CELEBRATING CROSS-CULTURAL IDENTITY
@CULTURSMAG
WWW.CULTURSMAG.COM
DEFINING
BLACKNESS
AROUND THE GLOBE
TIME FOR
CHANGE PANDEMIC:
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
PRACTICAL WAYS
THRIVING
WHITE FRAGILITY
A DIFFERENCE
SURVIVING AND
ROBIN DIANGELO ON
YOU CAN MAKE
CONTENTS
SUMMER 2020
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FEATURES ON OUR COVER
66 What Blackness Looks Like
Around the globe, definitions of Blackness may differ, and some don’t even consider it a thing. These individuals want to share their thoughts.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
24 Pandemic: Surviving and Thriving
From Shanghai to Toronto; Tokyo to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, we share cross-cultural perspectives on the COVID-19 experience. Practical Ways You Can Make a Difference:
56 Of Tradition, Food and Culture
A Swedish international adoptee explains how food cements culture in her family
62 White Fragility:
Exclusive Interview with Robin DiAngelo It’s the term that runs chills down many a spine around the globe today. DiAngelo explains why she’s making her mark worldwide, and why her New York Times Bestseller contains lessons from which we all can learn.
88 Truth, Justice and the American Way
A TCK lawyer, a forensic scientist and a filmmaker produce a documentary on the U.S. justice system through a case study of one man’s fight for freedom.
112 History Pre-written Transgenerational transfer of trauma, system racism and unresolved grief. Dr. Paulette Bethel discusses how trauma can plague families throughout the generations.
PRACTICAL WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
120 10 things in 10 days
A primer on being a good ally to people of color.
122 Anti-racism Resources We start it here and finish online, but with this overflowing list, there are at least one or two things that will help you commit.
THE MUST LIST 88 Must See:
Truth, Justice and the American Way
90 Must Do:
The Sundance Experience
94 Must Know: African American Princesses 103 Must Read: Period Love
IN EVERY ISSUE 6
Contributors
104 Must Read: Who Am I?
10
Culturally Fluid Definitions
105 Must Have: Hawaiian Prayer
12
Publisher’s Letter
14
Executive Strategist
19
Cultural Connections
106 Technology 116 Yoga Science for Yoga Mastery
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CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES DURING PANDEMIC 24
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any within our cross-cultural, intersectional community rely on a variety of strategies to keep ourselves grounded among chaos. Yet, who would have expected a global pandemic would spur the masses to remember the wisdom of keeping body and soul together during difficult times? In our series examining COVID-19 among our geographically mobile community, we take a peek behind each continent’s curtain. We will visit and examine perspectives from Culturs contributors, correspondents and editors from almost every continent around the globe: Asia, the Americas, Europe and beyond. We begin with Shanghai.
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SHANGHAI,
CHINA AFTER THIS, SHALL WE MEET AGAIN? by Xiaoya Cheng
S
hanghai, the most prosperous and busiest city in China, just had been through a time of desolation. I went back to Shanghai from London in December 2019. The city was alive — as it usually was back then. I had a really relaxing time hanging out with my old friends and family in a very short time before the COVID-19 took over. There weren’t any extraordinary signs before this enormous epidemic disaster approached. It all started from a rumor that said an unknown virus was found in Wuhan, China, that people half-believed in and even joked about. In no time, it was certified by officials. We saw the
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Shanghai, China cityscape
confirmed infection cases surge day by day. People were getting more and more panicked and too afraid to go out where self-quarantine started. Europe and some other regions in the world were so quiet and secure when China had started all the chaos. Just like the calm before the storm.
