Taking a Spiritual Approach to Anti-Racist Work | Goop

For all of us to come together and acknowledge the oppression and injustice that exist in the world, in the spaces we occupy, and in the relationships that we hold and to be able to start to address those harms personally and collectively—that’s really hard. And it’s also incredibly rewarding and necessary.

For White and White-passing people:
When you do this spiritual work of recognizing others’ suffering as your own suffering, you have to be ready for everything to shift. You haven’t seen the world around you in full because the dominant culture has catered to whiteness, so it’s often a complete and utter overhaul of everything that you’ve ever known about yourself or the way that the world works.

It’s about considering not if you are racist but that you are racist, and in what ways. You start to address the ways in which you have caused harm to Black, Indigenous, and people of color—especially Black and Indigenous women. You start to understand that you have perpetuated White supremacy. If you’re finding yourself attached to the idea that you are the good guy and not part of the problem, examine what’s going on for you there: Is that shadow self, that ego, that wounded inner child flaring up? You must recognize that if you’re attached to seeing yourself as good and right, then you cannot also be fully committed to racial justice.

That’s hard as fuck. It’s painful. It’s challenging. And you don’t come out the other side. There isn’t another side. This is lifelong work. But as you continue unpacking and leaning into racial justice, it’s also incredibly healing and freeing and liberating and connecting. You come to an understanding of the systems that operate the world and how you have operated within them. And you come to find how you can better connect with yourself and with others. Because when I’m talking about anti-racism, I’m not just talking about oppression based on race. I’m talking about ending all forms of oppression as they currently exist. That’s what it means to liberate all Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

“I don’t believe that you can be a truly spiritual person and not be active in the work of creating a more just and equitable society for all.”

For BIPOC:
It’s painful to sit in the truth of the ways in which various systems are working to oppress and discriminate us. It can be easier not to look. But it’s also incredibly affirming and validating and liberating to be in spaces where you can see and understand how it’s not your own fault but the fault of the systems that have been harming you.

In many of my workshops, I have Black and Indigenous women come to me and say they never felt safe in a space with White people until they came into my workshop. That’s not an exception but generally the rule: Anytime White folks and people of color are in the same space, harm abounds. That’s just this world.