Tackling Systemic Racism with L.J. Lumpkin

The Beyond Addiction Show

Dr. Josh King welcomes you to another episode of The Beyond Addiction Show

Today, Dr. King is accompanied by L.J. Lumpkin, a marriage and family therapist based in Southern California, who wrote Climbing Out of The Box: A Path of Healing From Systemic Racism and shares in an insightful conversation the meaning of systemic racism and how it shows up in everyday life for many people causing great rage and trauma.

The work that L.J. is doing in his community is really amazing; stick around until the end of today’s episode to see what he is doing in barbershops.

Key Takeaways:

[2:10] L.J. talks about the vulnerability implied in writing his book.

[4:12] L.J. shares how he found the motivation to write his book.

[7:33] L.J. explains how his role as a therapist combined with his own experience as a black man led him to have a deeper insight in regards to systemic racism.

[11:25] Everyone can relate in some way with L.J.’s story and theory about systemic racism, after all, we are all human first.

[13:01] L.J. talks about his experience working for treatment centers.

[15:05] What is systemic racism?

[19:26] L.J. shares several examples of systemic racism.

[25:22] L. J. recognizes the rage in him when he was younger and confronted with systemic racism.

[27:40] L.J. shares how he was impacted by going to a school where there were only 1% of black students (who also were athletes).

[33:16] Peace begins with me.

[36:51] We need to defy those categories imposed on us.

[39:47] L.J. speaks about intergenerational trauma.

[46:14] Systemic racism is subtle and complex, it isn't always obvious.

[47:19] First we need to acknowledge the trauma, and once we can name it, then we can actually start solving it.

[48:23] Dr. King and L.J. talk about the unique experience at barbershops.

[55:30] L.J. talks about the importance of normalizing the feelings resulting from systemic racism.

[56:27] L.J. does specific work with barbers teaching them how to allow others to cultivate their own process.

Mentioned in this Episode:

The Beyond Addiction Show

Center for Motivation and Change

Center for Motivation and Change on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Email Dr. Josh King at [e-mail] or tweet him at @DocJoshKing

Nomad Healing Practices

Tweetables and Quotes:

“Let’s start to humanize our oppositions or the people who we can’t agree with, this way we can start to look at things through their perspective.” — L.J. Lumpkin

@_TheCMC @DocJoshKing (12:00)

“Systemic racism is a set of rules or beliefs that have been compartmentalized through our systems, in government, law, education, setting a standard for what is considered ‘normal’ and anyone outside of that box, there are preconceived notions about it.” — L.J. Lumpkin @_TheCMC @DocJoshKing (15:30)

“When we are in a fear state, we are not curious.” — L.J. Lumpkin @_TheCMC @DocJoshKing (29:01)

“When it comes to trauma, we do certain things to keep ourselves safe and then we don’t question them anymore, because we feel safe.”— L.J. Lumpkin @_TheCMC @DocJoshKing (37:10)