Healing Historical Trauma

 

Trauma therapist and author of My Grandmother’s Hands, Resmaa Menakem talked about trauma being held in the body during an interview on a Conversations in Compassion podcast. (Listen to it here) 

I found his understanding of trauma held in European bodies very interesting.  Menakem explains, “So, when I’m looking at things, I’m looking at the five brutalities, right?  Colonialism, Enslavement, Genocide, Imperialism and Land Theft, right.  And when I look at those five brutalities and I apply those five brutalities to Europe, those things along with public dismemberment… along with rapes, along with Inquisitions … along with the Crusades, along with famine, along with plague, along with… a lot of brutality existed.  And that existed from about 500 AD to approximately 1500 right?”

When I listened to Menakem describe the history of Europe in that way, it surprised me.  On one hand, it felt true.  That is why I never really liked history class in school.  European history, which was taught as the “only history worth talking about” seemed to be a succession of violent incidents.  Wars that lasted a hundred years, plagues, witch trials and horrible tortures. What surprised me was my learned reaction to this violence.  Within myself, I found an attitude of inevitability about how Europeans have behaved, a learned belief that people are basically bad and need to be controlled.  This worldview of course is supported by the churches.  Even though I recognize inner trauma and wounds in people of European descent, I had never really thought about the weight of a thousand years of trauma on genetic codes and epigenetic influences.  I had never really thought about how that may be coded in my body.

Menakem continues, “Then we start moving into the Enlightenment and all these other things, right.  But during that time, you’re talking about a thousand years of elite white bodies destroying less elite whites bodies, right. Destroying people, taking people’s lands, committing genocide.  All of that different type of stuff was happening for a thousand years on that body, right?  And then, in 1492 that body… came… here.”

The problem with being taught from a Euro-centric worldview is that it feels as though all people were the same as the Europeans.  Menakem would call that White Body Supremacy in which the white experience is seen as normative and anything else deviates from the norm.  Listening to Menakem’s voice got me thinking about what exactly I am lugging around in my genes.  The anxiety which my grandmother described as inherited in our family is the first thing that jumped to mind.  The feeling of not belonging, of watching one’s back, of waiting to be whacked (that is the best way I can describe that form of anxiety) and of fearing starvation quickly jumped into view as well.  Feelings that seemed "normal" suddenly became evidence of historical trauma.

Does this trauma carried in white bodies explain why a young man killed a family of Muslims with his truck recently?  Does it explain racism from white people?  I don’t see this idea as an excuse, more of a diagnosis in search of a cure.

Menakem continuea, “And one of the things we know about trauma is that trauma becomes decontextualized and over time can look like culture. And over time can look like family traits. And over time can look like personality. And once that body came here with all that brutality, I believe when they saw the first Indigenous people, no matter how beautiful, how nice, how much these people who wanted to help, no matter how much they did help, that trauma could only see those people as something to be conquered and made into noble savages, right. Made into Christians, because that’s what happened to them, right?”

I have been wondering if the fear of scarcity created by a thousand years of trauma was not healed by the abundance of Turtle Island (North America).  Instead, the fear became greed in the face of abundance and this greed has perpetuated the trauma onto the First Peoples and the land. 

People who are becoming more conscious of the actual history of this land are searching for what they can do to change things.  Learning the true history, writing letters, having conversations with others, standing with Indigenous people in person, building relationships, and advocating for political change are important.  And figuring out how to heal this trauma trapped in white bodies may very well be another important piece. 

I am not saying that I actually know how to do this but reading My Grandmother’s Hands seems like a next step for me.  So I have downloaded the audio book and will see what Resmaa Menakem says about releasing trauma from the body.  I am working on this for my ancestors, for all those yet to come and for myself and those who are here on Earth with me now.  A new story of how we are together is emerging.  I can see the signs and I welcome them as I learn how to heal my inherited traumas.