FIRST CHINA, THEN EUROPE My sister who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, was crazily worried about our parents and me since we were out of any medical sanitary goods and hardly found any place to buy them. She bought some facial masks and sanitizer in Europe. Because the shipping policy says that no alcohol contained items can be
shipped, she only sent us four packs of medical facial masks. After a few days, we received the facial masks from my sister. Within two weeks, Europe was submerged by COVID-19. The confirmed cases number was increasing rapidly in Switzerland. My sister is pregnant and living with two children which made my parents worry more about her family’s safety. We even considered sending back some of the facial masks we had just received from her since she couldn’t find any in stock. All she had were the three bottles of sanitizer that she wanted to send to us initially. These few months we never stopped feeling anxious and worried about each other. www.CultursMag.com
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CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES DURING PANDEMIC by Antoinette Toscano
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Colton Nelson
Colton Nelson and Sara Bianchini outside her parents’ home in Treviso, Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
any within our cross-cultural, intersectional community rely on skills to keep
ourselves grounded among chaos. Yet, who would have expected a global pandemic would spur the masses to remember the wisdom of keeping body and soul together during difficult times? In our series examining COVID-19 among our globally mobile community, we take a peek behind each continent’s curtain. Our second destination, after Shanghai, is Italy. 30
ITALY
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Practices of getting by with few resources during the worst of times were recently relied on during the: • 1918 — Influenza pandemic (often called the Spanish Flu) • 1918 — World War I • 1939 — World War II • 1930 — The worldwide economic depression • 2007 — The global Great Recession Most families no longer teach this sort of long-term resiliency. According to the International Monetary Fund, many people view these days as the most emotionally and economically challenging since the Great Depression. Loss or reduction in income, quarantine, isolation, social distancing required to contain the spread of coronavirus, in addition to homeschooling children and loss of routine, are pushing many to their personal edge.
GLOBALLY MOBILE MILLENNIALS DRAWING FROM THE PAST Some have continued these traditions of long-term resilience on a consistent basis and they have a wealth of knowledge to teach.
of controlled chaos and not everything goes according to plan. Learning to embrace this allows for better peace of mind. Instead of focusing on the bad, look for the positives. Stay calm and don’t let the stress of a situation that is out of your control overwhelm you. Just do what you can and move forward.”
UNITY IS INSPIRING Husband and wife — Colton Nelson, 24, of Idaho, USA, and Sara Bianchini, 23, of Italy, are in Bianchini’s hometown of Treviso, Italy — 20 minutes north of Venice. It is also near one of COVID-19’s hardest-hit regions in the country — Lombardia — which currently has more than 70,000 people tested positive for the virus. I spoke with the couple about their ongoing experience in a country heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
RESURGENCE OF FAMILY VALUES DURING A PANDEMIC Bianchini, experienced a return to her traditional Italian values of family connectedness as a result of the pandemic. “Even if it might sound obvious, what I learned (through) this quarantine is not to take anything for granted. I think (we) Italians have always been a very outgoing and social population. Being forced to stay at home away from friends and amusements has
Nelson grew up in rural Idaho and he spent a lot of time on his grandparent’s cattle ranch in Montana, USA. He relied on a philosophy that was instilled in him on the ranch and it was “aggressively put into practice” during his time in the U.S. military. “I learned a concept during my time in the Marine Corps that we called ‘embracing the suck’ which is to consciously accept or appreciate something that is extremely unpleasant but unavoidable for forward progress,” Nelson said. “Basically what this means is that you need to understand that sometimes things are out of your control. We live in a constant state
Daniele Mascolo
LESSONS FROM THE CORPS
been very challenging. “When all these things were taken away from us, we were in shock and disbelief. Because our way of living was changed dramatically.” “On the weekend, people are now at home with their family playing cards, cooking dinner together, watching movies and so on. [This was] something unthinkable a few weeks ago because we were too busy taking care of our social life.” Sara continued by saying, “When lockdown began people started to get together (on) their balconies to sing and hold each other up with the motto: Everything will be okay.” “ ‘Andra’ tutto bene’ — everything will be OK).’ “A solidarity that I’ve never seen before. I learned … that staying united is fundamental to (getting) through a tragic moment.”
Italian man on a balcony with a sign reading “Andra tutto bene” — everything will be OK.
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CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES DURING PANDEMIC by Antoinette Toscano 32
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NEW YORK CITY,
U.S.A.
