Finding liberation at the hands of trauma
I want to share this meaningful story with you.
It’s 2.30PM. I am pacing around my home during my break, anxiously waiting for the verdict.
I log on Zoom to see my client as it's now 3PM. She sees my face and knoooows what I am feeling.
A moment of humanness. I was not just her therapist, nor was she just my client. We were two humans connecting on the fact that in a few minutes we would know what we had been waiting for since May 2020. The verdict of the murder of George Floyd.
We agreed to check in 15 minutes into the session.
So at 3.15, I asked her “Do you want to check?”. She took out her phone, refreshed the page, and said “GUILTY! For all three charges”.
Goosebumps rose along my arms. Tears streamed down both of our faces.
Relief. A murderous cop was held accountable for his gruesome actions. It was this powerful moment of connection between my client and I. Feeling our inherent interconnectedness as two women of color longing for liberation of our BIPOC community.
The continued harm against people of color emphasizes the existence of interconnectedness, the Buddhist principle that maintains that everything that happens is influenced by and influences another thing.
Just over a week ago, a 20-year-old man, Daunte Wright, was shot and killed during a traffic stop. His murder happens in the city of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, just miles down the road from where Derek Chauvin was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd yesterday.
Two black men were killed by two white cops. George Floyd’s girlfriend was Daunte Wright’s former teacher.
It goes to show that our trauma is interconnected. Our pain, our oppression, our harm are intertwined.
We see the same violence incited repeatedly. The same patterns ripple through our community taking our friends, our families, our neighbors.
Daunte and George’s death are not just coincidental. It is not just by chance that two black men were killed just miles from one another. They occurred within an oppressive system where injustice and unrest incite more injustice and unrest. These killings aren’t isolated incidents, they influence one another and perpetuate a world where Black and Brown bodies are not safe to exist.
Last summer was a call to action unlike one we have seen since the Civil Rights Movement.
Collective trauma exists on the same plane as collective liberation. We can’t be free until we’re all free.
We can’t feel safe until we are all safe. We can’t claim justice until we’ve all experienced justice.
And that doesn’t just go for communities of color, that goes for everyone, no matter your race, your sexual orientation, your religion, or any other social identity. Until the battle is won for us all, we must continue to fight.
As a person of color, I know it hurts. It hurts to see another one of us killed. It’s hard to keep fighting when our communities are constantly struck with devastation.
So, grieve how you must. Name your pain and feel your pain. It’s okay to numb yourself, to compartmentalize, to do whatever it is you need to do to get by. But know you have a whole community feeling that pain with you.
Our trauma is collective, it is interconnected which is a sad yet beautiful truth. We can channel the same energy because we know the same pain. And we can use that energy to make a change. To relinquish our pain and to free us all from the shackles of oppression.
Sending you the biggest hug.
Nora