Trauma expert explains Black historical oppression and mental health | Rattling the Bars

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Trauma expert explains Black historical oppression and mental health | Rattling the Bars


The oppression of Black people is more than just a historical or political question. The accumulated harms of centuries of slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, and racism in all forms have a psychological and medical effect, in addition to political and economic ones. Trauma, after all, describes the physical injury of the brain as a…

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7 Comments

  1. The host did an excellent job with his questioning, but did I miss a question about the triggering of trauma? That has always been a major interest of mine, in how trauma works. The first time I heard of 'post traumatic slavery disorder', I questioned it. The main issue I had was, that it seemed people were making it seem as though it was more of a problem, than what I called constant or continuous stress. It also bothered me that the book on it, had been written a decade or so ago, and I was asking the question – what specific treatments for it, had been developed, in all this time. Had the national Black mental health association or associations, been working together on this issue, and developing some prescribed treatments? Was it to be therapy or drugs or both? I thought of the opposition there was and still may be, to drugs for children with attention deficit disorders. I had and still have, so many questions. Woke activists are systemic in the rhetoric they use. They talk of the 'prison industrial complex' and there is some validity to that, but there is also a 'culture to prison pipeline', that few in comparison, ever talk about, which factors into the number of us in prisons. As costly as the prison complex is, a mental health one will be as expensive, if not more because, everyone suffers from trauma of some kind. How do we fund that, in a world economy, that is getting more competitive with time? If drugs, as a form of treatment, is unacceptable to significant number of people, then that leaves therapy, as the only alternative. Wouldn't it be sensible to develop group therapy treatments? This would reduce the cost to some degree.

    Many Black people say our problems are mainly the result of systemic and structural racism. Logic would dictate that our response to it must be of the same nature. The two people who made the concept of system/structural racism known to the general Black population – Mr. Neeley Fuller Jr. and the late Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, advocated that we do just that, but we have yet to do that. We can't make a similar mistake if the country/society is to take on the issue of mental and emotional health as a serious health problem, as the former Mayor Smoke of Baltimore long ago recommended the nation do with drug addiction. How exactly has the effort to combat the addiction to these new opioids been doing? How many years has that been? There is the concept of enabling in addiction. Can the "culture" that so many younger generations speak of, enable drug addiction, and the entertainment industry as well? How does the idea of triggering work in the context of a culture that enjoys entertain steeped in violence and getting drunk/high? How much value can we put into the rhetorical saying that "hurt people – hurt people? That would make women the most hurtful people of all. And what about White people getting trapped in Europe and Asia during the Ice Age? Do they get a pass for that and can use it as an excuse for their historic treatment of non-White people?

    So much contradictory stuff is being said, and it is being ignored. What sense can a clear thinking person make of all this? We have Black woke intellectuals , who were around when Hip-Hop had their campaign against violence, and was making songs like 'We're Headed For Self Destruction", but who now say Black on Black crime is not a thing, basically because people harm people they live near. We have people talking about resets and revolutions. When was any previous state of our existence, as a group, or the entire humanity ever been adequate? When was the last successful revolution? Is not what is needed evolution? Haven't our evolution in intelligence greatly exceeded the evolution of our spiritual, emotional, and moral evolution? Aren't we thus like children with powerful tools and weapons in our hands? Doesn't humanity owe itself reparations, for the historic inhumanity we have inflicted on each other? Would not a fair global economic system be a form of reparations for humanity? Can humanity really heal, unless all of us admit we need healing? This would be a humane and systemic response to the more fundamental human problem of 'Power Supremacy'.

    Who will call for the old concept of a global 'Peace Dividend'? Can we in the U.S. at least do this domestically? The world is indeed in need of leadership in the form of life affirming greatness.

  2. Well then, how bout starting the healing process by greening the prison-industrial-complex???
    From this point forward, we as a whole must demand-

    All new and existing prisons must be built or retrofitted with environmentally sustainable materials.
    All water and power must come from renewable resources only. No exceptions.
    All material going to inmates must be 100% recyclable. No wastage whatsoever.
    All meals served to inmates must be healthy sustainable vegan dishes. Absolutely nothing loaded with saturated fats.
    All heavily salted and surgery commissary items will be permanently banned.

    And finally…

    All inmates will be fully indoctrinated towards the environmental movement. Any and all reading and video material must reflect the topic.

    Remember people.
    There is no 'Planet B'.

    Environmental justice for all.

  3. Pseudoscience sounds smart and knowing.
    An alternative way to view what causes trauma in the community.
    1) Expressed disapproval of culture
    2) Expressed disapproval of your mannerisms
    3) Expressed disapproval of how you speak
    4) Expressed disapproval of your desire to show emotions, especially anger
    5) Expressed disapproval of your natural temperament
    6) Expressed disapproval of your hair type
    7) On-going reminder that your group makes less money than others – even with similar education
    8) On-going reminders that you were considered an inferior race
    9) On-going reminders that on average your students are passing with Cs instead of As
    10) Everytime you're seen in a professional position, you're considered a Nation Affirmative Action or DEI hire

    What about those experiences causing trauma?