PTSD & Racism

We accept that post-traumatic stress disorder is real and has long-term consequences that can permeate multiple generations. Victims and even witnesses of violence can carry emotional scars that affect their relationships with spouses, family and children long after the abuse ends.

We sympathize with veterans who are unable to have functional relationships with family and friends due to the trauma of war. We recognize the difficulties that survivors of childhood sexual abuse have in building trusting relationships with adults. We respect them for their courage in facing the demons from their past.

So why is it that we dismiss the trauma that generations of BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) have suffered at the hands of white people. Multiple generations of black people who have watched their grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren treated like animals by white people. Multiple generations of indigenous people who witnessed genocide perpetrated on their loved ones by white people. Multiple generations of Asian people who have been beaten and called derogatory names by white people.

BIPOC survivors of multi-generational trauma are dismissed as lazy or unmotivated or angry or ungrateful, even as white people continue to traumatize them. These survivors should be respected for their courage and strength in facing demons that keep coming back.

Until white people accept that we are the demons there will be no change. Until we accept that race is a pernicious myth invented by us to exert our domination over people with different colored skin, there will be no healing.