Return to All Videos
LIVE Keynote Session
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP and Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD
The Quaking of America: An Embodied Approach to Navigating Our Nation's Upheaval and Racial Reckoning
Live Session Starts In:
Hours,
Minutes,
Seconds
The live 1 hour keynote will be hosted on Zoom and YouTube Live. Click one of the blue buttons below to join us!
Please bring a paper and pen with you to use in a reflective exercise.
Links to join the live call via either Zoom or YouTube will be posted here 30 minutes before the call begins!
or
Watch the recording of this live session below.
This video is no longer available for free viewing
If you purchased the event training package, login here.
Want to learn more about owning the recordings and earning 22.5 CE Credits?
Event pricing has been extended through end of day.
Subtitles will be available tomorrow for this video. Other videos do already have subtitles in 9 languages!
About the speakers
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD
Enjoying the summit?
Get lifetime access & earn 22.5 CE Credits with the Event Training Package
What do you think?
Leave a comment below
Thank you Resmaa, I will be looking to your work for further education and training. This is exactly what I have been needing and I need more of. I am a white settler on stolen land in Canada and am looking to be a more informed, useful, and compassionate ally. I want to understand truth and reconciliation and reparations and I want to have a body and nervous system that can handle this work and the conversations that need to take place. I want to be less fragile in my whiteness so I can be part of the collective healing. Thank you for your important work and your clear analysis.
Resmaa is amazing and timely. Do I need to request transcripts or are they available in my updated package?
I would like a transcript of this presentation
Thank you Resmaa for your knowledge.
I came to Sweden for over 30 years, I flew the war. I have brown eyes and brown hair and swedes are blue eyes and blonde. Even today I can feel racism. Even today swedes ask me where I am from.
And then George Bush made it even more worse. Thanks to him it was war on the Muslims. Racism become bigger.
I am in solidarity with my black brother and sisters.
This white body truly appreciated this conversation. I now have a better direction by which to DO more, as well as a deeper understanding of the privilege given to me at birth. Thank you!
All indigenous persons called the white man a “White Devil”. It is still so apparent in the 1%s. If all persons of non-white decent would unite we then become the majority. Give hand up, not the mindset I got mine you gotta go get yours. Share your knowledge so all can elevate!
“A legacy worth inheriting for our children’s children.” Thank you for taking the long view without letting anyone off the hook for moving into the work. I was moved to tears several times over the last few days of this training, and this was one of those moments.
Resmaa’s passionate work is critical – so grateful for his inclusion! His identification of how compassion can become performative without this reconfiguration is central. Social Workers can call themselves activist clinicians, and could carry a healing vibration beyond what we have come to expect from ourselves.
One of the best intellectual conversations on the ‘state of the nation’ I have heard. In the end it will not be a divide between race or gender it will be a divide between those that are awake and prepared VS those asleep and unaware of the freedoms they are losing. Love the bravery and openness of this call, thank you all.
Thank you Resmaa for your passionate, informative and thought-provoking session. Thank you also to Pamela for hosting so brilliantly. I found the audience questions penetrating and constructive. I am a white female therapist based in London UK. My initial reflection is a self-posed question. How will I begin to embrace my burden of participating in the embodied process of repair?
I am a white body all over, living in Europe.
Is it worse to be beaten up than to witness someone being beaten up?
Or is it less hurting and deforming and destroying if I only witness someone being beaten up than being beaten up myself?
A lot of voices in me are shouting: Yes!! Its worse if you experience it on yourself / your own body! (If I had to choose I prefer to be the witness…)
And there is also a voice which is convinced that the impact has the same weight on both sides. White supremacy is also destroying us with the white bodies.
I am feeling naive about these questions. Thank you for any comment.
I signed up for the summit specifically for this, every conversation I hear with Resmaa is a gift and I thank him and the organizers for sharing all of this wisdom
Good, useful, healing and promising
Resmaa and Pamela -a wonderful balance of energy. I love Resmaa unapologetic honestly of the racism that permeates our daily living. The world needs more of this type of talk, and less of ‘beating around’ and navel gazing. While this honestly can make many uncomfortable – but in our discomfort if we are authentic to our self, we can take ownership of the power and privilege we have and what we are willing to own up to and what we can or willing to give up to truly make this world a safer place for all.
Such a phenomenal discussion!! Deep gratitude to you both for your teaching and demonstrating that it is possible to explore such a profound subject with measured, thoughtful and intentional presence. Thank you.
Rasmaa reminded me of the wrathful dieties spoken of in Nyingma Practices. His method of directness, unapologic truth seeking for his clientele and the group consciousness can be very unwelcome to those suffering most, but at the same time be a source of direct healing. His is the method for reawakening the African Spiritual Healing needed during this time. Machik Labdrang is surely on his head, guiding his way along towards the benefit of others. May he bring benefit to many.