Mustapha Abdul-Rahiim
Chef Mustapha Abdul-Rahiim standing outside in Brooklyn, USA during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I
n New York City, USA, Global Nomad and Chef Mustapha Abdul-Rahiim, 38, offers practical food advice to get you through the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. He gives actionable steps that anyone can use to thrive during a pandemic when store shelves are nearly empty. “As a chef, I was able to absorb the culture of international food first-hand. Tasting what freshness and Non-GMO meant … the care and attention to quality, presentation details and ingredients whilst remaining simple and pure … was unique to see. Also, I appreciated the amount of history behind the food and what it meant to the people [in each country].” Before the pandemic, Mustapha was an executive chef at a Park Avenue Club in Manhattan, USA. He is also a culinary teacher and restaurant consultant at Herbncooking. Mustapha picked up many lessons and local knowledge during his travels in Japan, Canada, Panama and throughout Europe.
ADVICE FOR THRIVING DURING A PANDEMIC During the initial, new coronavirus “lock down,” whilst everyone seemed to buy toilet paper and pounds of perishable goods, I was planning for the future (and) trying to be as self-sustainable during these hard times as much as possible.”
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Courtesy of Arina Merkulova.
Former Israel Defense Forces sniper — Arina Merkulova, holding a TAVOR/TAR21 rifle.
CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES DURING PANDEMIC by Antoinette Toscano
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RUSSIA
F
ormer Israel Defense Forces combat sniper, and Adult Third Culture Kid — Arina Merkulova, 29, shares the Russian wisdom and resiliency that she learned from her family’s traditions and culture to survive and thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic “stay at home” order in Calif., USA. Merkulova — now a citizen of the United States and a former member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan — a Central Asian nation and formerly part of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Her hardy cultural heritage and experiences offer valuable lessons for thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic.
BREAD IS THE STAFF OF LIFE “My grandmother would wake up before sunrise to stand hours on end in long lines for a few (loaves) of white bread and some milk. There is an old Russian saying, ‘bread is the staff of life,’ so if you have bread and salt, life will go on,” she says. Even now, in Russian culture it is a “huge faux pas,” to throw bread away — according to Merkulova. Before moving to the United States, Merkulova’s mother recalled that families would begin buying food for New Year’s dinner celebration in the summer of the previous year because there were constant food shortages. “It was hard for me to fully grasp this because I was raised in America — land of the plenty. Anticipating this, my mother taught me simple life skills like growing our own food, tending to livestock, making our own bread, cheese, etc. My father taught me to fish, hunt, build shelter, survive.” www.CultursMag.com
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Justin Rice-Moore
Claudia Koerbler and Noan
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AUSTRIA
To my son, born in the time of coronavirus and social distancing.
A GLOBAL MOM’S LETTER by Claudia Koerbler
My dearest Noan,
T
oday on our first Mother’s Day I write a letter to you my son. In the last couple of months, we have executed social distancing and stayed at home while the world was taking a breather and using technology to feel a sense of human connection. The most poignant evidence that you were born into a new sense of reality was when you felt your mother’s kiss through a P-100 face mask. We wear those masks when we leave our so-called “isolation castle.” Once this pandemic rolls over you will have had just enough of a taste of life as we knew it while a new normal will create itself organically.
The last time my home country faced similar circumstances (which goes hand-in-hand with an economic fallout), was during World War II (WWII); right after which the Republic of Austria was founded. This was exactly 75 years ago. During Corona, we are doing something that will be remembered as #TogetherAlone and things that have been on your mom’s bucket list during her pregnancy. Such as practicing more yoga together and reading children’s books your papa sent. I am saying this with hopes that once the lock-down is over and we look-out into this world again, that we raise our level of mindfulness and awareness.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
MY WISH FOR YOU
What a great challenge lies uniquely before you in these trying times, my dear son. Your little mind has already witnessed a global pandemic and one day we will tell you stories on how humans would unleash an invisible enemy of a virus. You are the child of parents from Austria and the United States with two different cultures, histories and mindsets. As a global citizen, your parents will encourage you to embrace everything both cultures have to offer for the rest of your life. You were inherently born into a globalized world in which traveling to both sets of your families is something you will have been accustomed to from the beginning. Right now, no continental crossing is possible. For the first time, even in my life, airports are closed, borders are locked down, and whilst we sit here in the rolling hills of Austria the world for once has come to a standstill.
