Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The BlackLivesMatter movement has rightly pointed to the dehumanization of people of African ancestry as the driving force behind the wanton killing of Black people by the police and vigilantes. This article identifies and addresses the root cause of the dehumanization of people of African ancestry, the lie of Black inferiority (and its correlate, the lie of White superiority), examines the damaging effects of the psychological, cultural, and historical trauma caused by the lies, and introduces Emotional Emancipation Circles, a promising intervention for helping Black people overcome, heal from, and overturn the lies.

Keywords

racism Black inferiority cultural trauma historical trauma emotional emancipation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aird

(2014, December 4). Forum: While others hit the streets, we are building our revolution from the inside. New Haven Register. Retrieved from http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20141204/forum-while-others-hit-the-streets-we-are-building-our-revolution-from-the-inside

Akinyela

M. M.

(2005). Testimony of hope: African centered praxis for therapeutic ends. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 24, 5-18.

Alexander

Eyerman

Giesen

Smelser

Sztompka

(2001). Cultural trauma theory and applications. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Alexander

(2012). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press.

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.

Armah

A. K.

(2002). KMT: In the house of life, an epistemic novel. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh.

Asian American Psychological Association. (2015, January 5). AAPA statement on Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Retrieved from http://aapaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AAPA-Statement-on-Michael-Brown-and-Eric-Garner1.pdf

Baker

S. R.

Stephenson

(2000). Prediction and control as determinants of behavioural uncertainty: Effects on task performance and heart rate reactivity. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 35, 235-250.

Blackmon

D. A.

(2008). Slavery by another name: The re-enslavement of Black Americans from the civil war to world war II. New York, NY: Doubleday.

10.

Brave Heart

M. H.

DeBruyn

L. M

. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8, 60-82. doi:10.5820/aian.0802.1998.60

11.

Brondolo

Brady

Thompson

Tobin

J. N.

Cassells

Sweeney

. . . Contrada

R. J.

(2008). Perceived racism and negative affect: Analyses of trait and state measures of affect in a community sample. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 27, 150-173.

12.

Bryant-Davis

(2007). Healing requires recognition: The case for race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35, 135-143. doi:10.1177/0011000006295152

13.

Burrell

(2010). Brainwashed: Challenging the myth of Black inferiority. New York, NY: SmileyBooks.

14.

Carter

(2007). Racism and psychological and emotional Injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35, 13-105. doi:10.1177/0011000006292033

15.

Chavous

T. M.

Rivas-Drake

Smalls

Griffin

Cogburn

(2008). Gender matters, too: The influences of school racial discrimination and racial identity on academic engagement outcomes among African American adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 44, 637-654. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.637

16.

Correll

Park

Judd

C. M.

Wittenbrink

(2002). The police officer’s dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1314-1329.

17.

Correll

Park

Judd

C. M.

Wittenbrink

Sadler

M. S.

Keesee

(2007). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1006-1023.

18.

David

E. J. R.

(2014). Internalized oppression: The psychology of marginalized groups. New York, NY: Springer.

19.

DeGruy

(2005). Post traumatic slave syndrome: America’s legacy of enduring injury and healing. Portland, OR: Uptone Press.

20.

Denham

A. R.

(2008). Rethinking historical trauma: Narratives of resilience. Transcultural Psychiatry, 45, 391-414. doi:10.1177/1363461508094673

21.

Eberhardt

(2008, February 7). Discrimination against blacks linked to dehumanization, study finds. Stanford News. Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2008/pr-eber-021308.html

22.

Eberhardt

J. L.

Davies

P. G.

Purdie-Vaughns

V. J.

Johnson

S. L.

(2006). Looking deathworthy: Perceived stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychological Science, 17, 383-386.

23.

Evans-Campbell

(2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska communities: A multilevel framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23, 316-338. doi:10.1177/0886260507312290

24.

Eyerman

(2001). Cultural trauma: Slavery and the formation of African American identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

25.

Fisher

C. B.

Wallace

S. A.

Fenton

R. E.

(2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 679-695.

26.

Freire

(1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed ( Ramos

M. B.

, Trans.). New York, NY: Continuum.

27.

Garza

(2014, October 7). A herstory of the #blacklivesmatter movement by Alicia Garza. The Feminist Wire.

28.

Greenwald

A. G.

Poehlman

T. A.

Uhlmann

E. L.

Banaji

M. R.

(2009). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 17-41.

29.

Gump

J. P.

(2010). Reality matters: The shadow of trauma on African American subjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27, 42-54. doi:10.1037/a0018639

30.

Guthrie

R. V.

(1998). Even the rat was white (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.

31.

Halbwachs

(1992). On collective memory. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

32.

Harrell

S. P.

(2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70, 42-58.

33.

Herman

J. L.

(1992). Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books.

34.

Hudson

D. L.

Bullard

K. M.

Neighbors

H. W.

Geronimus

A. T.

Yang

Jackson

J. S.

(2012). Are benefits conferred with greater socioeconomic position undermined by racial discrimination among African American men? Journal of Men’s Health & Gender, 9, 127-136.

35.

Jackson

J. S.

Knight

K. M.

Rafferty

J. A.

(2010). Race and unhealthy behaviors: Chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 933-939.

36.

Jencks

Phillips

(2011). The Black–White test score gap. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

37.

Jones

C. P.

(2000). Levels of racism: A theoretic framework and a gardener’s tale. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 1212-1215.

38.

