|
|
|
Black
Americans
experiencing
collective
trauma,
grief
By
KAT
STAFFORD
apnews.com
Carlil
Pittman
knows
trauma
firsthand.
As
the
co-founder
of the
Chicago-based
youth
organization
GoodKidsMadCity-Englewood,
he
grieved
the loss
of
Delmonte
Johnson,
a young
community
activist,
more
than two
years
ago to
the very
thing
the teen
fought
fiercely
against:
gun
violence.
He’s
also
been
angered
and
frustrated
by the
onslaught
of
stories
of Black
Americans
killed
at the
hands of
police
across
the
nation
throughout
the past
year.
First,
there
was
Breonna
Taylor,
a Black
woman
who was
fatally
shot in
her
Louisville,
Kentucky,
home
last
March.
Then
there
was
George
Floyd,
whose
Memorial
Day
killing
by a
Minneapolis
officer
sparked
global
protests.
Just
this
week,
Daunte
Wright,
a
20-year-old
Black
man, was
fatally
shot by
a police
officer
during a
traffic
stop in
Brooklyn
Center,
Minnesota
— just
minutes
from
where
Floyd
died.
And on
Friday,
Pittman
spent
much of
the day
planning
a
demonstration
with
other
Chicago
organizers
to
protest
the
police
killing
of
13-year-old
Adam
Toledo,
who was
Latino.
“We’re
constantly
turning
on the
TV,
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram
and
seeing
people
that
look
like us
who are
getting
murdered
with no
repercussions,”
said
Pittman,
an
organizer
for A
New Deal
for
Youth.
“It’s
not
normal
to see
someone
get
murdered
by the
click of
a video
on your
phone,
yet it
has
become
the norm
for our
people,
our
Black
and
brown
communities.”
Many
Black
Americans
are
facing a
collective
sense of
grief
and
trauma
that has
grown
more
profound
with the
loss of
each
life at
the
hands of
police
in
America.
Some see
themselves
and
their
children
reflected
in the
victims
of
police
violence,
heightening
the
grief
they
feel.
That
collective
mourning
is a
great
concern
to
experts
and
medical
professionals
who
consider
the
intersectionality
of
racism
and
various
forms of
trauma
impacting
communities
of color
a
serious
public
health
crisis
facing
America.
The
racial
trauma
impacting
Black
Americans
isn’t
new.
It’s
built
upon
centuries
of
oppressive
systems
and
racist
practices
that are
deeply
embedded
within
the
fabric
of the
nation.
Racial
trauma
is a
unique
form of
identity-related
trauma
that
people
of color
experience
due to
racism
and
discrimination,
according
to Dr.
Steven
Kniffley,
a
licensed
psychologist
and
coordinator
for
Spalding
University’s
Collective
Care
Center
in
Louisville,
Kentucky.
“A
lot of
cities
across
the
country
are
realizing
that
racial
trauma
is a
public
health
issue,”
Kniffley
said,
citing
health
concerns
such as
increased
rates of
suicide
among
Black
men, a
life
expectancy
gap and
post-traumatic
stress
disorder.
”There’s
no other
way that
we can
explain
that
except
for the
unique
experiences
Black
and
brown
folks
have
based on
their
identity,
and more
specifically,
when
they
encounter
racism
and
discrimination.”
Kniffley
said
each
generation
of Black
Americans
since
slavery
has
faced
its own
unique
iteration
of
racism
and
discrimination,
which
has
manifested
into a
form of
intergenerational
trauma.
“We’ve
essentially
handed
down 10
or 15
generations
worth of
boxes of
trauma
that
have yet
to be
unpacked,
and
that’s
what’s
contributing
to a lot
of those
biological
and
mental
health
related
issues
that
we’re
having,”
Kniffley
said,
noting
the
trauma
extends
beyond
police
violence.
In a
2018
study
examining
the
mental
health
impact
of
police
killings
on Black
Americans,
researchers
found
exposure
to
police
killings
of
unarmed
Black
Americans
had
adverse
effects
on
mental
health
among
Black
people.
Nearly
half of
Black
Americans
who
responded
said
they
were
exposed
to one
or more
police
killings
of
unarmed
Black
Americans
in their
state of
residence
— either
through
word of
mouth or
the
media.
“That
effect
was
found
only in
Black
(Americans),”
said Dr.
Atheendar
S.
Venkataramani,
one of
the
authors
of the
study
and a
physician
at Penn
Presbyterian
Medical
Center
in
Philadelphia.