There are so many more things I hope for you dear Noan. The most important thing is that you will continue to be able to roam around free in this world without any fear of an unknown enemy but rather live your childhood with a sense of normalcy. I wish for you and your generation the ability to adapt to a new understanding of globalization and cultural interaction. I wish you abundance and love at its purest form and that you will get a chance to immerse yourself into many cultures as freely as you want and learn from them as you grow up.
TO ALL THE MAMAS I write this letter to you but also to any global mother to lend support during this time, in the untenable circumstances where you now find yourselves. Many of you have already forsworn, what seemed at the time, to be unfathomable. As you www.CultursMag.com
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Also, while living in a Southeast Asian megacity, my family would celebrate the traditional MidAutumn Festival with other families at the beach, lighting lanterns and sending them out to sea ceremoniously at night. My parents explained that as guests in a culture, it’s important to observe and respect local culture and traditions.
A SENSE OF CONTINUITY My mum instilled Swedish traditions by decking our homes with festival-appropriate decorations, often hand-embroidered or hand-painted. With traditional cooking, decorations and celebrations no matter where we were stationed in the world, my sister and I received a solid foundation of continuity in our upbringing. This was further strengthened as we enjoyed close ties with a network of Scandinavian families wherever we lived, with whom we could celebrate our traditions. Regarding our Indian heritage, growing up overseas was a blessing as it allowed my family frequent trips to see family friends in India and close school friends with Southeast Asian backgrounds. Together with my mum’s love for cooking Indian food, this enabled me to seamlessly blend my Indian heritage and Swedish identity together. By teaching children about their birth country as well as their passport country, while at the same time encouraging them to immerse themselves in local customs, children not only gain a healthy sense of self, but also a respect for all cultures and walks of life — a mark of a true citizen of the world. Here are some tips for families with children growing up in a globally mobile family as TCKs and as international adoptees.
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CULTURALLY FLUID CHILDREN: TIPS TO STRENGTHEN IDENTITY • Talk early about adoption, what it means. • Educate your child on their birth country and culture so they can from a young age form an understanding of their heritage. • Also teach early on about your child’s passport country, culture and language, so your child can easily repatriate if they would like to as an adult. • Show a genuine interest in the local culture to educate your child that respect for all cultures is important to develop empathy for fellow human beings. My parents emphasized that, living as an expat family overseas, we were always a guest in someone’s country. • Foster healthy family traditions that your child can hold onto as a common thread through your international moves. • Surround your family with close friends — either locally or via distance — who can act as your family’s inner network, a safe constant in your child’s sometimes turbulent globally mobile life.
Emily P. Lawsin (L to R) Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs.
ASIAN ALLIES:
THE ACTIVISM WE NEED TODAY
WHY THE ASIAN AMERICAN BATTLE AGAINST RACISM CANNOT BE COMPARTMENTALIZED. by Myra Dumapais, M.S.W.