Juzwiak

Chan

(2014, December 8). Unarmed people of color killed by police, 1999-2014. Gawker. Retrieved from http://gawker.com/unarmed-people-of-color-killed-by-police-1999-2014-1666672349

39.

King

M. L.

(1967, August). Where do we go from here? Speech presented at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Convention. Atlanta, GA.

40.

Levinson

(2007). Forgotten racial equality: Implicit bias, decision-making and misremembering. Duke Law Journal, 57, 345-424.

41.

Markus

H. R.

(2008). Pride, prejudice, and ambivalence: Toward a unified theory of race and ethnicity. American Psychologist, 63, 651-671.

42.

Marmar

C. R.

Weiss

D. S.

Metzler

T. J.

(1998). Peritraumatic dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder. In Bremner

J. D.

Marmar

C. R.

(Eds.), Trauma, memory, and dissociation (pp. 229-252). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

43.

Mitchell

T. L.

Haw

R. M.

Pfeifer

J. E.

Meissner

C. A.

(2005). Racial bias in mock juror decision-making: A meta-analytic review of defendant treatment. Law and Human Behavior, 29, 621-637. doi:10.1007/s10979-005-8122-9

44.

National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (2006). Facts about PTSD. Psych Central. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/lib/facts-about-ptsd/000662

45.

Neblett

E. W.

Philip

C. L.

Cogburn

C. D.

Sellers

R. M.

(2006). African American adolescents’ discrimination experiences and academic achievement: Racial socialization as a cultural compensatory and protective factor. Journal of Black Psychology, 32, 199-218. doi:10.1177/0095798406287072

46.

Neblett

E. W.

Smalls

C. P.

Ford

K. R.

Nguyên

H. X.

Sellers

R. M.

(2009). Racial socialization and racial identity: African American parents’ messages about race as precursors to identity. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 189-203. doi:10.1007/s10964-008-9359-7

47.

Nobles

W. W.

(2006). Seeking the sakhu: Foundational writings for an African psychology. Chicago, IL: Third World Press.

48.

Nobles

W. W.

(2015). The island of memes: Haiti’s unfinished revolution. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press.

49.

Nosek

B. A.

Greenwald

A. G.

Banaji

M. R.

(2005). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: II. Method variables and construct validity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 166-180. doi:10.1177/0146167204271418

50.

Ponterotto

J. G.

Utsey

S. O.

Pedersen

P. B.

(2006). Preventing prejudice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

51.

Rowe

Aird

(2014, October 7). Forum: Time to address the root cause of the devaluing of black lives. New Haven Register. Retrieved from http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20141007/forum-time-to-address-the-root-cause-of-the-devaluing-of-black-lives

52.

Sellers

R. M.

Copeland-Linder

Martin

P. P.

Lewis

R. L.

(2006). Racial identity matters: The relationship between racial discrimination and psychological functioning in African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 187-216.

53.

Sellers

R. M.

Shelton

N. J.

(2003).The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1079-1092.

54.

Smalls

White

Chavous

Sellers

(2007). Racial ideological beliefs and racial discrimination experiences as predictors of academic engagement among African American adolescents. Journal of Black Psychology, 33, 299-330.

55.

Smedley

(1999). Race in North America: Origin and evolution of a worldview (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

56.

Smedley

B. D.

(2005). Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real: Anthropological and historical perspectives on the social construction of race. American Psychologist, 60, 16-26. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.60.1.16

57.

Speight

S. L.

(2007). Internalized racism: One more piece of the puzzle. The Counseling Psychologist, 35, 126-134. doi:10.1177/0011000006295119

58.

Stampp

K. M.

(1989). The peculiar institution. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

59.

Steele

C. M.

Aronson

(1995). Contending with a stereotype: African-American intellectual test performance and stereotype threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.

60.

Stevenson

H. C.

Arrington

E. G.

(2009). Racial/ethnic socialization mediates perceived racism and the racial identity of African American adolescents. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15, 125-136. doi:10.1037/a0015500

61.

Sue

(2010). Microagresssions in everyday life: Race, gender and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

62.

Trawalter

Hoffman

K. M.

Waytz

(2012). Racial bias in perceptions of others’ pain. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e48546. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048546

63.

U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. (2014, March). Civil rights data collection: Data snapshot (School Discipline, Issue Brief No. 1). Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf

64.

Utsey

S. O.

Chae

M. H.

Brown

C. F.

Kelly

(2002). Effect of ethnic group membership on ethnic identity, race-related stress, and quality of life. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8, 366-377.

65.

Utsey

S. O.

Hook

J. N.

(2007). Heart rate variability as a physiological moderator of the relationship between race-related stress and psychological distress. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13, 250-253.

66.

Watts-Jones

(2002). Healing internalized racism: The role of a within-group sanctuary among people of African descent. Family Process, 41, 591-601.

67.

Wong

C. A.

Eccles

J. S.

Sameroff

(2003).The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African American adolescents’ school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality, 71, 1197-1232.

68.

Zeleza

P. T.

(2014, December 6). #BlackLivesMatter: America’s racial degeneracy and cowardice. Retrieved from http://africasacountry.com/blacklivesmatter-americas-racial-degeneracy-and-cowardice/

69.

Zurita

Marinelli

Cuadra

Brandao

M. L.

Molina

V. A.

(2000). Early exposure to chronic variable stress facilitates the occurrence of anhedonia and enhanced emotional reactions to novel stressors: Reversal by naltrexone pretreatment. Behavioural Brain Research, 117, 163-171.

Breathe,Baby,Breathe

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References