Healing racism retreat on the land for white bodies

On Saturday, March 15 a group of six people gathered for 4 hours at Sister Grove Farms for the first Healing Racism Retreat on the Land for Whites.

Rodney Macias welcomed us and gave us a history of Sister Grove Farm.  We had a land acknowledgement using the information on the Sister Grove website.

We spent a good bit of time sharing our stories. This connected us in profound ways as we spoke of our childhood and adulthood. Who was our first Black friend or acquaintance? When and where did we first become aware of race? How has white privilege and power touched and influence your story.  This sharing lasted two and half hours, much longer than scheduled but there were stories that needed to be shared and heard, often stories the participants had forgotten or hadn’t seen as involving race. What a great practice of the healing of listening to one another.

To connect to our own bodies, we did some breathing exercise and body scans.  We all carry trauma in our bodies, often hidden deep within.  It is important to see and acknowledge where and what this trauma could be.

We went out on the land and carried this trauma. We were invited to go where one is invited.  To discover that threshold that needs to be crossed to begin the journey into the unknown. We were asked to carry what had been stirred up in our bodies to the land, to offer this to the land and let the land hold it and support you.  See what rises up.  Be present with it and then offer gratitude to the land and to the place you were led for what you received. Many felt a sense of peace simply walking the land, a connection with something much larger than themselves.

After the time on the land, we were invited to come back and journal or to sit and be.  The group reported a sense of the land holding them.  They walked with the injustice they felt in their bodies. They breathed in hope in spite of all that was happening in the world

Many wondered about the history of the land. On the Sister Grove property is the one of oldest and largest elm trees in the state of Texas. Individuals wondered about this history this tree has seen. A few spent time sitting under her branches.

As a group, we shared our experiences on the land and listened to two quotes:

James Baldwin: “I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation.  They have been white, if I may put it, too long…” (The New York Times, Feb. 2, 1969).

Jim Schutze in The Accommodation: "Under Anglo-American law, the system could have been justified and lived with no other way, leaving white Americans today with what may be the most difficult psychological wounds human beings can suffer - the self-disfiguration that is the consequence of having denied the humanity of human beings."

These quotes invited us beyond our own lives to look at the culture and society we live in and the healing needed there.

Those who made this healing journey at Sister Grove that day had already done significant work in racism.  They were open to what would unfold in this difficult work. They shared openly and vulnerably. The time on the land was transformative.

We adjourned to a local restaurant to continue the conversation.

This reflection was written by Clay Brantley. Part of his ministry is to lead conversations on racism and racial reconciliation. Visit our website to learn more and check on upcoming offerings.