Many of us understand the importance of yoga and mindfulness. But when you do not have basic necessities like food, shelter, and visibility, you will have difficulty accessing your consciousness. Over the past summer, with growing food lines, police brutality, and a political divide that rocked the country to its core, we saw the struggles that Black and brown communities face being played out time and again. Katara Mccarty has made it her life’s mission to reach out to Black, indigenous, and women of color through her speaking, writing, and philanthropic work. 2020 gave her the fuel to redirect her focus, bringing mindfulness techniques to Black and brown communities through her app, EXHALE. In this conversation, Katara opens up about how being adopted by a Black mother and accepted into the community led her to philanthropic work. We talk about her experience of running a truly inclusive church, given that a lot of organized religion is not accepting of everyone. Our conversation then moves onto systemic racism, where we touch on how we, as individuals, can work to dismantle it, and the power that comes with being open to learning. As we wrap up, we touch on the wellness space and how, through its whiteness, it excludes and can even harm marginalized communities. Taking apart systemic racism is not easy, and we might feel as though we have no part to play. Our actions do not have to be perfect. However, if we approach change with vulnerability and humility, we can make a difference.
Key Points From This Episode:
• Why Katara struggled with a sense of belonging despite having a supportive community.
• The story of Katara’s spiritual journey and how she met her husband.
• The importance of acknowledging the systemic racism that we are upholding.
• Why sitting in neutral and saying you are not racist does not create change.
• It's not that systemic racism does not benefit Black and brown people; it literally kills them.
• Why Katara believes that anti-racism is a practice rather than an endpoint.
• We have to be willing to change and evolve and accept that it will be messy.
• The work that the yoga and mindfulness spaces have to do to be more inclusive.
• Difficulties that Black and brown women have in predominantly white wellness spaces.
• When we think about antiracism, it’s about Black and brown liberation.
• We need to move past an all-or-nothing mentality; there is a full spectrum in between.
• Katara’s impetus for starting the EXHALE app and the feedback she has received.
• How Katara believes we can educate our children about racism; we can learn with them.
• We need brave spaces, not safe spaces for Black and brown people.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: