How racial trauma is overlooked

 Ta’Natia Walter 

Ms.Harris 

Blog post

 November 15, 2022 

How racial trauma is overlooked 


During this class, I have learned a lot of new things that I did not have knowledge of. Before coming to this class, I had not heard of the black gothic and I knew nothing about it. As this class comes to a close, we must explain what black gothic means to us. To me, the black gothic is about the racial trauma that is overlooked in today’s society. Racial trauma is ongoing event of racial discrimination that builds up over time. Our ancestors were one of the victims of racial trauma. African Americans who lived during the time of segregation and slavery had to deal with being mistreated because of the complexion of their skin. Even after slavery ended, black people as a community still had to fight to be given the same opportunities as white people. For example, the Jim Crow laws. According to history.com, Jim Crow laws were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to hold jobs or get an education. Another racial event that continues to make its presence today is police brutality. From the chapter Kojo In Homegoing, the author shows us how the white policemen immediately thought Kojo was trying to harm the white lady. She felt Kojo was a threat to her, when he was simply just looking for his wife.

In my opinion, I believe that police brutality is one of the key factors in the traumas we face. According to the Breenan Center for Justice, it quotes “police killing is the leading cause of death for Black men in United States.'' In the story we read, The wake, the author quotes “the ongoing state-sanctioned legal and extralegal murders of Black people are normative and, for this so-called democracy, necessary.” The things we have endured are unacceptable and should be discussed more than it is . For starters I feel that our history is treated as old history and not important enough to discuss. I am sure white people know about it and know what occurred, but why do we treat it like it can be swept under the rug? They treat Black history as not a part of American history. We have so much history that is not talked about but giving us a month of acknowledgement is not enough. In the article by Baltimore Sun, it says “these month-long celebrations demonstrate that our country has not progressed as much as we thought.” In my opinion I feel that when it comes to our history, that is a conversation that most white people want to avoid. Another reason I feel that it is not talked about enough, because it starts at school. I think for teachers it is a difficult topic to talk about. The article teaching Hard History states, “Although we teach them that slavery happened we fail to provide the detail or historical context they need to make sense of its origin.” When it is time to talk about it at school, they are given the condensed version and not everything they should be taught. From my experience, I was taught about slavery and some of our black leaders like MLK, Rosa Parks, and Malcom X. As far as going into depth about all of our history we never got a chance to get into it. In conclusion, I feel that our history is just as important as any other race, and something should change about acknowledging it more in our society. 



Works Cited Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. Alfred A. Knopf,2016 Merkl, Taryn. “Protecting against police brutality and official misconduct.” Brennan Center for Justice, 2021, Racial Trauma - PTSD: National Center for PTSDhttps://www.ptsd.va.gov › understand › types › racial_t… Cothorne, Adell. “Black history is American history.” The Baltimore Sun, 2018,Black history is American history - Baltimore Sunhttps://www.baltimoresun.com › opinion › op-ed › bs-ed-... Sharpe, Christina. “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being.” Duke University Press,2016. Shuster, Kate. “Teaching Hard History.” “Southern Poverty Law Center, 2018, Teaching Hard History | Southern Poverty Law Centerhttps://www.splcenter.org › teaching-hard-histor

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