Is my impression that Mr. Resmas speaks from a place of anger therefore sus views and solutions reflect that anger. How is it possible inspire healing from that place?
What happened to some black people was an atrocity. Atrocities also happened to white people, Chinese, Mexicans, etc.
History can prove that black and indigenous people were not the only ones who have suffered immensely.
The energy of waiting for an apology would be best put at use moving on and doing the work to expand ourselves.
I am not a white body and I am not racist. Because everyone I work with is a person.
What about if we, all of us, see ourselves as people connected with each other?
Remember, anger isn’t always bad–he’s speaking from the unfair hurt and unjust treatment that he’s witnessed continuing to impact the lives of whole communities. He did speak to the atrocities that STILL happen in this world (e.g., Russia & Ukraine), and did not ignore that reality. He’s not ready to move into a state of forgiveness because there is still a lot of residual unjustness that IS anchored just in the way people who are different, specifically those who are black and indigenous. I think he would agree that any marginalized populations deserve fair and just treatment.
What angers him is how white supremacy is making an insidious comeback (in America in particular) and how dangerous it can be for the majority (which is still white) to be complacent and not prepare to take action should something like January 6 take place again. There is truth to “Silence is Violence”. It’s not okay, and we should all be a little more angry about it.
And, if it matters, I am a white woman. I recognize the privilege that has given me in my life. While I had a very traumatic childhood, which I am still overcoming, I didn’t (and don’t) have the added layer of being in body of color.
Not everyone sees each other as a white body or a black body. Many people of all races see each other as individual, unique bodies with identities that transcend physicality. Every individual in the world has experienced prejudice and racism, no matter the color of skin.
hello white-bodied people in the helping professions like me! i usually never post anything in the comments of things, but after watching this recording i am very moved to say: you MUST watch and listen to Resmaa and Ayo here – don’t miss this. i’m deeply grateful to them for the fierce, brave, compassionate work they are doing and the invitation they are extending here.
I am grateful and inspired by the insight, clarity, passion and wisdom of your sharing. Thank you.
thank you for putting this summit on, i feel blessed that it has happend at this time. I am cornetta williams walker from Manchester, England
I valued this session so much and everything about the way Ayo and Resmaa educated further to open our eyes. I am a white psychotherapist in London leading a Faculty for children, young people and community wellbeing and we have been working with this approach which we respect deeply. We are seeking to embody the change, cultural, structural and systemic and we are inspired by and influenced by you. Thank you for the immense importance of your contribution to our thinking and therapeutic practice. With our love and appreciation of you both from London x
This is life changing teaching for all races and colors in the helping professions and beyond. I’m looking forward to purchasing Resmaa’s books and taking his courses. Thank you for this profound and eye-opening teaching. Thank you, Dr. Ayo, for leading another great discussion.
Thank you so much for this talk! I have started working through My Grandmother’s Hands and my standard approach is to plow through. It was really helpful to hear Resmaa speak about how, if you’re really doing the practices, the book will be ragged and worn and folded and marked up! So I’m back to the book, and focusing on slowing down. Thank you, Resmaa and Ayo for sharing this conversation with all of us.
Thank you for this.
Thank You 🙂
Thank you Resmaa and Pamela. Very moving. Lots to think and feel my way through.
A feast of wonderful teaching and experiencing. Thank you so much. I am a therapist and I live in County Wexford Ireland. Sally
The fact is that racism breeds more racism -same goes for violence, thus the need for various strategic interventions and LONG TERM thoughtful planning! One the other hand, and under certain circumstances, and in certain places especially in US, the race issue seems to be become secondary when it comes to class and social inequality. I mean, after a certain point it is the social class and social status that define the quality of living conditions and further define both the quality/direction of interactions and group behaviors. Celebrities, athletes, the rich and famous, regardless of race, color, etc., seem to be beyond the race issue and certain racial discriminations. Thus, we should also look for the deeper socioeconomic issues that define any and all motives and behaviors at all relevant levels/fronts. Historically speaking social inequality is the main source and root of all “evil” -various exploitative “supremacies” rest and thrive on that premise and more. Arrogance, greed, and corruption are also the major causes, and that is a human phenomenon beyond “race” and “culture” alone, so we better work on those issue as well if we truly want to have great and permanent results. Other than that, racism and racial discrimination remain difficult and complicated issues with no easy and immediate solutions, that’s why we should take into consideration the important current and historical aspects as described by the speakers. More than ever we need dialogue and serious research, planning, and then proper implementations. It’s about human responsibility and that’s where education and healing become the catalyst for any change!
