Description
in this episode, erich reflects on why the language of liberation feels more accurate than anti racism to his lived experience. drawing from personal reflection, spiritual frameworks, and liberatory thinkers, this transmission explores the difference between opposition and wholeness, between reacting to injustice and moving toward collective healing.
rather than framing the work as something we fight against, this episode invites a reorientation toward what we are moving into. more self knowledge. more ease. more relational honesty. more humanity.
liberation, as explored here, is not a denial of racism or injustice. it is an invitation to work at a different frequency. one rooted in wholeness rather than fragmentation, and in possibility rather than shame or domination.
Transcript
white people black music and liberation
Welcome to white people black music and liberation.
I’m erich, and I’m here on the journey with you.
This is a transmission at the intersection of race, music, and spirituality.
It’s about moving past the programming and into liberation.
beyond anti-racism, into liberation
why liberation
So why is the word liberation so important to this whole discussion?
First, one thing I want to name for myself is that in doing these episodes, I’ve come up against a significant amount of fear on my end. And that fear isn’t of folks who are white nationalists or who espouse explicit racist beliefs.
That fear is actually of the backlash I might receive from people who identify as progressive or liberal.
And that’s because the way these things are often talked about, the way anti racism is often talked about, simply hasn’t been my lived experience.
The central reason I want to do this podcast is because in doing my own work around what people call anti racism, meaning unblocking the anti Black and anti brown programming that I inherited from this society, that process has given me a tremendous amount of what I would call liberation.
When I say liberation, I mean wholeness.
I mean moving from fragmentation into wholeness.
I mean more self knowledge, more ease with myself, more ease not just with Black and brown folks, but also with white folks.
For me, it has been unilaterally an experience of greater and greater degrees of freedom. I can honestly say that from the bottom of my heart.
the disconnect
And yet, when I hear people characterize what they call anti racism, it often feels very different from my experience.
This comes from all sides.
On one side, I hear anti racism advocated for in ways that sometimes feel like tools to dominate or shame one another. In some ways, it feels like a continuation of the very dynamic we are being called to move beyond.
On the other side, I hear anti racism completely mischaracterized as something meant to denigrate white people, something to fight against. And I can understand that reaction. I think I’ve been there myself at earlier stages of my journey.
What I’m pointing to here is the opportunity in front of us to reframe the entire conversation around liberation.
How do we liberate each other?
shifting the frequency
At the root of it, I think that’s what this is really about.
Abraham Hicks talks about how the energy of the problem and the energy of the solution exist at very different frequencies.
Albert Einstein said something similar.
adrienne maree brown, in emergent strategy, talks about how what we practice at the small scale ripples outward, and how moving from reaction to intentional, relational strategy is essential.
Michael Beckwith often speaks about vibrational alignment, and how overly focusing on the problem can keep us stuck in that same frequency.
And Buckminster Fuller said, you never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
For me, it’s not that calling things anti racism is wrong. It’s just that energetically, anti racism is still positioned in opposition to racism.
Liberation lives on a completely different frequency.
collective liberation
So for me, this is about reframing the whole thing.
It’s about collective liberation.
It’s about liberation for everyone.
Liberation for Black and brown folks may look very different from the kinds of liberation that white or white passing folks need.
I happen to have more lived experience in this world as a white, white passing person. So that’s the particular kind of liberation I’m speaking to here.
Sometimes I use the word anti racism because it’s what people understand, and that’s okay. I’m not opposed to using that language.
It’s just that liberation feels like a more accurate representation of my lived experience, and of the deeper direction my soul feels us being called toward right now.
A direction that moves beyond injustice, beyond racism, beyond the limiting beliefs we’ve all been handed in this society.
The best word I have for that is liberation.
So that’s what I have for today.
Wishing you many blessings.
Take care.
I’m erich, and this has been white people black music and liberation.
If this message speaks to you and you want to be part of the journey, subscribe below.
let’s build a world where liberation is for everyone.
Leave a Reply