If you have not already seen the horrific video of George Floyd being suffocated before our eyes under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, you have been hiding under a rock. Followed by eight days so far of nationwide unrest to protest decades to police brutality on blacks, and in minority communities. The veil is torn, and the world now knows what happens in our great country everyday…tantamount to egregious human rights violations.
Police brutality and systemic oppression are at the top of the list. Please understand, the current pandemic (COVID-19) continues its tragic course. We have not forgotten about mass incarceration, shredding of the Affordable Care Act, pathetic housing, decrepit schools, unemployment, poverty, and many more atrocities. All at the hands of a color-blind government whose sole agenda is to maintain a dominant group/non-dominant group society. The agenda is paid for with the lives of black and brown people who are simply trying to live and enjoy life. Instead, they find no relief from discrimination, poverty, anxiety, stress, and suicide.
Blacks, immigrants, and other minorities suffer exponentially in the face of oppression-based trauma. Prolonged cycles of inequity and subjugation are the foundation of this trauma. The lived experiences of people who survive under persecution are stressful. Dr. Monnica Williams’ book Eliminating Race-Based Mental Health Disparities describes one circumstance it best. She highlights the negative mental health impacts of black women oppressed by white feminists. Race-based trauma and stress erodes minorities physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.
It is nearly impossible to escape in a society structured and maintained for a dominant racial group. Imagine the impossibility of realizing or make meaning of a harmonious life when you are in desperation almost daily to rise from a personal circumstance, dearth survival, and fear-based responses. From what we know about post-traumatic stress disorder, many minorities already meet the minimum threshold for the condition form experience at some point in life before the age of 21. Our communities have higher rates of interpersonal violence, child abuse, low levels of education, which are direct indicators and outcomes of stress, and institutional racism. You can only live under these conditions for so long. The time is up!
Why are you surprised that groups are out in the streets, no protesting, and trying to be heard? Minorities are tired; they are hurt; the wounds are exposed. Oppression based trauma is real.
There is hope and healing. I am not saying anything you don’t already know. Some of the help sought is found in a health and mental health system that lies just beyond the same paradoxical barrier that inflicted you with the very problem to begin with. That is only one example. The current social environment is not shocking. The exposure and unscabbing of a long term sound may now have the opportunity to re-start the conversation. Time is up in looking the other way!