Ep#16 Asian America: It’s Okay to Grieve

Your Story Medicine Show Notes - Feb Solocast

In this episode of Your Story Medicine, I express the heaviness my heart feels for what is currently happening, primarily in the media, towards the Asian community and towards all people of color. I speak on a few of my recent Instagram posts about modern racism, allowing white supremacy to dismantle itself, and the need to stop shaming people into action, expressing further my thoughts behind those posts.

I hold the grief of our black siblings who have been experiencing this for 400 years and the grief of our First Nation Indigenous relatives, here in the United States, who have experienced so much loss for 500 years. 

There is no competition when it comes to our levels of suffering and oppression. 

What does it look like to not buy into the narrative that we are not victims? We may have been victimized, but I refuse to allow these instances to awaken the oppressor within me. 

“To liberate oneself all together is to see no one as your enemy.”

In this solocast, I speak my mind on modern racism, specifically anti-Asian rhetoric and violence, along with the evolution of this oppression that we’ve seen in history and how we can begin to heal from internalized racism. 

What are the solutions? How do we move forward and heal?

It may start with honoring the spirits of those who have transitioned into the ancestral realm, such as the Thai man who was recently brutalized in Oakland, Calif.; a man who reminds me of my own father and grandfather. 

Shaming people into action is not the solution. 

Making assumptions about people’s beliefs or knowledge is not the solution. 

Picking and perpetuating fights or making others feel less than is not the solution.

If you are feeling grief or rage during this time, know that it is valid and it is welcome. 

How can you use the energy of grief and rage to create instead of fight, to feel empowered and resilient instead of powerless?

Conclusion: Creation is louder than destruction. Our great ancestral wisdom is many generations older than the 500 years of racism. If you are not feeling called to speak up in these times, it’s okay. You have nothing to prove. Your experience valid and it’s okay if you are still processing. It’s okay if you need to unplug, in fact, I encourage you to. 

Action Integration: Refuse to turn into the very thing that breeds war and feeds into the system you seek to dismantle. If you’re stressing out over what action to take, perhaps your only action can be to call an elder and tell them how much you love them before they too become an ancestor.

How to further our connection:

Visit my website: www.jumakae.com

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Subscribe to my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/jumakae

Email me: [email protected]

On Muhammad Ali’s quote:   https://fpif.org/muhammad-ali-belongs-right-malcolm-x-martin-luther-king-howard-zinn/

Secret War in Laos: https://vimeo.com/52300409?outro=1&fbclid=IwAR3BpKGpwptDEBoNjhE2f7cu_EpOlNwh2lUDYyUKf6PdWYl3_TwbWEQIQ-c

Yellow Rain: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/change-faith-hmong-refugees