“I
“It looked like a sieve,” he says. Over Vietnamese sandwiches and chilled yellow boxes of Chrysanthemum tea, my mentor describes what he witnessed in the late 60s about a shootout that killed a vehicle-full of Black Panthers across the street. It was a stark reminder that the Civil Rights movement was still recent, as one of my own Asian American mentors, in flesh and blood, tells the story
as if it just happened the day before. In between briefing sessions of my early community organizing days in Los Angeles, preparing to be a public speaker and volunteer coordinator, I realized that the Asian American battle against racism cannot be compartmentalized from the fight to end racism against African Americans. Even though I had not identified as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) yet, my understanding of racism at this point was from an incident of housing discrimination from a property owner in Germany, www.CultursMag.com
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THE DIANGELO FILES CANDID CONVERSATIONS WITH THE AUTHOR OF “WHITE FRAGILITY”
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WHY IT’S SO HARD FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT RACE. by Donnyale Ambrosine
T
hinking back, I wonder what ran through the author’s mind when I said, “It’s different.” I remember the long, heavy silence of the very pregnant pause. Then the brusk, “I think it’s the same.” That was our interaction toward the end of my interview with Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” The book is arguably one of today’s most essential primers on racism and its foundation of white supremacy. DiAngelo, a white scholar and researcher, has spent two decades immersed in the study of whiteness. Formerly a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University, she’s been a lecturer, consultant and trainer on race and social justice for more than twenty years. “White Fragility,” her most recent book, spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and recently toppled “The Hunger Games” prequel for the top spot on USA Today’s best-selling books list. It joined four other race-related books that comprised half of the paper’s top ten list. According to USA Today, Since the May 25 death of George Floyd re-ignited the Black Lives Matter movement and pushed it to a global scale, sales of books on race and racism have skyrocketed. Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A., knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, ignoring Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. DiAngelo and I discussed many a “fragile whiteness” scenario the day we spoke — including
the nature of those with geographic mobility during formative years (especially international mobility amongst disparate cultures and especially for people of color). Like many who identify as Third Culture, I was stuck in the notion that we are special in this regard — the cultural regard — in understanding, in openmindedness, in fluidity and acceptance of culture, race and many of the nuances that come with them. “Racism in the United States is different,” I offered, much like I’ve heard from many other Third Culture Kids (TCKs), including TCKs of color. I think the remark dumfounded DiAngelo, if only during the brief time of that pregnant pause. Less than a year later, her meaning was crystal clear. During that year, I’d had multiple opportunities to interact with people on a professional level around the globe. Less knowing them through friendship, travel or schooling, and more through the lens of work and career. There, it was clear— an undercurrent seen in U.S. racism — the more insidious behind-the-veil, under-the-breath, barely acknowledged truth of what DiAngelo tried to convey that day. What she conveyed is that undercurrent is not just in the U.S., rather it’s the foundation of all western society and those they touch. The “spearhead” of the experience that opened my eyes hailed from Europe, and another from Canada (Yes, kind, empathetic, we embrace everyoneCanada). It was an experience so subtle, that it took me decades to put my finger on how it operates in corporate America and U.S. higher education circles. The realization hit me profoundly, as previous to this, I had taken personal responsibility thinking my individual shortcomings must be altered in order to www.CultursMag.com
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WHAT IS BLACK? IN TERMS OF PEOPLE, BLACKNESS IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH HOMOGENEITY. by Donnyale Ambrosine
A
round the globe, no matter where you find the shade of skin that ranges from milky to mocha, deep chocolate to charcoal, as varied as the skin tone, so are the representations and cultures. Yet many reduce the plethora of rich experiences, food, traditions and people to a single term. Media mogul Oprah Winfrey once shared her experience with identity naming in the United States, musing during a speech that in her lifetime of sixty-some years, she’s been referred to as negro, then colored, then black, African American and now a person of color. Not everyone within this group may agree on how to be referenced, but most see and experience, racism, oppression and the ever-present boot of white supremacy in social structures worldwide. As far as how she identifies, “I am neither racially white or black,” says Miya Kim during our conversation in the Facebook group “Third Culture Kids Everywhere.” Kim was born in South Korea, lived in Germany during adolescence and currently resides in Calif., U.S.A. She cites many reasons for complexity in how black people identify, elucidating that, “Being a TCK should not be an excuse to stay indifferent to the matters of white privilege in a society. But, our experiences can help amplify [and] address injustices in the world, including generational effects/ consequences of colonialism, institutionalized racism and exploitation and how they have affected communities of color.” 66
