“Black Trauma 101” by Aisha Wilson-Carter

The terms “white supremacy” and “white privilege” are not meant to trigger people into being defensive; it is just a fact, a system we inherited. It’s a lie we have all been told, and this lie impacts each of us, but how we deal with and react to those lies vary based on how much we have internalized the feelings of superiority and inferiority.

Realizing all the ways in which our lives do not matter in this country is a secret rite of passage for black Americans. Like us all, my children will have to deal with the trauma of being black in America. They will have several options.

Option 1: They can become citizens diligent in their desire to dismantle every oppressive system. They can be persistent and unapologetically proud of their ethnicity and contribution to their country and recognize that they are in no way inferior; they can commit to the fight for justice and stand against injustice; they can vow to judge people by their character, to see different ethnicities and celebrate them all because God made us different for a reason; they can bare resentment only for a system and people that continue to push the narrative that some are superior to others. They will never mind having productive, uncomfortable conversations and being in uncomfortable situations in the name of progress and justice.

Option 2: They can be relentlessly angry and filled with hate for all white people because the latter dare to deem the former inferior; this, although neither preferred, nor productive, is a perfectly reasonable reaction to the predicament of being black in America.

Option 3: The most dangerous for the black psyche, but probably the most common, most pervasive, and most preferred by society as a whole, is to overtly and/or covertly accept the premise of black inferiority, thus to accept the premise of white superiority. This is the first lesson in Black Trauma.

We can easily identify when this inferiority is acted out overtly; consider the Uncle Tom persona or the real-life Candace Owens. These people are sometimes so traumatized by the psychological warfare that they publicly disparage, denounce, and ridicule the black race and trivialize the black plight, so that they themselves can gain acceptance to the privileged class. We tend to believe that they are selfish, “sell outs” or opportunists, which may very well be true, but it is because they are suffering internally too. They are deeply ashamed and embarrassed by their heritage and status in America.

Those people, however, are not the focus of my discussion here, for their proclamations are easily dismissed. I want to focus on those individuals who have subconsciously accepted that black people are inferior, that is to be less than. This group may unknowingly work to distinguish themselves from the black race because they are dying not to be seen as inferior; they administer certain behaviors and adopt beliefs that offer them a false sense of disconnection from the perceived inferior race.

Black Trauma is tirelessly working to achieve a status of worth and value in a country that never plans to grant this status to the melanated population. Black Trauma is the realization that we can’t win if the entire system is designed for us to fail, movement after movement, decade after decade, law after law. We live in a constant state of trauma based on lies. Have you ever dealt with a habitual liar? They can spin a story so well that even though you have the evidence and experiences to contradict every untruth, they willfully refuse to fess up. It’s maddening. This is what it’s like to be black, but the liar in this case controls everything, education, housing, wealth, power, policing, media representation, the judicial system — EVERYTHING! To survive, everyone pretends; every American participates in the lie. The majority of white people who are indeed not racist participate by being silent; the status quo is comfortable, and history has taught us that anyone who confronts the liar will pay dearly; the privilege of being white is the ability to ignore and be silent; their silence is a luxury. MLK describes how we all suffer from the lie of white supremacy when he describes the racial injustice of segregation: “It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.”

Let’s focus on this “false sense of inferiority.” Many black people turn to material goods to achieve a certain status or level of success without even realizing why they long for these goods. The dilemma is not whether they can afford such goods or not, the dilemma dwells in the desire. Many of us have asked the racist question “Why do y’all buy Jordan’s and Gucci belts, but still live in the projects?” The answer is that unlike their white counterparts who can be millionaires and rock holey sneakers because they have nothing to prove, blacks are constantly proving to them, to us, to the world, “I’m not inferior!” If the only way they can do so is with a Jordan collection and outrageously priced brand names, then so be it. And why wouldn’t they? We all want a sense of belonging, and the equity and privileges afforded to whites are the ultimate goals that, whether consciously or subconsciously, we are trying to achieve. Everyone (and I mean everyone) knows that the white privilege and racial supremacy exists, but instead of seeing that inequality as wrong and in need of dismantling, some black people are convinced that they have to distance themselves from the plight of the black race to be successful. They so desperately want to believe we live in a post-racial society because it means everything is okay and the white man is more comfortable with his presence.

Therefore, white supremacy is not just something Nazis and the KKK subscribe to; it is something black people either overtly or subconsciously subscribe to, and in my opinion, this reaction is far more dangerous than any other. After all, this is the goal of the American lie, complacency, and silence, whether it be from the church, white moderates or blacks, and everyone in between. If they have convinced us that white is innately better, superior, more successful, they have then won. It doesn’t matter how it’s done, through internal self-hate or sheer exhaustion at confronting the liar who refuses to budge. It is not hard to be influenced by the lie of racial supremacy when every corner of society works to make it a reality — lynching black bodies as a form of entertainment — literally like going to a carnival — demonizing black male sexuality, mass incarceration, Jim Crow laws, poverty, underfunded school systems, the media’s negative portrayal, redlining, unjust laws, health disparities, glass ceilings in the professional and political worlds, cops killing unarmed black people, the list goes on.

The reality for my children growing up in one of the many predominantly white suburban communities on Long Island is that they will experience one, maybe two, teachers who are a person of color, and, if they are lucky, they will be one of two to three POC in their classes. As parents, we don’t want our children to grow up with a chip on their shoulder, nor do we want then to be desperate for white acceptance. It is our responsibility to instill a strong sense of pride in who they are; we must teach them to be unapologetically black: to make sure they choose option 1.

As long as the system deems black as bad, inferior, and unworthy, the desire not to be black, less black, or to distance oneself from blackness in other ways (accepting inferior status, using acceptance by white people as a sign of success, being colorblind, focusing on self-interest rather than collective interest, disparaging other black people, ignoring the black plight, etc.) will remain, even if it is latent.

Thankfully, trauma can be disrupted by learning the truth either at home, from an enlightened teacher, or self-discovery, but the large majority, both white and black and everyone in between, never learn the truth before it’s too late, before the lie transforms into truth. And then we send children out into a world that reinforces everything they are feeling about being superior and inferior, foolishly expecting that somehow racism will die with the younger more mixed generation, or that we will magically arrive in a post-racial world.

Perhaps, instead, we should ask ourselves, what will happen if we lift the burden of proving oneself neither inferior nor superior? America needs a 12-step program: “Hi, my name is America, stolen land whose wealth was created by stolen people, and I’m ready for admittance, repentance, and reconciliation.”

Aisha Wilson-Carter serves on the Faculty Advisory Board for the Center for “Race,” Culture & Social Justice, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Writing Studies in the department of Writing Studies & Rhetoric at Hofstra University. 
Writer, Educator and Cultivator=Change Agent