CHOOSE A NEW FREQUENCY
Aggressively attempting to root out racism within your being, while well-intentioned and certainly not wrong, is like hearing a racist song on your radio and then trying to pry it out with a screwdriver.
The racist song is not the possession of the radio. The radio is not inherently, essentially racist. It is innocently receiving the frequencies of that racist song because it has the capacity to do so, and that is the frequency it is currently attuned to. When the song stops, so does the racist radio. It was always just a radio, temporarily expressing a racist song.
We, as metaphorical radios, receivers of frequency and information otherwise known as thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences, have the opportunity to be mindful of whatever song is currently playing out through us, and from a space of curiosity and interest discover that the songs alive within us are not ultimately who we are. “Ah, listen to this! Racist thoughts are playing on my radio right now. How interesting. Perhaps I can choose to tune to a different station?” As opposed to “Oh no! This song playing right now is MINE! It’s ME! I MUST DESTROY IT!”
The frequency band of racism is utterly real. There is no denying that. Our lived experience of racism is equally real. The illusion is that the frequency of racism is a permanent fixture of who we truly are, that our racist thoughts, tendencies, and patterns say something true and meaningful about our ultimate existential being.
One minute of compassionate, engaged listening to a song on the radio you hate and then consciously choosing to tune into a different station is more effective and beneficial to self and other than tearing apart ten thousand radios that happen to be playing a song you hate.
You are free to adopt either strategy at any time, and each is equally valid in the eyes of consciousness. You will learn and grow from either strategy, and that’s guaranteed. But ask yourself, if you are tired of tearing apart radios to rid them of bad songs: “If I had a choice, a real, tangible choice, right here and now, which would I choose? Which strategy feels better, healthier, saner, more productive, more holistically good for me and those around me?”
Whenever we are confronted with dark energies and patterns that are making themselves known to us, we can either allow them to cause us to hate ourselves and beat on ourselves and rip ourselves apart... or we can allow them to open us up to how exquisitely sensitive we are to ALL frequencies of experience... not just the ones we prefer. This choice, no matter how obscured or seemingly impossible it may seem at the moment, is eternally present.