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Afro-Latin TCK Stephany Amalia agrees, saying “Let’s stop calling people by their skin color all together and let’s start defining them by ethnicity. Not black people as if we’re one big homogeneous group, but African-American, Surinamese, Nigerian, Ghanaian, etc. I never call myself black and don’t define myself by a simple skin color, but I’m proudly Surinamese/Venezuelan. My culture/attitude/norms/ values are related to my ethnicity and TCKness, not my skin color. Currently living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amilia thinks we should center ourselves locally. “You can’t compare the struggle of African-Americans to the struggle of Surinamese or Curaçaoans in The Netherlands for example,” she says. As a TCK I grew up in a very inclusive, international community, meaning that my experiences vary greatly from many sharing the same skin color as me, as my experiences have been positive.” Amilia feels that by defining self and others by skin color, individuals are reducing their humanity to a single element. “We’re more complicated than that,” she argues. Speaking to the complexity of the black immigrant experience in the U.S., Itoro Bassey and Ugo Edu bring it all full circle in their article “Anti-Blackness and the African Immigrant,” published on Medium. “We all know that whether it’s Okonkwo or Otis walking down the street, when the police officer stops and frisks you, or when Karen clutches her purse when she sees you, or when you get passed over for that job because your workplace feels more comfortable with Andy’s ‘style,’ it don’t matter if you’re from Lagos or from the U.S. south. That’s the black experience. Like it or not, Okonkwo and Otis are linked through a common struggle.” There’s so much more to be said about that struggle. Here, we bring six additional human stories from all backgrounds, nations and mixes and to try to put the experience into terms which we all can relate.
BLACKNESS
LOOKS LIKE
STOP
TRYING TO DILUTE OR EXPLAIN AWAY MY TRUTH
A NIGERIAN WORLD TRAVELER LIVING IN THE U.K. SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
by Omoruyi (Omo) Osagiede | Photography by Eulanda Shead-Osagiede
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he George Floyd video (the one with the Minnesota police officer’s knee on his neck as Floyd gasped for breath and pled for his life) continues to haunt me. May Floyd find the justice in death that he was so brutally denied in life. www.CultursMag.com
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WHAT
From shows to watch and songs to hear, to artistry, shopping and things to explore, know and do, here's a specially curated list of things we recommend as MUST experience items for the culturally fluid.
THEMUSTLIST PRINCESS OBSIDIAN Model: Zaria Amiyah Creative Director/ Hairstylist: LaChanda Gatson Photography: Creative Soul Photography Make Up: Chabrea Martin Make Up: Keisha Tate Stylist: Yvonne Mwazo Assistant Stylist : Bebe Couri
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Yazz Atmore, founder of Crowned Curls www.CultursMag.com
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Illustration by Diana Vega
Breathe. If only for a moment. Collapse if you must. Rest. A powerful ritual. You will return here often. Give thanks to your body. It has carried you through the revolution. We need you well & healthy. We need you to do your part.
MUST l SEE
African American
Princesses PRINCESS EMERALD Model: Cassidy Fralin Creative Director/ Hairstylist: LaChanda Gatson Photography: Creative Soul Photography Make Up: Chabrea Martin Make Up: Keisha Tate Stylist: Yvonne 94 Mwazo Summer 2020 | www.CultursMag.com Assistant Stylist : Bebe Couri
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aChanda Gatson had a dream. The international hairstylist has worked extensively in Hollywood and wanted to depict African-American girls as princesses — complete with all the finest regalia. “People never think of a hairstylist doing something like this. They always think it’s a photographer,” she says. But the vision, all the details, and coordination of the project were her brainchild from start to finish. “Hairstyling is my artistic expression and creative outlet.” The result — we get to revel in the splendor of her African American Princesses.
PRINCESS TIGERS EYE Model: Jordyn Curlett Creative Director/ Hairstylist: LaChanda Gatson Photography: Creative Soul Photography Make Up: Chabrea Martin Make Up: Keisha Tate Stylist: Yvonne Mwazo Assistant Stylist : Bebe Couri
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MUST l READ
WHERE AM I FROM?