Rashad
Robinson,
the
president
of Color
of
Change,
said the
trauma
has also
created
generations
of Black
Americans
who have
valid
mistrust
of law
enforcement
agencies.
And many
are
experiencing
further
mental
anguish
while
watching
the
trial of
Derek
Chauvin,
the
former
Minneapolis
police
officer
who
pressed
his knee
into
Floyd’s
neck.
“We
have a
whole
set of
folks
with
badges
and guns
who are
supposed
to
protect
and
serve
and they
do
neither,”
Robinson
said.
“In
order to
survive,
we have
to
integrate
into a
system
in a
structure
which is
brutal —
brutal
to our
lives,
our
dignity,
our
health.
It has
collective
and
long-term
impact.”
While
much of
the
media
spotlight
on
police
killings
impacting
Black
Americans
is
focused
on Black
men,
experts
say it’s
important
to also
highlight
misogynoir
—
misogyny
directed
toward
Black
women.
Black
women
experience
misogynoir
in
various
aspects
of their
lives
but also
in
connection
with
police
violence.
The
#SayHerName
campaign
was
launched
in 2014
to bring
awareness
to the
lesser-known
stories
of Black
women
and
girls
who have
been
victimized
by
police.
The
hashtag
flourished
again
after
Taylor’s
death,
prompting
accusations
of
delayed
justice
in her
case.
“As
a mom,
I’m
constantly
in fear
for my
son and
my heart
is
broken
by this
country
over and
over
again,”
said
Aimee
Allison,
who
leads
She the
People.
“It
really
calls
into
question
how
Black
women in
particular,
who’ve
sacrificed
so much
to serve
this
country
in terms
of
democracy
and
bringing
voters
to the
polls,
upholding
a vision
of peace
and
justice
for
everyone
else,
how much
more can
we
take?”
Chicago
resident
Erendira
Martinez
said the
Little
Village
community,
a
Chicago
neighborhood
with a
majority
Latino
population,
is also
hurting,
not just
from
Toledo’s
killing
but also
from the
trauma
of
losing
other
children
to gun
violence.
On
Thursday
night,
just
hours
after
the
video of
Toledo’s
death
was
released,
a
17-year-old
girl was
shot and
killed
in the
same
neighborhood.
Martinez’s
own
teenage
daughter
was shot
and
killed
in
Little
Village
in
December.
“We
had just
buried
my
daughter,
and a
month
later,
we’re
burying
this kid
that
grew up
with my
daughter,”
she
said.
“No
mother
should
bury
their
child.”
Some
community
organizations
are
working
to
address
the
trauma,
said
Aswad
Thomas,
chief of
organizing
for
Alliance
for
Safety
and
Justice,
who runs
Crime
Survivors
for
Safety
and
Justice,
a
network
of more
than
46,000
crime
survivors
from
mostly
Black
and
Latino
communities.
The
group is
releasing
its
first-ever
National
Crime
Victims
Agenda
next
week to
address
collective
trauma.
“The
tragic
truth is
that
police
violence
is the
most
horrific,
visible
symptom
of a
larger
systemic
problem
of how
our
public
safety
system
is
designed
and we
need to
address
that
head-on,”
Thomas
said.
“But
while
also
investing
in the
mom and
pops who
are on
the
front
lines to
violence,
hosting
the
community
vigils
and
interventions
groups.”
Uzodinma
Iweala,
the CEO
of New
York’s
Africa
Center,
said
sometimes
the
thought
of what
he and
so many
other
Black
Americans
have
experienced
is
rage-inducing.
He
thinks
of the
times he
and his
brothers
have
been
stopped
by
police.
Or the
time his
uncle
was
called a
racial
slur by
an
officer.
And how
in each
instance
they
prayed
they
would
make it
out
alive —
experiences
he
thinks
some
white
Americans
willfully
ignore.
“We’re
going to
need a
real
fundamental
examination
of the
roots of
what
America
is,”
Iweala
said.
“America
refuses
to
acknowledge
that
America
is not a
country
without
the
labor of
and the
blood,
sweat
and
tears of
Black
people.
Until
America
values
those
contributions,
it will
never
value
Blackness
as a
life
form.”
___
Stafford
reported
from
Detroit.
She is a
national
investigative
writer
with The
Associated
Press’
Race and
Ethnicity
team.
Follow
her on
Twitter
at
https://twitter.com/Kat__Stafford.
Noreen
Nasir, a
Chicago-based
member
of the
Race and
Ethnicity
team,
and Drew
Costley
in
Arlington,
Virginia,
contributed.
Advertise With Us:
Certified Minority Business Enterprise
|
|
|
|
|
|