What white people and other allies do in conversations about the mental health effects of racism matters.
The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery were inflection points. The pain of centuries of racial wounds has driven weeks of protests over police brutality. The Black community has been screaming “Black Lives Matter” for a long time now, and finally, their voices are being heard.
“They will think, for instance, ‘I’m not going to go to lunch with these people because I don’t trust them’ — and those people could be potential supporters or potential friends,” Gholson said. It’s going to work and experiencing race-based microaggressions, for example, and then coming home to see a news story about police brutality against a Black man.It’s important to be mindful of what you say to someone who may have experienced racial trauma. First, don’t be dismissive of a person’s experiences, said Michael James Nuells, an actor and special events manager in Los Angeles.
“In the event of vocalizing my discomfort and maltreatment, my significant other at the time simply dismissed my concerns as fictitious incidents created in my mind,” she said. Her partner said things like, “Oh, come on, that wasn’t directed towards you. She didn’t mean that in a bad way. It’s not what you think. Just ignore those comments. They’re just ignorant.”
“It reminds people that white people exist in a different world than we do, and they have the luxury to not be aware,” she explained. Another way of shifting focus is when you try to empathize with racism even though you don’t have a comparable experience.
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