A
uthor Elisavet Arkolaki and her family are from everywhere. Passionate about travel and inspired by global learning, she raises her own children in-between countries, cultures and languages. She writes to build cultural understanding and sensitivity in young children while they are still eager to learn. Along with Greek Artist Platon, “Where Am I From?” is wonderfully illustrated and explores the world through the wonder and colorful fancy of a child’s open mind. $17.95 hardcover, $9.99 paperback at Amazon.com
All the children of the world united. ‘We’re going to solve this riddle,’ they decided. They were confused but quite excited.
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HAWAIIAN PRAYER
H
MUST l HAVE
o’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice for forgiveness and reconciliation. Ho’o (“to make”) and pono (“right”). The philosophy behind this practice is
that we’re each responsible for what shows up in our reality. We own our feelings and our experiences. So even if someone else has wronged us, we’re the ones saying “I am sorry. Forgive me.” The foundation of this practice is unity: an unbreakable bond that connects you to everyone else, even though we seem so separate. Across all cultures, we all agree that the concepts of thank you, I’m sorry, please forgive me and I love you are all valuable and important. By activating this mantra in your life, you initiate the act and intention of holding space for reflection, repentance, forgiveness, and gratitude. Ho’oponopono contains an awareness that the discordance we find in others and in the world outside ourselves is due to “errors” in thought stored in our personal and collective memories. It’s more than the prayer alone; it’s a process of making things right in your relationships — with others, ancestors, deities, the earth, yourself. Artist Sandra Kusano writes, “my interpretation of this prayer was inspired by recent events surrounding the loss of our brother, George Floyd and the countless others around the globe, some whose name we know and some who have gone nameless. My intention is to honour the gorgeous tones of humanity which blend into one another so naturally and effortlessly. My wish is that we heal from the inside out and allow the ripple of hope to fill every corner of our planet. It is my honour to share it with you.” Instant download: $4.49, GoingKnowhere.Today/shop. Use code: CULTURS for 10% off at checkout.
I used to feel bad that I didn’t have a solid identity with a specific culture and nationality. I envied friends who confidently exclaimed they were “X” without hesitation. I am a KoreanJapanese-American but I proudly identify as a global citizen. Who I am today, is layer upon layer of interactions with people from many cultures around the globe. My life’s passion is exploring both the outer and inner world. — Sandra Kusano
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TECHNOLOGY
Photography courtesy of Uncharted Power
by Andrea Bazoin, M.Ed., Founder of everHuman
Jessica Matthews
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TECHNOLOGY
JESSICA MATTHEWS IS
POWERFULLY UNCHARTED CEO Jessica Matthews is about movement.
H
er dual citizenship comes from the movement of her parents, who emigrated from Nigeria to New York, USA, where she was raised. As a junior at Harvard University, Matthews invented the SOCCKET Ball, a soccer ball that captures and stores Motion-based, Off-grid, Renewable Energy (MORE) to power homes in the developing world. In 2011, Matthews founded Uncharted Power with a mission to utilize the untapped clean, renewable, kinetic energy (the energy of movement) to power rapidly-developing smart communities across the world. In 2017, the team raised over $7M in Series A venture capital. Now in its fourth iteration, Uncharted Power’s Think Out of Bounds educational curriculum has created a movement to empower young inventors through partnerships with local nonprofits in the United States (New York, Maryland, Florida), Africa (Nigeria and Swaziland), Europe (Germany) and Puerto Rico.
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HISTORY PRE-WRITTEN:
TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSFER OF
TRAUMA, SYSTEMIC RACISM AND UNRESOLVED GRIEF.
W
by Paulette Bethel, PhD, CTRC-A, CMC
hen I was seven years old, I went for an extended visit with my treasured great-grandmother. Always a highpoint of summer vacations, I indelibly remember the excitement of being invited to attend mass with one of my favorite great uncles and his daughters.
