As advocates working with
diverse populations, it has become more important to develop an awareness of
the additional trauma that survivors may experience due to their ethnic or
racial backgrounds. According to Robert
Carter PhD in his 2006 article Race Based Traumatic Stress (http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/51536),
race-based traumatic stress injury
can be a consequence of emotional pain that a person may feel after encounters
with racism. These can be understood in
terms of specific types of acts such as racial harassment or hostility, racial
discrimination or avoidance and/or discriminatory harassment, and aversive
hostility. How encounters with racism are experienced depends on many factors
associated with an individual's background, health, and cognitive processing.
Thus, the person who interprets and appraises his racial encounter as extremely
negative (emotionally painful), sudden, and uncontrollable, may exhibit signs
and symptoms associated with the stress and possible trauma of racism.
I
worked at a shelter program in Norfolk, Virginia for many years and, having
grown up in northern Wisconsin, I was admittedly unaware of how generations of
racism could affect people of color. I had an encounter with a young woman of
color who was bright and doing extremely well in school in spite of being
relocated from her home due to domestic violence. We were having a discussion regarding her
possible educational and career options.
I mentioned to her that I thought she could be anything that she wanted
to be. She looked at me with disgust and
said “no, I can’t. I’m black and I’m a
girl.” At twelve years old she had
experienced enough sexism and racism for her to develop a limited viewpoint of
her options even though her abilities were far above average. I regret that I don’t know where she is now,
but I hope that she found someone to nurture her strengths and resiliency in
the face of diversity and that she was able to create dreams in spite of real
and perceived limitations.
There
was a woman of color in the shelter around that same time who was about my age
and had a son the same age as mine. I
remember thinking one night about our similarities when it suddenly struck me. Even though we were both women and had teenage
sons, our experiences of motherhood were completely different. Yes, both of our sons were getting into all
sorts of trouble and were sometimes engaging in risky behaviors. However, the consequences for a young black
man were much greater than what could possibly happen to my son just because of
the differences in the color of their skin.
Her worries were greater and more real than mine.
I
also eventually grew to realize that even though we were both women, I could
walk through a shopping mall without being followed by store clerks who were
checking to make sure that I wasn’t stealing.
I could apply for a job without worry that my resume would be removed
from a pile because my name sounded too ethnic or because I had attended a
school that had a high black student population. I also realized that if I did well or if I
did badly, my race would not be considered a factor.
As
white advocates working with women of color it is very important that we be
aware of their difference of experience and the effects of insidious and implicit
and explicit racism. In the same way
that domestic and sexual assault, childhood abuse, and other forms of violence
create a trauma response in the brain, exposure to racism can also create lack
of trust, poor self-esteem, hyper-vigilance for fear of further abuse, a sense
of despair over one’s future, and a fear of re-victimization.
In
the same way that we believe and validate the traumatic experiences of the
assaults on survivors, it is important that we validate and believe the
experiences of racism and understand the effects this could have on their
ability to engage and move forward.
Also, in the same way that we focus on strength, resiliency and
empowerment to help victims of gender-based trauma, we can also assist
survivors of race-based trauma in finding their great strength and resiliency by
acknowledging and honoring their experiences rather than being afraid to
address the underlying effects of racism.
