Members of the Black community at San Jose State opened up about their experiences with generational trauma after centuries of systemic racism and inequity has left many Black Americans with not only social disadvantages, but mental health disparities.
Generational trauma is a multi-faceted experience marginalized groups face globally. These traumas differ from group to group, according to a February 2019 American Psychological Association article.
Political science junior Kadence Sky Walker said generational trauma is a political issue that manifests itself in wealth and the legislation politicians pass can perpetuate the problem even further.
He said redlining and property ownership are examples of this. Redlining was a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policy established in 1934 that enabled segregation of neighborhoods by refusing to insure mortgages near Black communities, according to a May 3, 2017 NPR article.
“The owning of property is a huge way to create generational wealth and when you don’t have that stable housing, the ability to rent out housing, things like that, it ripples from generation to generation,” Walker said in a Zoom interview.
During the time redlining was established, the FHA started subsidizing contractors who were mass-producing neighborhoods intended for white people with the premise they wouldn’t sell homes to Black people, according to the same NPR article. This kept Black people from buying valuable real estate they could pass to their children.
The 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances showed Black families’ median and mean income in America was $24,100 and $142,500 respectively, while white families had an average median and mean income of $188,200 and $983,400, according to a Sept. 28 U.S. Federal Reserve article.
Black families’ median and mean income was less than 15% of white families’ according to the same article.
Walker said with generational wealth comes lessons, connections and opportunities others don’t have access to, which leads to more success and fulfillment for those who are more privileged.
The Jim Crow laws, state and local laws that mandated segregation weren’t removed from legislation until 1968, according to a Feb. 28, 2018 History.com article. These laws subjected Black Americans to 100 years of financial, educational and social disadvantage.
Jim Crow laws included Black Codes, which dictated when, where and how Black people could work and for how much money. They were used as an excuse to force Black people into indentured servitude, to take away voting rights and to take children for labor purposes.
Judges and police officers were former Confederate soldiers, making it hard for Black people to escape Jim Crow, according to the same article.
These laws created ripple effects and largely contributed to generational trauma.
Bob Rucker, an emeritus journalism professor, said generational trauma is harmful to the mental health of those who experience it and a lack of discussion on the issue has exacerbated it further.
“If your history has taught you that you’re unworthy, you’re not smart enough, you’re not capable of surviving on your own or you don’t have the abilities to create and produce a lifelike everybody else, that beats you down,” Rucker said in a Zoom interview. “That makes you feel inferior.”
He said it’s human nature to push away and refuse to discuss unfamiliar or unpleasant topics and the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality affects everyone.
Rucker said there are still elements of slavery in our political and corporate practices that can lead to trauma.
He recalled one of the first times he experienced racism in the Jim Crow era when he was a child on the way to visit family in Georgia and he wanted to stop for ice cream, but his parents said no.
“[I remember] hearing my parents say ‘no, that’s not for us’ and ‘no, we won’t be welcome there,’ ” Rucker said.
Spring 2020 alumna Isha Gaye said she believes the Black community is still being systemically traumatized by violence and social media’s broadcasting of it can have both helpful and adverse effects.
“Black death and Black trauma is being globalized in a sense. I think there’s obviously good reasons for that, there’s more outrage about it [and] there’s more things being done,” Gaye said in a Zoom interview. “But on the flip side, I think about all kids and teens or even adults who are on social media, who have to watch their own kin being killed.”
She said she believes there’s been progress historically, but the events that are still taking place, such as the murder of George Floyd and the shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant, are unacceptable and shouldn’t be happening.
George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020 by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes after he detained him for possessing a counterfeit $20 bill.
Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on April 20, according to the New York Times’ live updates of the trial.
15-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot four times in the chest and killed by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon the same day as Chauvin’s conviction, according to an April 21 Oxygen article.
Rucker said if real progress is to be made, the general public must stop sitting around waiting for someone else to do something.
“Our society must stop waiting for the government and people with law enforcement badges to fix everything,” Rucker said. “Everyday citizens have got to be conscientious. We have something called free speech, we can use it to say ‘Wait a minute, that’s wrong.’ ”