Once we all understand, that we are all connected via CONSCIOUSNESS, emotion, and more, and once we move beyond materialistic goals alone, and the doings of the pathological lower selfish Selves, then we may have a chance for the betterment of social relations -and hopefully a better future for Humanity as a whole. That’s where we need to understand the nature of reality (human nature and that of the Cosmos) and that’s also where we need a working all-inclusive methodology -and a valid Cosmology. That’s where Tara’s comment about Einstein’s conception of the Universe (its essence and nature) becomes of paramount value here in this discussion and elsewhere. It’s about understanding and then about designing and that’s where we need all the Wisdom we can get, and that’s where Leadership becomes the catalyst for any healthy and creative (r) evolution.
Humanity needs healing -that is valid for all, and for all social groups, especially for those that have been “enslaved” and terribly abused, but then, it’s also about personal responsibility and the ability to break free from various vicious cycles of ignorance, weakness, materialistic goals, and the apparent and continuing struggles for power and control.
I think that is what Enlightenment is all about -at least in part!
While what you say is absolutely true, it does sidestep the truth that race does still play a role. Research has proven that yes, being affluent and a person of color gives you more advantages than a person of color in poverty, but being a person of color at any echelon (in the US in particular) gives you fewer advantages than being white. Not to mention the transgenerational trauma that has NOT had the time nor resources to be overcome.
We still have so much work to do. I think Kristin Neff’s fierce compassion is a good way of approaching this. Violence is not the answer. But it’s also not enough to commit to being compassionate in your heart and exude an energy of care for all sentient beings.
When we see a being in pain, we as helpers in particular need to DO something about that. And taking the time to do the work to uncover our own biases that cause us to look the other way or avoid taking in the news that makes us uncomfortable is not okay. We. Need. To. DO. More. A lot more.
This is such an important conversation, I had no idea how much I needed to hear this. Thank you so much for taking the initiative to share this information. I learned a lot today and I am committed to deepening my understanding of racism and intergenerational trauma. I am definitely going to read your book.
There is something powerfully concrete about Resmaa’s verbalizations that resonates deeply to me. Thank you.
Incredibly thought provoking. I just heard a piece of the language I have so far not been able to put into words “recentering white comfort”. When I first became aware of the possibility of my causing harm, my response was to try to engage and right the wrong which now I realize is actually recentering my white comfort. When white bodies centre themselves, we are trying to reset and go back to our normal but our normal is fatal to others. Thank you for this.
Bronwen! Thank you . You captured this so well!
Is self compassion choice for psychotherapy for all psychiatric disorders?
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. This was so relevant and so enlightening. You are 100% right that by our inaction after witnessing horrific acts, we are complicit without ever thinking we are! Good grief. I’ll do my best to do better.
can you post the acronym IMBASI
VIMBASI
Vibes as intelligence, I: Images, Cognitions, Dreams, Ideas as intelligence. M: Meaning Making. B: Behavior and Urges as intelligence. A: Affects and feelings. S: Sensation in our bodies, proprioception in all its senses. I: Imagination as intelligence.
I teach multicultural diversity in a master’s counseling program. Would it be possible to get a copy of the video for use in my class? I would like the video to be an assignment to watch and then write a response paper. I teach this course at Wayland Baptist University. Thank you Stephen
Hi Stephen, we have sent you an email…
i too, wanted to share this with my class. Community Capacity Building diploma program, at SFU Simon Fraser University, Van, BC, CDN
this is such important teachings and presentation.
yes. we want to look away and say I’m not like that. …but… I am. I am in so many ways not wanting to see and feel the horror that my ancestors willingly inflicted on black and brown and indigenous peoples and then went into tea and off to praise their white god in church.
And my own desire to distance from hearing and learning and loving my brothers and sisters.
Thank you for calling me out and naming my HIPP
The Speaker have a great way to see the racing but when we understand the past pointing to a white privileged body we are not going to anywhere, the goal is transmuted all that pass for a better understanding our conditioning and try to find out what is our personal and global propose to build a healthier balanced Human kind .
There are many different types of intelligence; however, in our society it is certain types of intelligences that are valued. When we over-value certain types as being superior, those with the “other” intelligence are marginalized and under-valued. This creates an us and them mentality.
Wonderful; helpful,enlightening
So happy and thankful for the wisdom that is being shared!
So easy to access, and how wonderful that you have developed this wealth of helpful instruction through the tremendous wisdom and generosity of the panel speakers. So helpful in these awful times which are challenging each, and all of us. Thanks, I am deeply grateful! Audrey Cole.
Happy
Happy and thankful