What have you learned about yourself from books, podcasts, essays, speeches and words of Black and brown people?
Knowing myself has and will always be a journey for me. I am a Capricorn with Virgo rising, so internalizing and reliving is part of my nature. One of the things that I have noticed is that engraved slave mentality people whose generations have experienced slavery is holding. I am Bulgarian by birth. My people were slaves for the ottoman empire for 500 years. Technically liberated in 1878, growing up I could feel that energy in my country. We, however, were lucky not to have the continued slavery practices and laws against our people after most of our territories were liberated. We had our land and the peoples in the USA didn’t. We were able to create structures and government bodies. The peoples in the USA couldn’t. We were not anymore afraid for our lives, yet we kept being afraid for generations after.
I understand that there is nothing I could do to really understand what it is like to be BIPOC in the USA, but I can stay committed to support those whose rights are at stake. There was an old legend about a Bulgarian Khan(king), who at his death bed gathered his sons, took a single arrow, broke it easily. Then he took a bunch of arrows and wasn’t able to break them. He told his sons- if you stay together, you are unbreakable.
I am still and always be learning about the BIPOC experience and learning how to be best ally. I have always believed that all humans are created equal, and I know all humans are not treated this way. I have learned more about my downfalls, indoctrinations, my inconsistency with my values and my actions, and I am becoming clearer every day about the little everyday actions and reactions, so I can make more differences in the world around me.
What can you do to counter the idolization and demonization of Black and Brown people?
Currently, I am seeing this in 3 ways. My personal journey, my teachings to others and politically. Personally, I work on dismantling any falsehoods and indoctrinations. You know, watching any American action movies for example- every time a cop goes to get info, the informant is black man with priors, who usually gets beaten up by the police too. There has been so much effort to make BIPOC humans seem evil.
I like to talk to my children about this, so they grow up not believing that those things are true. In public settings I do engage in similar conversations, and I step up for humans that may be put down or demonized in such a way.
Politically is probably the hardest, because I don’t believe that the USA is as democratic as it is supposed to be. If it was, we wouldn’t have to do all this work now, as all humans would already be seen as equal under law. But they are not. I hope we get to revolutionize the political system, and that will take a village.
Where has/does binary thinking create a barrier to your growth in your anti-racism social justice work?
Ah, I think I am lucky in this perspective that I did not grow up here and I don’t think in binary way the way that most do. Politically, my family had Communist, Green party and a Democrat always fighting about what’s best, and my brother and I were exposed to those conversations on a daily. I think that very early I understood that there are always way more than one or even two sides of any story. In the USA it seems that everyone is in that space- us vs them. I think my barriers are about the larger picture. I don’t always feel powerful enough to make a change, my doubts that I can create a change or my thoughts- Am I the right person to even step in those shoes, vs someone who is BIPOC, if that make sense.
Question to ask yourself- “What questions are missing to practice truth and reconciliation as I continue to take responsibility for racism and acknowledge it in me, around me, and in the systems, I partake in?”
If you know me, you know I often play devil’s advocate, trying to understand the world in me and around me. I see a lot of separation. My Korean sister-in-law was dismissed from her family for marrying a white guy. Many white people dismiss others for their suffering. I would love to see the world thinking of every living being as precious. I got to start with me.
I cannot embody that unless I do my work in all my relationships. I am working on finding love for even my abuser, the father of my children, which has been hard.
Facing the truth is hard for us all, but it is the only way through. I believe strongly in the Yogic principles, and Yoga, above all is teaching us to look inward and remember our Own True Nature: Which is Love.
It sounds cheesy, but I find it to be true. If my frequency is one of Love, then I can influence those around me to frequent in the same way. If we love each other, maybe we will stop separating one another by race, religion or anything else…
Thank you for your energy, time, voice and presence in studio and within the community! Sending you so much love and gratitude as you are a true force of allyship and representation of possibilities of UNITY!!
September 3, 2024
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