“When two or more unfamiliar bodies first encounter one another, each body goes on alert while its lizard brain discerns, ASAP, whether the body is safe or dangerous. One shortcut the lizard brain uses to make this determination is by asking, ‘How closely does this body match mine?’ The lizard brain then tells the body to either relax in recognition or constrict in self-protection. Both white and Black bodies often do this.”
“Most forms of dialogue, diversity training, and other cognitive interventions are going to have little effect on this reflexive fear response.”
QUOTES from Syllabus in April – Chapters 4, 5, 6, Pages 57-96 from My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Part 1: UNARMED and DISMEMBERED, Chapter 6: Violating the Black Body (Pages 91 and 96)
#HowWeHeal Book Club on Racialized Trauma, 2nd Tuesdays, February through November, 6 to 7 pm, on Zoom. For more details on meetings, please use the Facebook Page link on our Website Home Page and open “Events.” THANK YOU!
Published by Joanne Scott Woods, M.A., M.Ed.
Coordinator of People Demanding Justice Community Coalition (formerly People Demanding Action Community Coalition with Geoff Woods, Chapter Leader, Joanne Scott Woods, Chapter Secretary, and Dan O’Neal, State Director) /
Organized in 2015, Currently a Racial Justice and Racial Healing Nonprofit /
Spokesperson for the Family of Fallen Phoenix Citizen Rumain Brisbon, December 2, 2014, along with Geoff Woods /
Metropolitan Phoenix Citizen Advocate for Kim Baker and Family Since 2015 /
Committee Chairman, “Ten Solutions to Build Trust in Our City,” in Collaboration with the Phoenix Police Department, Executive Assistant Chief Michael Kurtenbach, 2015-2020, People Demanding Justice Community Coalition with Geoff Woods, Chapter Leader and Contributor, Joanne Scott Woods, Chapter Secretary and Contributor, and Wade Padgett, Contributor, and Contributors from Coalition Members of Arizona Black Lives Matter Chair Reverend Reginald Walton and Co-Chair J.J. Johnson, now J.J. Westgate /
Author of “Ten Solutions to Promote the Healing of Racialized Trauma,” 2020 /
Facilitator, #HowWeHeal Book Club on Racialized Trauma, 2020 /
Secretary of Somos America Coalition, 2016 /
Director of Arizona Communities for Change Public Forums, 2016 /
Acting Secretary of Arizona Black Lives Matter, Reverend Reginald Walton, Chair, 2015
View all posts by Joanne Scott Woods, M.A., M.Ed.
