- [Resmaa] Our Black and brown bodies are dealing with this trauma that is unceasing.

If we don't give it context we will put the defect inside of us, we will think that something is wrong with us.

(upbeat music) - Hey y'all.

It's been almost a year since our Black and brown communities felt centuries of historical trauma erupt with the killing of George Floyd.

Almost a year since our rage exploded onto the streets of Minneapolis, of Louisville, of communities across the world, almost a year since we saw the system sworn to protect us do what it always has: cut an uneven number of our lives short.

Since then, times have been harder for people who look like you and I.

The COVID pandemic has kicked us while we're down, destroying our bodies, draining our wallets and robbing us of our opportunities to even support one another.

So this giant ball of trauma has festered in our bodies, and now the trial of Derek Chauvin will re-traumatize us all over again.

Downtown Minneapolis is looking more like a police state, as authorities secure the city.

But just the sight of those barricades stirs up pain for a lot of us.

I mean, after all barricades like that have been used to jail and divide an uneven share of Black people, not to protect us.

So here's the question, how can we get through this time?

And maybe even find some healing?

- When you live in a society where the white body has deemed itself "the supreme standard by which all bodies' humanity shall be measured," what happens is that you before your Black body even lands on the planet, your mama's and your daddy's Black bodies have had to contend with white body supremacy with that piece.

So that cortisol and stuff that's in their bloodstream and them having to have to deal with this type of stuff, that does something... that by the time you get that and by the time they are raising you, you are learning from what their bodies are recoiling from in the structure and what their bodies are leaning into in the structure, right?

So, what happens is that all of that stuff, never really gets dealt with when incidents like this happen but they are present, right?

When we then see brother Floyd or sister Breonna Taylor, or the countless number of Black bodies even going all the way back to the 4,500 lynchings that happened to our people that were purposely put in places where Black people would see it, so as to instill terror in our bodies.

The barbed wire that they're putting all around and 3000 troops coming in, in order to prep for the trial: all of that speaks to our bodies as horror and terror.

Three months before the Chauvin trial people may have been noticing this tightness, this constriction in the nervous system, this constriction in the space around them, right?

And what you're doing is saying no, there's something to that, that the closer we get to something that has a potential to be dangerous or terrorizing or traumatic the more our bodies can begin to kind of constrict and protect, right?

And so this Chauvin trial three months before and three months after is when we need to watch for people that may be dealing with anxiety issues, issues around depression, those pieces are so important to help people understand that it is not just personal, it is also historical, it is also intergenerational, it is also because our bodies, our Black and brown bodies, our bodies of culture, are dealing with this trauma that is unceasing, that this stuff may be triggering all of the other pieces.

And so that stuff is not personal, it is structural, it is philosophical, so we must develop healing ways and healing methods and ways of holding each other communally, not just individually, because our individual strategies are not enough to contend with the communal brutality, the communal terror of seeing a Black body destroyed like it was in front of our very eyes.

- [Kyeland] Part of the trauma that we share is the belief that the system will acquit these officers, that once again, there'll be no justice for a Black life taken by police.

Trials for the killers of Emmett Till, Philando Castile and countless others have reminded us that the system is rigged against our communities.

And as officials build barricades and fear that rage will shake Minneapolis, we can't help but think that history will repeat itself.

- [Resmaa] This is why Black folks and bodies of culture right now, before this trial are holding our breaths, you can see it in our faces, there's this bracing.

Because we know that so often in situations like this, right, the Black body does not get justice.

So as we're watching this, hoping that we can have some justice, we're also bracing for the fact that we probably won't.

- [Kyeland] So how do we make it through?

How do we hold each other up?

And how do we move ahead with the weight of traumas from the past and the present continuing to press on our necks?

- A lot of times we ask people, how are you doing?

And we really don't wanna know how they're doing and asking questions like did you eat breakfast today?

How are the kids?

Are you sleeping well?

Are you getting out?

Are you breathing?

Are you communing with people?

Those are the questions that actually help to support our ways of dealing with the persistent trauma and historical trauma that exist, especially for those of us in Black and brown bodies.

We have to create in our communities what I call wailing spaces, reprieval spaces, spaces in houses where people can come and sit, have their mask on and be there with other bodies and rock, other Black bodies, other brown bodies other red bodies, be there and rock.

Not give advice, but rock.

Let people cry and grieve because they're not just crying and grieving what is happening in terms of the trial.

We're crying and grieving and needing to wail because of what has happened and continues to happen to our people, and it shows up in an acute way in these types of situations.

And so I'd like for us to start to begin to think about developing wailing spaces, be more softer with each other, beginning to create a context for what it is that we're dealing with, acknowledging that we're not defective.

Like, during this time we have to do that, and we're gonna have to do this for the next three years.

So, one of the things that happens that people don't pay attention to is that, we saw brother George Floyd get murdered, and what I know as a trauma therapist is that usually from one or three years is the most acute time where that stuff activates around the same time each year, right?

And because we don't have context for it, when we start to go into depression, or we start to go into this, "Man, I don't know what's going on," we start to put the defect in us: "Well, something must be wrong with me," not "What happened to me a year ago and now my body is it starting to kind of re-activate to that again, because it's the anniversary of it," right?

And so what I hope that we begin to do is to begin to develop remembrances, like I know something that they're doing over on 38th in Chicago, as people come to that place, they remember that and so those vibrations, those feelings those emotions, those thoughts, those images all of that stuff can be put into context, that's one of the things that helps us heal through this stuff.

- Take care of yourself, Minnesota.

Get help, share your story and show up for others.

We've persevered through this before and we'll get through this now.

Peace and love.

(upbeat music)