Lifeless, drained, beaten down. This is how you feel when you constantly mentally digest experiences that relate to racial trauma whether from direct or indirect experiences. In this day and age, there seems to always be an available buffet of violence against Black people to choose from and get annoyed by: mass shootings that are streamed live, microaggressions in our day-to-day lives or the abrupt denial towards those wanting to seek justice for wrongs they have been dealt.
The violence is always there, hovering over us, serving as a reminder that it is an inevitable experience. Each experience, whether direct or indirect, eats away at your self-esteem. The term race-based traumatic stress was introduced by Robert T Carter in his published paper “Racism and Psychological and Emotional Injury: Recognizing and Assessing Race-Based Traumatic Stress”.
The contents of the paper reveal that the exposure can lead to hyperactivity, increased vigilance, avoidance behaviours, loss of appetite, feelings of humiliation among others. The root cause of race-based traumatic stress in reality is one that is hard to measure because it’s not just our individual experiences, but those that are shared within our communities and even what we see online and read in the newspapers. They leave much room for re-traumatization if one doesn’t make an intentional decision to avoid the anticipated outcomes or not to view traumatic events.
The ripple effect of race-based traumatic stress can be felt in every marginalised group, not just among Black people. It is evidenced in Indigenous groups who have to deal with the recovery of mass graves where their ancestors were snuffed and among the Palestinians who have been forced out of their homes due to settler colonisation.
Perhaps the most vital tool to deal with race-based trauma, apart from therapy, is ensuring that those who come forward with direct experiences whether through physical or verbal assault or through acts of bias are given the full support of the justice system. For starters, this means having their cases heard in the court of law once charges have been made.
It was distressing to read the many news reports pertaining to Shawnette Bollers and the alleged abuse she faced while on duty. I can’t begin to imagine the courage she had to muster up to file the report and the willpower it took to be in an environment where people told her to shrug it off. Then I read about the DPP making the decision to discontinue her case before the court. There is something absolutely absurd about obstructing justice in a plural society period, but even more so when tensions between the race groups seem to be at an all-time high. There is something hypocritical about everyone preaching about fairness and equity on the surface, but at the same time not allowing or advocating for the very systems to carry out those functions. There is something callous about how this is being turned around to further re-traumatize Bollers and all those who were exposed to news reports surrounding her trauma by not allowing her to have her day in court.
