I’m tired of racism.
The death of #GeorgeFloyd and the sustained protests for weeks by people of all races and ages during this pandemic has really shown how much we are all affected by this underlying condition in our lives.
It’s not just racism, but a sense of being fragmented and not fully being able to describe it. And when I discovered it, I realized how much it meant to me.
I’ve been wanting to say this for almost 30 years now. Been waiting for the world to say it.
We are all a global family from out of Africa.
Our collective ancestors, Homo Sapiens, evolved on the continent of Africa, 300,000 years ago and migrated out of the continent some 100,000-70,000 years ago. (You can also say our first hominid ancestors evolved 4 million years ago on the continent of Africa, as well.)
This is a version of a map I first saw somewhere, maybe a Time magazine article on “How Man Began,” or maybe in an anthropology class I audited at Yale back in 1994. I could hardly find it on the Internet when Google first came into existence. Now there are so many when Googled.
Does this mean we are more aware?
Back then I wanted to say my parents aren't African, but my people are from Africa. This "discovery" actually healed a hole in my soul I'd had for decades while growing up.
I used to be ashamed as a child. I’d be excited to see the Philippines mentioned in my geography book, only to “discover” they had “primitive” huts and rice paddies with water buffalo pulling a plow. Or worse, to learn that Ferdinand Magellan, the explorer who set out to circumnavigate the world in 1521 (now nearly 500 years ago), was slain by "savage natives." Somehow, I felt a sense of inferiority that my parents couldn’t change.
So when a decade of haunting, recurring dreams landed me in therapy (after 30 years they have finally healed!), and I learned of human developmental needs that all individuals have, and that if interfered with and not resolved, they can be unconsciously repeated in successive generations. Of course, it’s only in the 20th century that psychologists and scientists have accumulated a body research and knowledge to begin understanding human developmental needs – something our collective ancestors could never have known. I could only be so angry at my father’s mental and emotional abuse.
I actually feel comforted by the idea of a family extending from the beginnings of time, and all around the world. If you viewed your home as the entire planet, you would care for it and everything living thing and all the people as one integrated, living being, a true Gaia, an ecosystem you love and cherish with all your heart.
You really don't know who ALL of your ancestors are, so there is no reason to be racist, because racism keeps one fragmented not only from the totality of your being – but to others who share the experience of our unique existence as the dominant species on this earth — and in the universe.
My belief: This generation is on the the cusp of creating the loving, more peaceful and safe world that our collective ancestors have long dreamt of — and lived and died for us, their descendants. With each generation, a new information, knowledge and skills are accumulated and passed onto the next. And the time is now to heal the longstanding dysfunctions that have plagued humanity for millennia and end the cyclical nature of oppression and war, manmade conflict. Especially at a time when we are faced with global climate change and a global pandemic threatening our global economy. By next year – 2021, only 500 years since humanity began to globalize our economy.
We should be focusing all our own innate human potential – our innovation and our compassion to create and sustain lasting peace in this world. We now have the science and technology as never before to avert the worst aspects of scarcity and suffering. What is holding us back?
If you agree with me, and wish to share your thoughts, please subscribe to this newsletter. I look forward to hearing from other like minds and publishing your thoughts on this topic:
What do you think is holding us back from healing racism (or any other human dysfunctions of child abuse, poverty, neglect, domestic violence)?
https://annamanzo.substack.com/
https://annamanzo.substack.com/
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