Woo-Woo People are the Biggest Untapped Anti-Racists

Here’s how to reframe and harness the woo, with tips.

Spiritual new age woo-woo has struck a chord for a reason in the West — we are nations of trauma. The trickster of colonialism and white supremacy is a powerful elixir, an addictive substance that robs everyday people of a realistic grip on the world, and the whole idea of getting “grounded” and being mindful is to counter that crap.

Which is why it’s important for white people, especially spiritual white woo-woo women, to understand the far-reaching potential of the woo to actually combat capitalism, neoliberalism and the plague of whiteness. They are an untapped market, a potential source of organizing power. But they need to get it right. Here’s how.

I write as someone who grew up as a minority white kid in majority Black and Brown schools and neighborhoods in San Francisco and as someone who grew up in a multiracial family of Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists and Baha’is.

Essentially, any kind of challenge to the status quo is a form of queering, a way of dislodging from our ingrained programming. The rise of the woo is a threat to the status quo, in its purest form (not the corporate coopted form — we’re talking heart energetic stuff).

Here are my suggestions for reframing the woo:

Don’t stop at “feeling good.”

Working on mindful, grounded, body-based work of trauma release and burnout recovery is vital work, and signifies something larger — what’s happening in your body is not only about you.

Tired of a corporate job that leaves you feeling worthless, like a machine or hamster? That’s happening on a systematic level. Tap into that and feel into how your perspective changes. If you don’t like what’s happening in your body as a result of this system, then you shouldn’t like what’s happening for others. What will you do with your realizations?

Seize the moment.

Seize the electrifying energy of empowerment that comes with “awakening” to realize you are a vessel for change. This is political. This is about human agency and organizing power. Now that you’ve “emerged” from your cocoon and realized your conditioning, where will you direct that energy? This is your wake-up and you are now in a position to wake others up. Matrix-style. Keep your humiliy intact and never present as a savior. Keep your ego in check and think of yourself as one tiny player.

I see too many new age white women have all these “realizations,” only to go hang out with other white women at reatreats in Bali. No. Do you realize what it means to wake up to the follies of Western capitalist indoctrination? That is powerful sh**. Now is the time to blaze your trail.

Take conscious action.

Where you live, who you surround yourself with, and the people of your everyday life all determine your world. Ask yourself what your daily life could look like if it reflected greater equity and neighborhood engagement, and then begin making those changes. It could be a new neighborhood, new group of friends, new work, new spiritual group, you name it. Is it time for a change? How can you get involved in your larger community in a non-hierarchical, non-savior way?

Excavate your particulars & apply yourself.

There are often innate-seeming, organic avenues in which you can do your part, and this can happen in two ways.

Sometimes it means looking at harder areas that don’t get spoken of — again this is not about “feeling good.” If you or your family have a history of addiction or incarceration then it’s time to excavate and engage those topics in your anti-racist work. Perhaps you can facilitate free group circles for white folks and Black and Brown folks to share openly about struggles we all face regardless of race.

On the other hand, perhaps your professional expertise also lends itself to anti-racist work. For example, are you a passionate real estate agent who can now work on housing discrimination? Are you a yoga studio owner who can make your studio available for reparations meetings? Can you host the reparations meeting?

Are you a therapist who can partner with therapists of color in some way? Co-lead groups or offer office space or boost their platforms consistently?

These are just a few considerations and ways in which spiritual woo-woo folks can take strong internal experiences and translate them externally.

With “wellness” being such a lucrative industry and the demand for an alternative way of living skyrocketing as burnout prevails and late-stage capitalism burns promises to ash, millions of people are left desparate for answers and meaning, with a dash of depression and gobs of money. This is your wake-up. Apply yourself. Get out of the slumber state. Channel all that energy into real change, for yourself and the people and land you hold dear.