People of color and trauma

[Scarlet13]

Hi,
I am looking for thoughts or comments from people of color who have experienced trauma. Also, any one who has a comment.

I am a white woman (with PTSD) and I have been doing a lot of diversity work. I was at a conference and I had many reactions.

1. I have suffered in my life, but have white privledge. I can acknowledge the suffering (including extreme bullying for a disability) while also seeing the benefits of being white in a white dominated society. This awarenesses enables me to step outside of the "invisibility" of whiteness to more accurately see racial injustice, while also validating the pain of my own experiences.

2. The layering up effect
My other thought that came from my training is that so many of my teachers (who were all people of color) emphasized that they came from "good" families. Where they were guided and given help in navigating an unjust world.

But what if you didn't come from a "good family"?
What if the people who look like you abused you?
What if you were traumatized and not seen and helped by your family?
What is it like to navigate society as a person of color who also has a history of trauma?
Do you find resources?
I know for me, my mother used my disabity to help scape goat me. She blamed me and made me feel like shit. This is not the same as experiencing race discrimination, but it gives this layering up effect in a way going from home to school.

I hope this post is not offensive and if it is please let me know.
I welcome responses from any one.
Thanks!

 

[Veevivianvee]

hmm...this is kind of interesting as this is a tabo subject for people of color
"mental illness" for many people of color simply isnt a thing from my experience my parents believed in some form of "demonic possession " or something an "ass whipping"could fix

to add on to this i was molested as a child and began acting out . no one thought there could be anything wrong with me but again to them an "old fashioned ass whipping " could fix that

 

[Swift]

Great topic. I, too, am a white woman with PTSD and I think about this a lot.
I'm from Aus, and the impact of intergenerational trauma on our Indigenous population is absolutely bloody shameful, and the white-dominated power structures are doing sweet FA to acknowledge that...
My friends of colour with trauma have different experiences to mine obviously. Racial slurs in particular can be massively triggering in a way that people without trauma just don't understand.
I'm also queer, and the attack of the White Gays™, generally cis white men, who think they understand race because they're gay and have experienced homophobia is just ridiculous.

 

[HëllaBubz]

Great topic. I, too, am a white woman with PTSD and I think about this a lot.
I'm from Aus, and the impa...

Aussie here as well, yes I have several friends who decended from the Stolen Generation and the stories they have to tell about that trauma beggar belief......but I know they're true.

It's super sad and quite angering when you see an ethic group marginalised for the traumatic impact that another ethic group have had on them - so much hatred for an outcome where the remnants of an amazing culture stuggle with the traumatic repercussions that is etched into their DNA that is a direct result of genocide, rape, murder and the systemic dismantling of an entire culture.

I often wonder about the magnitude of the DNA impact of trauma resulting from hundreds of years of oppression of the broadest and sickening scope - and how socio-economic disadvantage and ignorance has then caused systemic mistreatment of those who present reasonable symptoms as a result of environmental factors and genetic predisposition to PTSD & trauma based psycho-somatic symptoms of varying types.

 

[Scarlet13]

Wow, thanks for the replies. I am hearing many thoughts here:
1. Trauma being interpretted as something else like demonic possession. I think that trauma being "taboo" in POC families and culture is an interesting point. Why is this the case? Is it a weakness/strength thing?
2. Struggling with societal opression due to being gay, queer, transgender is not the same as racial oppression. But can present a layering effect and how does this play out with a POC queer or transgender person?
3. I can speak to my observations in the US with racism and am just thinking about how all those layers of dehumunization can add up and can support/validation be found?
My POC teachers all stressed their caring supportive famies who mentored and guided them into navigating racism. I felt triggered by this as I always do when the mention of "the goodness of families" happens.
I realize the "I am POC and I come from a good family" can get stated as a way to combat the stereotype of who "bad" families are.
People can think (based on media representations) that the abusive/bad/violent families are among POC more than white families.
When trauma/abuse can happen anywhere in any context.
I was sexually abused by a rich, white, Christian woman. My mother didn't think twice about me playing over there.
I was befriended by many black people, Latino people which she expressed concern over.
I am just wondering about the combination of trauma and race mainly on an a relationship level.
Generational or historical trauma is an interesting topic as well and can be yet one more factor or burden.

 

[Swift]

I was sexually abused by a rich, white, Christian woman.

Same!

And yeah, all of my POC friends are actually queer, so...
Idk, there's some great blogs.
One of the things we talk about a lot is that it's not a person of colour's responsibility to educate white people about racism.
Books-wise "Why Warriors Lay Down and Die" by Richard Trudgen was really great. Have you read much theory, or are you interested in that angle at all? I'm kinda super into it, would love to share sources if that's cool.

 

[Scarlet13]

I am open to resources, but I am focusing on US diversity and inclusion issues including gender.

 

[grit]

In my view and I am a woman of colour if that adds any flavour.
There is culture, humanity (emotions and thoughts) and politics.
PTSD regardless of culture and politics is the same for all humanity.
When we cannot separate things is when we ran into problems of dehumanizing groups.
Yes some cultures deal with it different than others, politics definitely deal with it differently, but a flashback or dissociation or soul pain does not discriminate.

So I am sort of reluctant to focus on other two items but the human aspect of it.

 

[ILoveLife]

When we cannot separate things is when we ran into problems of dehumanizing groups.

^^^ this.
I won't chime in as you're asking for US related issues and I'm not from the US.

 

[Ronin]

I guess it depends so much when & where we are talking about, and class being entirely different thing.

(Technically my family of origins were a good family. They were also profoundly not good people, and darned marginalizing in multiple ways. Made for situations that basically got me welcoming anyone and anything in life that could be Different Than Them / looked up to people substituting family and some order really hard.)

Super mixed kid, here. Changed class / places / ethnicities multiple times, by whose rules I lived and breathed by. The pain and reasons for it looks different, by where one is standing. Hardly an universally people of color issue. So many variations, and specific situations.

 

[Scarlet13]

This is a very broad/loaded question and topic.
I am just reflecting on the overlap of being in a marginilized group and getting abused or experiencing trauma on top of or as a result of this marginilazation.
From my experience as a person with a disability (not the same as race discrimination) there was a doubling up of issues. I was bullied and I fell through the cracks. A microagression towards differently abled people is that you are stupid or weak. I was treated this way by teachers, ostracized, made into the "other" pushed to the side. At home this school message was emphasized. I was "bad" and seen as stupid and less than.
My visual disability made me vulnerable to abuse.
The only good messages would be surprise over my talents. I am a skilled actor and people would be surprised at this. I have had people speak loud and slow at me (even now) when I wear my thick glasses. Which is funny, because my hearing and short term memory are excellent.
I have been studying discrimination a lot lately from many stand points, race, gender, disability and am interested in how trauma can merge, over lap, and intersect with marginilazation. I understand this from a disability petspective, but am seeking to understand this trauma overlap from other perspectives like race.
As a white person, I do not experience injustice based on race, but have experienced it for disability and gender.
Trauma from family of orgin compounds marginilization, you get no support from societal injustice. These negative messages about worth, value, power become internalized.
Marginilazation IS a form of trauma and can lead to more trauma like bullying.
So, yes a very complicated question that I am reflecting over.

 

[Rani G2]

What is it like to navigate society as a person of color who also has a history of trauma?

@Scarlet13 I'm a woman of colour, diagnosed with CPTSD due to violence in Childhood, abuse etc... like every story a long one.
Living in a white country sorrounded with white people. My coping mechanism was to be aggressive, outspoken, sarcastic and become tough to not ever let others oppress me. This has lessend but I Do have a tendency to be feisty..

Will be back when more words are available