September 24, 2021
In this episode, Wendy speaks with law professor, author, and meditation teacher, Rhonda Magee. Rhonda’s work has focused on bringing contemplative approaches into the practice of law, and the fight for social justice. This conversation covers many topics, including:
- her path to contemplative practice from roots in the American South;
- mindfulness in the fight for racial justice;
- embracing equanimity when you really want a certain outcome;
- contemplative approaches in law;
- awakening to our interconnectedness;
- challenging the idea of one winner/one loser (the adversarial model in law);
- balancing individual rights with a connected whole;
- restorative justice and collaborative divorce;
- how racism harms us all (including white folks);
- bias, fear and safety in the body;
- how dominator culture cuts us off from our bodies;
- racial capitalism;
- ColorInsight vs. color blindness;
- and the joy that comes from embracing our shared humanity.
Rhonda V. Magee is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. As an author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world. In addition to teaching law, she offers mindfulness-based and contemplative interventions for lawyers, law students, and for minimizing social-identity-based bias. Rhonda is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on mindfulness in legal education, and her first book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness, was published in 2019.
Resources
Personal website
Faculty website
Twitter: @rvmagee
- Book: The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness
- Essay: Mindfulness plays role in educating lawyers to confront racism (ABA Journal, 2016)
- Essay: How Mindfulness Can Defeat Racial Bias (Greater Good Science Center, 2015)