the victims experience post traumatic stress.
Fear of being victimized by racist abuse has long kept black folks confined in segregated neighborhoods and social relations despite legalized anti-discrimination laws and accepted racial integration. Growing up in racial segregation I felt “safe” in our all black neighborhoods. White people were represented as a danger, especially white males. Every black girl in our segregated neighborhoods knew that we had to be careful not to have any interaction with white males for they were most likely seeking to violate us in some way. While sexual violation was the dreaded form of white male racist assault, it was also clear that white folks, often acting on a whim, humiliated and shamed black folks, whether through aggressive verbal abuse (calling us by ugly racist epithets) or blatant physical assault. In the days of legal racial segregation, no black person could defend themselves against the violence of a white person without suffering severe reprisals. Consequently, black children living in racial apartheid were systematically socialized to fear white folks and to stay away from them.
Even though we lived in segregated neighborhoods, there were a few black folks in our town who lived near white folks. Our mother’s mother Sarah Oldham lived in a white neighborhood. To visit her house we had to walk through neighborhoods occupied by racist white folks who taunted and jeered at us. Needless to say as children walking through these neighborhoods was frightening and stressful. Even if we passed the homes of white folks sitting on the porch who were friendly, we had been socialized to see their friendliness as a lure, setting a trap wherein we would be caught, where we would be helpless and hurt. Taught to be critically vigilant in relation to white people we were not taught to see all white people as “bad.” We were taught that there were good and kind white people, but that they were rare. Meeting the adversity caused by white supremacist aggression early in life helped many of us have posttraumatic growth. Were this not the case, individual black people would never have acquired the skill to live harmoniously among white people. Still many black people suffer posttraumatic stress disorder as a consequence of sustained racist exploitation and oppression. More than not that pain is usually ignored in our culture.
There is no psychological practice that specifically focuses on recovery from racist victimization. Indeed, our society has moved in the opposite direction. Many people in our nation, especially white people, believe that racism has ended. Consequently, when black people attempt to give voice to the pain of racist victimization we are likely to be accused of playing the “race” card. And there are few if any public spaces where black folks can express fear of whiteness, be it engendered by rational or irrational states of mind. However, white fear of blackness gains a constant hearing. And psychological research indicates that a great majority of white Americans respond negatively to images of blackness. In Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, he calls attention to this implicit prejudice: “Researchers have found that Americans of all ages, classes, and political affiliations react with a flash of negativity to black faces or to other images and words associated with African-American culture.” White Americans who see themselves as not prejudiced usually shared these same perceptions. The history of racial apartheid from slavery’s end to the present day has focused on the issue of integration particularly social integration, housing and interpersonal familial relations. Today in our culture the workforce is racially integrated, people of color, (especially black folk) and white folk work alongside one another, may even share lunch but rarely does this racial integration carry over into life beyond the job.
Fear of being victimized by racist abuse has long kept black folks confined in segregated neighborhoods and social relations despite legalized anti-discrimination laws and accepted racial integration. Growing up in racial segregation I felt “safe” in our all black neighborhoods. White people were represented as a danger, especially white males. Every black girl in our segregated neighborhoods knew that we had to be careful not to have any interaction with white males for they were most likely seeking to violate us in some way. While sexual violation was the dreaded form of white male racist assault, it was also clear that white folks, often acting on a whim, humiliated and shamed black folks, whether through aggressive verbal abuse (calling us by ugly racist epithets) or blatant physical assault. In the days of legal racial segregation, no black person could defend themselves against the violence of a white person without suffering severe reprisals. Consequently, black children living in racial apartheid were systematically socialized to fear white folks and to stay away from them.
Even though we lived in segregated neighborhoods, there were a few black folks in our town who lived near white folks. Our mother’s mother Sarah Oldham lived in a white neighborhood. To visit her house we had to walk through neighborhoods occupied by racist white folks who taunted and jeered at us. Needless to say as children walking through these neighborhoods was frightening and stressful. Even if we passed the homes of white folks sitting on the porch who were friendly, we had been socialized to see their friendliness as a lure, setting a trap wherein we would be caught, where we would be helpless and hurt. Taught to be critically vigilant in relation to white people we were not taught to see all white people as “bad.” We were taught that there were good and kind white people, but that they were rare. Meeting the adversity caused by white supremacist aggression early in life helped many of us have posttraumatic growth. Were this not the case, individual black people would never have acquired the skill to live harmoniously among white people. Still many black people suffer posttraumatic stress disorder as a consequence of sustained racist exploitation and oppression. More than not that pain is usually ignored in our culture.
There is no psychological practice that specifically focuses on recovery from racist victimization. Indeed, our society has moved in the opposite direction. Many people in our nation, especially white people, believe that racism has ended. Consequently, when black people attempt to give voice to the pain of racist victimization we are likely to be accused of playing the “race” card. And there are few if any public spaces where black folks can express fear of whiteness, be it engendered by rational or irrational states of mind. However, white fear of blackness gains a constant hearing. And psychological research indicates that a great majority of white Americans respond negatively to images of blackness. In Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, he calls attention to this implicit prejudice: “Researchers have found that Americans of all ages, classes, and political affiliations react with a flash of negativity to black faces or to other images and words associated with African-American culture.” White Americans who see themselves as not prejudiced usually shared these same perceptions. The history of racial apartheid from slavery’s end to the present day has focused on the issue of integration particularly social integration, housing and interpersonal familial relations. Today in our culture the workforce is racially integrated, people of color, (especially black folk) and white folk work alongside one another, may even share lunch but rarely does this racial integration carry over into life beyond the job.
Similar Books
