I’m here to fumble around a bit. To probably get something wrong. But to also talk about something important. We’re honoring Dr. Martin Luther King this week and I struggle to put words to feelings and also leave space for the voices of Black Americans. I’m also tired of saying nothing and I don’t think I should. So I’ll try my best today and encourage a conversation below in the comments section.

There is still so much racism in and outside of naturopathic medicine. At every level of this profession.

From policy to community knowledge: Why are many pharmaceuticals so very, very cheap when many were derived from plants that have been used for hundreds of years by African and Native populations? The same plants which are now mostly prohibitively expensive and the community knowledge on how to grow and process these plants is virtually extinct?

Education: Why aren’t we honoring the real roots of herbalism and botanical medicine? In school, we were taught that herbal knowledge largely came from white guys in the big northern European countries. The textbooks I bought in school are embarrassing in how they ignored the real roots of the medicine. Naturopathic schools need to do better.

Consumerism: We as the naturopathic community should be doing better to think about the ecological and sociological impacts of the sourcing of supplements and herbs. Why aren’t we thinking more about the poverty traps we are setting when we are sourcing our products?

Image: There is still so much ‘privileged white lady at the top of the mountain’ associated with this profession. I could go on forever about this. I’ll leave this here though.

I’m still trying to figure out how to say all of this. But I’m here to learn and grow and engage in the conversation. How are you learning about the real roots of herbalism and botanical medicine? Please leave your (respectful) comments below.