense of community. I hope that my writings can be an additional avenue for that connection!
I want to dedicate my first blog post to Us, during this glorious Black History Month. And when I say “Us,” I mean - all my Black people! I love Us. The colors of our skin, the textures of our hair, the rhythm in our feet, the fierceness AND softness of our souls. There’s so much beauty in being Black. And Blackness is not a monolith; we are each so unique and yet share such a powerful connection. And for that, I always aim to amplify Blackness every chance I get.
A big part of truly loving and celebrating Us, is being aware of the external forces that have caused harm and disconnected Us from ourselves. Those external factors include racism, oppression and white supremacy culture. I aim to center my therapeutic work in mitigating the toxic impact that white supremacy culture has on Us. If you’re curious about what exactly “white supremacy culture” is, I invite you to read Tema Okun’s offerings on white supremacy culture here. Okun describes the main characteristics of white supremacy culture as perfectionism, urgency, fear, either/or, denial and defensiveness, right to comfort, individualism, quantity over quality, and worship of written word. Once we are able to identify these characteristics in our lives and the harm they have caused, we can actively work to challenge them and build a stronger connection to ourselves.
Although each of the characteristics of white supremacy culture is worthy of much deeper exploration, I want to highlight perfectionism, urgency and individualism. In my personal and professional experience, I have witnessed each of these characteristics causing anxiety, stress, sadness and low self esteem, especially in people of color. In future Soulful Insights, I will write more about how these characteristics impact Us and how we can decrease the harm these expectations cause.
In the meantime, I invite you to reflect on what makes you feel most connected to yourself and others in your community? What makes you feel loved and appreciated? How are you celebrating Blackness this Black History Month?
