Colorful Prism Of Racism

"[E]ven one disenfranchised voter" who is denied the right to vote on account of race "is too many."

POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME
As a result of twelve years of quantitative and qualitative research Dr. DeGruy has developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and published her findings in the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome - America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing”. The book addresses the residual impacts of generations of slavery and opens up the discussion of how the black community can use the strengths we have gained in the past to heal in the present.

WHAT IS P.T.S.S.?
P.T.S.S. is a theory that explains the etiology of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African American communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. It is a condition that exists as a consequence of multigenerational oppression of Africans and their descendants resulting from centuries of chattel slavery. A form of slavery which was predicated on the belief that African Americans were inherently/genetically inferior to whites. This was then followed by institutionalized racism which continues to perpetuate injury.

Thus, resulting in M.A.P.:
 

• M: Multigenerational trauma together with continued oppression;
• A: Absence of opportunity to heal or access the benefits available in the society; leads to
• P: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
   

Note: The following is mostly based on chapter 14 of “Race in North America” (2012) by Audrey and Brian D. Smedley.

Racism in the US is always changing but changes slowly. That means the near future will be pretty much the same, but the longer term it will bring change.

American racism will have to somehow adjust to:
 

1. Japan as a country fully the equal of the US and Britain.
2. Asian Americans scoring higher on IQ tests.
3. The Black middle-class and Blacks in important positions.
4. Immigration from Asia and Latin America pouring into the US, bringing millions of people who do not fit into the old black-and-white boxes.
5. Multiracial identities, particularly those who are half White and half Asian or Latino. It not only challenges the idea that race determines culture and behaviour, but also makes one’s “race” harder to determine and therefore less useful.
6. Barack Obama, whose very person goes against everything most Americans think they know about race. He is multiracial. He looks Black but culturally is like Dorothy of “The Wizard of Oz”: a White person from Kansas. American racism is incapable of making sense of him – thus all the Birther and Secret Muslim stuff.
7. The Human Genome Project – which left only 0.1% of the genome for scientific racism.

Click through to read more.

Today, June 21st, is my birthday; I turn 50. I feel pretty much the same way I did when I wrote this two years ago, "A lifetime of so little progress is just too much."; only more so. *sigh* I was ...

A few years ago, Aaron Huey journeyed to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to photograph members of the Oglala Lakota Nation. The disarming stories of deceit, heartbreak, and violence he heard there changed his life forever. I know this is a long one, folks, but I guarantee you'll be hooked by his transformation at 4:38, the breathtaking mural at 6:03, and the devastating words of a 17-year-old at 10:36.