About Us
A Mindfulness Teacher Training Program Designed By and For Black, Indigenous, And People of Color
“Interbe,” as defined by Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be” is to inter-be. The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be. We are a continuation of all life before us and all life after us. We belong to each other. We are responsible for everything that happens around us. Through the fruits of mindfulness, we can sustain a life of action and become instruments of peace, together.
Why BIPOC Mindfulness? Why now?
Currently, in the United States, all accredited mindfulness teacher training programs are founded and operated by non-BIPOC teachers. This is a critical issue that needs to be corrected. Freedom Together aims to meet the dire need in the mindfulness field for Black, Indigenous, and POC teachers that deeply understand – from lived experience – the challenges BIPOC people face around the world (e.g., direct or implicit violence, marginalization, economic disparity and other inequities, exploitation, etc.).
We do recognize the many mindfulness teacher training programs across the globe that have integrated cultural sensitivity and competency topics into their curriculum, and also see the need for a program that stands apart from the norm by being founded, led, advised, designed and operated exclusively by leaders and teachers of color.
This will allow BIPOC-led program to meet the needs of teachers and communities of color and specifically develop teachers of color with an ingrained understanding for their limitless potential for leadership and their ability to be self determined in a field that is almost exclusively dominated by white mainstream culture.
We recognize that besides state of the art mindfulness teacher training, mindfulness teachers of color also need training in what it means to think outside of mainstream culture, set up their own programs, serve their own constituencies and build their own economies. Therefore, this program will not only help to create great BIPOC-identified teachers, but also contribute to building a mindfulness ecosystem away from the grip of dominant mainstream culture.
Additionally, most respected mindfulness training programs are centered around one or two well-known teachers, while Freedom Together is centered in and around community. Teachers work collaboratively to bring forth a program that models a different kind of knowledge, experience, and skill sharing—less hierarchical and more collegial in alignment with the cultural practices of most non-white non-colonial cultures. We are proud to be the 1st global program fully designed and led BY Black, Indigenous, Asian, POC mindfulness teachers and leaders FOR aspiring BIPOC mindfulness teachers.
What does BIPOC mean?
The acronym BIPOC is a limited and evolving one. We have selected to use it at this time to signal that this project was entirely conceived and developed by & for folks from the Global Majority – Black, Brown, Asian, dual-heritage, mixed ethnicities, indigenous to the global south, and others members who have been racialized as ‘ethnic minorities’ despite the fact that our people are the majority (80%) of this world’s population.
Regional and National Definitions
More often than not, People of Color (POC) has often been used in scholarship and organizing to encompass all non-white people. Yet different nations, regions, and communities may call for a more nuanced definition of the term or an alternative acronym to reflect their cultural realities without centering U.S. based terms. BAME, for instance, is an acronym most often used in the UK and stands for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.
Freedom Together, however, is based out of California, United States, where the term BIPOC is widely used to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have. At Freedom Together, we center relationships among BIPOC folks and aim to build authentic and lasting solidarity among all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance liberation and justice. And we do acknowledge the actual acronym is limited.
Limitations: Potentially, by lumping all these groups of rich cultures and peoples histories together, the BIPOC acronym may imply that all non-white people have similar experiences as people of color. Hence it fails to articulate the differential ways that racialized people experience race, racism, and colonialism. We are also aware that scholarship and discourse of race, racism, and colonialism in most nations is very different than in the U.S. We honor such reality and are committed to keep expanding definitions to honor peoples’ histories across the globe and regional understandings of their experience.