PTSD In African American Culture

Harriet Tubman once said, I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. Throughout history the African American culture has constantly been fighting for rights and equality. But in doing so has been denied it. With this happening more and more over the years it seems to have caused them more than just physical pain when violence is added to the equation. It has caused PTSD. The African American community suffers from PTSD due to Racism, what is considered as today’s “lynchings”, and Police Brutality.
Racism is a key aspect that causes PTSD in black people. It doesn’t help that there have been multiple instances with the police shooting unarmed

black people when they have not done anything that could be counted as an offense. But this report will get to that exact point later. “Race based trauma” (npr.org/CWB- Cheryl Corey). That’s what psychologists are calling it.

It’s when “black people are hit hard by incidents that recall the country’s history of institutionalized racism.” (npr.org/CWB-Cheryl Corley). Meaning when a person of color personally has racism influenced on them or watches someone else of color have racism influenced on them, it causes black people to become more defensive and on edge because they start to believe that every person that has anything to do with that particular race, company, situation… will all act the same way towards them as they did to the other person of color. The Tulsa Race riot of 1921 is a perfect example of this. White people attacked black people because of a situation that was said happened between Dick Rowland an African American man and Sarah Page, a white woman. Dick Rowland was accused of attempting to rape or did rape Sarah Page in an elevator. Due to white people believing this story they felt officers were not doing their job correctly by just doing an investigation on the matter. The day after the shots were fired at Rowlands court date where Rowland was attempted to be assassinated, but he was protected by cops barricading him. White people took it in their own hands and decided to teach black people a lesson by destroying their booming businesses and destroying

their homes causing black people to run and hide in chicken coops and other forms of shelter. Eldoris Ector McCondichie says she remembers the day as if it was yesterday. She remembers the fear she felt when her mother woke her up early in the morning out of her sleep shouting “The white people are killing the colored folk!” (The Burning-Tim Madigan pg.1) She remembers seeing black people running and building after building catching in flames. This situation still haunts her today. Still having fear that history will repeat itself once again because yet another black person flirts with the wrong white woman.
Speaking of a black man flirting with the wrong white woman, Emmett Till in Mississippi of 1955 was murdered because a woman ‘Carolyn Bryant’ accused this fourteen year old child of whistling at her and making suggestive remarks. Due to this, this child was yanked out of bed in the middle of the night, beaten, shot dead, then thrown into the river. Once found he was unrecognizable by his mother. She had an open casket and an open funeral so everybody could see what had happened to this innocent child. And yes, he was innocent. Because a decade later Carolyn Bryant admitted to a false testimony. During his funeral, black people were more than appalled at the sight before their eyes. Causing them to lash out in violence, drink until drunk, and faint at the conditions he was in. Of course violence is not the only thing that comes with racism. Verbal abuse comes with racism as well. It has been proven that when constantly called stupid you start to believe you are stupid. Words have power and people fail to realize that. Dating back to 1955 in the words of white people, black children were said to be “childlike at best, bestial at worst, a threat to the safety and dignity of southerners, and certainly incapable of meaningful participation in self-government.” (The Burning- Tim Madigan pg. 10). There was and still are many black kids today that believe they amount to nothing in this world because they witness interactions with their parents and other people in a workplace, or overhearing a conversation, or just being told it. Bell says that the reason behind a white woman clutching her purse when a black man gets on an elevator with her is because of the everyday racism that happens. She thinks, “Oh, he’s a killer. He’s a rapist.” (npr.org/CWB- Cheryl Corey). So due to racist stereotypes, black people get killed off, or lynched for lack of a better word.
The definition of lynching is “(of a mob) to kill (someone), especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.” But, that is not always the case. Definitely nowadays. It is well known that 80% of lynchings had taken place in the south and 80% of lynchings today take place in the south. (nodeathpenalty.org) Just not by guys dressed in white, riding on horses, and hanging men. The black population makes up 12% but surprisingly makes up 40% of those on death row. (nodeathpenalty.org-modern-day lynchings) And the only one to truly blame for this is the criminal justice system. Now not all lynchings are done by the sentencings from court officials. Some are done by those who protect us causing those of color to shout, “Police Brutality! Police Brutality!” as if those words are going to do anything. Seeing as most of the cops that are taken to court for it seem to get acquitted.
“In 2015, police killed 102 unarmed black men.” (mappingpoliceviolence.org). Why were so many killed? Because cops get paid more when a black man is murdered in cold blood at the hands of an officer. Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population yet 37% of them were killed while being unarmed. (mappingpoliceviolence.org). You would think black people killed themselves more or people in general killed each other more. But, cops have actually excelled the rate of random murder committed by random people in 2014 by 7 times that in 2015. (mappingpoliceviolence.org) And what’s sad about this is the fact that the number keeps rising. In 2016, more than 250 black people were killed. (huffingtonpost.com) So I wonder what the number is going to be this year, the year of 2017.
PTSD is caused when experiencing something traumatic or viewing it. And there are many videos viewed by many black people seeing other black people get murdered. So they become nervous and now are a questionable suspect because they are scared. There are still black men today that are afraid to hit on a white woman due to the fact that the cops could get involved. Many black people try to avoid confrontation with white people in general because of the cops. The cops have scared the black community to the point that they now fight back, and with this more and more blood is being spilled because the black people don’t start out violent. They get provoked to that point. And when they reach that point, they black out while they lash out and now they have an official case of PTSD.