Friends,
For this month’s Toward Solidarity newsletter, I’m sharing with you a short clip from an online training I’m facilitating that starts this Sunday, 7/14. It’s called Radical Genealogy and its meant to offer Euro-descendant people (white or multiracial) genealogical research skills to connect their individual family histories to the broader histories of racism, colonialism, capitalism, traditional culture, and political resistance that shaped our ancestors’ lives. Together, we will explore how to use genealogical study to develop a renewed and rooted sense of self that can power our efforts for collective liberation.
This clip consists of a guided meditation where I ask participants to visualize the millennia-long legacy of political, economic, cultural and religious resistance to domination that they come from, a legacy that “whiteness” was designed to separate our ancestors from. Participants are then called to step into the shared purpose of reclaiming this legacy that was taken away.
As you watch the clip above, feel free to engage in the visualization if it feels relevant to you and your ancestry. You can also read a written version below. If you like the clip, you’re also welcome to share it with others on instagram.
Learn More about Radical Genealogy and Register:
Additionally, don’t hesitate to join us for the training. It takes place on July 14th and 21st. Session recordings and study materials are provided to all. Live attendance is encouraged but by no means required to have an enriching training experience. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Video Transcript:
So, the historical windows we are going to enter into today are, first, traditional lifeways, harm endured and racialization; and second, legacies of resistance.
And so now I’d like for you to close your eyes. Feel the humanity of your ancestors that exist in these two historical windows, obviously knowing no person is perfect, but for right now I want you to really tap into the humanity and spirit of these ancestors. Visualize what they might have looked like. What the lands they inhabited might have looked like. Visualize them experiencing joy and community and love and reverence for the earth around them.
Visualize their engagement in cultural and political resistance in the face of severe harm. These acts of resistance could have involved work slowdowns on feudal manors in Germany or France, they could have involved continuing to practice one’s Pagan religion in Eastern Europe amidst invasion from the Holy Roman empire; they could have involved continuing to practice Judaism or a more radical form of Christianity in the face of inquisitions. Our ancestors could have been involved in the 1381 mass uprising in England, where tens of thousands of peasants marched on London to end serfdom and war.
Some of the ancestors of people here likely ran away from indentured servitude in the North American colonies. Some were likely part of 1/4 of confederate troops who defected from the civil war. Some of our ancestors were likely immigrant socialists in the early twentieth century and communists in the 30s and 40s who engaged in powerful, often multiracial labor organizing in this country. Visualize the acts of defiance and love that all of these people took part in on a regular basis.
And now, visualize a group of these ancestors of yours here with you in whatever room you’re in. Feel them standing behind you, smiling at you. See the purpose and determination on their faces. And as you look into their eyes, remember that these peoples’ story is your story. These peoples’ story is your story. Remember that whiteness was given to us to separate us from this story, to separate our belonging from this story. And so many of us showed up to this session today to reclaim this story that was taken from us. That’s why so many of you are here. Take another deep breath, and really take that in.
And as we move into the start of the session, open your eyes, and click over to gallery mode, and look at all the people who are here, who are so grateful to be here with you in shared purpose. And take a moment to silently greet them and thank them for their presence here with you today.
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