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the catholic custom for females to keep their heads covered). These are the things that build wonderfully, enjoyable childhood memories. That same morning, I also remember a strange woman walking quickly toward us in a way that I could see concerned my uncle. Without addressing or acknowledging my uncle, she pushed her body passed him and attempted to remove me from his care. Fearful, I pulled back and buried my face against his body for protection. She responded by pulling on me even harder and saying, “Honey, you need to come with me. You are in the wrong part of the church. You belong in the front with the white people.” Pulling me out, she quickly ferried me to the front of the church.
RUN BABY, RUN
Upon arrival, we settled into the pews near the back of what I now know was a segregated Catholic church. I was happily seated between he and my older cousins, feeling secure and loved. I still vividly remember my wonderment at observing my very gentle and elegant uncle carefully remove his fedora from his head and gingerly placing it next to him. I followed his example by removing my white lace head covering. My older cousins began to chuckle in amusement, as he quickly replaced it (at that time, it was
After being reseated and feeling scared, bewildered and having no idea why she had removed me, I immediately got up and ran to the back of the church screaming, “I want my uncle!” To this day, I can see the hauntingly silent and stoned look on my uncle’s face, as I crawled back to safety, sitting next to him. When we finally reached the car after mass ended, my cousins humorously (protective coping mechanism) explained what had transpired: It was due to my racially mixed background and ambiguous appearance. Though this story eventually became a lighthearted legend within my family, I never once heard my uncle speak of it. At the tender age of seven, and before I even learned the language
to name it, I had experienced the painful reality of racism. Though young when my story occurred, 60 years later I still recall it as if it happened yesterday.
RACISM, COLORISM AND HISTORY This early Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) encounter exposed and hurled me into the ugly sheets of racism, colorism and a history rooted in the vestiges of slavery in the Americas. I suspect that the silence I witnessed with my beloved uncle was a strong survival response, in reaction to behaviors frozen in the history and the iniquities of white supremacy, or what Ta Nehisi Coates describes as visceral experience, that dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth…
THE EFFECTS OF GENERATIONAL TRAUMA “Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma Across Generations,” a compilation of essays edited by M. Gerard Fromm, sums it up this way: “The effects in Africandescended communities, trauma is passed down like an inheritance. What human beings cannot contain of their experience — what has been traumatically overwhelming, unbearable, unthinkable — falls out of social discourse, but very often onto and into the next generation as an affective sensitivity or a chaotic urgency.” According to psychiatrist Dekel Goldblatt, transgenerational trauma, or
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ANTI-RACISM RESOURCES THIRD CULTURE SUPPORT RESOURCES WEBSITES:
ON FACEBOOK:
• BratsWithoutBorders.com • CultursMag.com • CrossCulturalKid.org
ON INSTAGRAM: • Cultursmag • ExpatKid • TcKidNow
• BRATS: Our Journey Home • CultursMag • Third Culture Kids Everywhere This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
RESOURCES FOR WHITE PARENTS TO RAISE ANTI-RACIST CHILDREN: • • •
Books: 31 Children’s books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance Podcasts: Fare of the Free Child podcast Articles: PBS’s Teaching Your Child About Black History Month
ARTICLES TO READ: • • •
“America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” by Adam Serwer | Atlantic (May 8, 2020) Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists ”My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas | NYT Mag (June 22, 2011)
VIDEOS TO WATCH: •
•
Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers (50:48) “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion” | Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools (18:26)
PODCASTS TO SUBSCRIBE TO: • • •
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1619 (New York Times) About Race Code Switch (NPR)
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BOOKS TO READ: • • •
Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
FILMS AND TV SERIES TO WATCH: • • •
13th (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix American Son (Kenny Leon) — Netflix Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 — Rental
ORGANIZATIONS TO FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA: • • •
Antiracism Center: Twitter Audre Lorde Project: Twitter | Insta | Facebook Black Women’s Blueprint: Twitter | Insta | Facebook
MORE ANTI-RACISM RESOURCES TO CHECK OUT: • • •
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice Anti-Racism Project Jenna Arnold’s resources (books and people to follow)
Hover your smartphone here or CultursMag.com/antiracism-resources for a full list of more than 100 resources
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