Slavery as a Cultural Trauma
Slavery is one of the most significant cultural traumas in American history dating back to the year 1619 in the state of Virginia (Franklin, 2000). Though slavery officially ended years ago (December, 1865), its affect on contemporary African Americans as a cultural trauma appears to be cyclical. The cycle may continue because the trauma existed after slavery ended, and at times, occurs today according to the majority of the participants interviewed for this research. For example, when one takes into consideration “Southern Slavery and the Law,” was a concept during slavery that mandated it was not a felony to kill a slave while, “correcting” beating him/her to death. “It was considered an accident” (Leary, 2004). …show more content…
Curran and Takata (2004) list the Holocaust and the Vietnam War as events where non-Americans committed “unspeakable horrors.” African American slavery should also be considered an “unthinkable horror” because it was evident that slavery, “at least the real part of slavery, was inherently violent” (Leary, 2004). Additionally, Curran and Takata (2004) cite the genocide in Ruwanda as an event where Americans were “more able to ignore, to pretend somehow it wasn’t happening, or was none of our concern.” Interestingly, American slavery was not included as a cultural trauma, even though slavery was an event that impacted an entire race and culture in the name of justice. In the name of justice and knowing right from wrong Americans could have chosen to abolish slavery hundreds of years prior to its end. The DSM-IV-TR has a classification of groups that can be diagnosed with PTSD. Why weren’t African American slaves or their descendants included in the grouping of PTSD? Members and survivors of the Holocaust have been recognized and compensated by the United States government despite that the Holocaust did not take place in the United States and Americans were not responsible for the event. Many Africans in the American slave trade as well as throughout the Diaspora, …show more content…
Initially, they stated that Americans need to acknowledge that it is wrong, “we know it’s wrong, let’s just do something about it to make everything as right as we can, again.” Regardless, of how we view cultural trauma, or whether some of us do not believe it has a lasting impact on a person’s life, we might all agree that some form of healing needs to occur. More importantly, healing is possible. “So what if you can’t punish anyone because the ones who should be punished are the ones with the power to have prevented it in the first place. You can still heal our culture; heal us and our individual experiences of the trauma as perpetrator, or as victim, or as spectator.” (Curran and Takata, 2004). Even perpetrators and spectators need to heal from cultural trauma. Initially, this research and proposed healing model only addressed the victims of cultural trauma. However, the only way for real healing to occur is for everyone to participate in the healing process, therefore, experience the restorative
Slavery is one of the most significant cultural traumas in American history dating back to the year 1619 in the state of Virginia (Franklin, 2000). Though slavery officially ended years ago (December, 1865), its affect on contemporary African Americans as a cultural trauma appears to be cyclical. The cycle may continue because the trauma existed after slavery ended, and at times, occurs today according to the majority of the participants interviewed for this research. For example, when one takes into consideration “Southern Slavery and the Law,” was a concept during slavery that mandated it was not a felony to kill a slave while, “correcting” beating him/her to death. “It was considered an accident” (Leary, 2004). …show more content…
Curran and Takata (2004) list the Holocaust and the Vietnam War as events where non-Americans committed “unspeakable horrors.” African American slavery should also be considered an “unthinkable horror” because it was evident that slavery, “at least the real part of slavery, was inherently violent” (Leary, 2004). Additionally, Curran and Takata (2004) cite the genocide in Ruwanda as an event where Americans were “more able to ignore, to pretend somehow it wasn’t happening, or was none of our concern.” Interestingly, American slavery was not included as a cultural trauma, even though slavery was an event that impacted an entire race and culture in the name of justice. In the name of justice and knowing right from wrong Americans could have chosen to abolish slavery hundreds of years prior to its end. The DSM-IV-TR has a classification of groups that can be diagnosed with PTSD. Why weren’t African American slaves or their descendants included in the grouping of PTSD? Members and survivors of the Holocaust have been recognized and compensated by the United States government despite that the Holocaust did not take place in the United States and Americans were not responsible for the event. Many Africans in the American slave trade as well as throughout the Diaspora, …show more content…
Initially, they stated that Americans need to acknowledge that it is wrong, “we know it’s wrong, let’s just do something about it to make everything as right as we can, again.” Regardless, of how we view cultural trauma, or whether some of us do not believe it has a lasting impact on a person’s life, we might all agree that some form of healing needs to occur. More importantly, healing is possible. “So what if you can’t punish anyone because the ones who should be punished are the ones with the power to have prevented it in the first place. You can still heal our culture; heal us and our individual experiences of the trauma as perpetrator, or as victim, or as spectator.” (Curran and Takata, 2004). Even perpetrators and spectators need to heal from cultural trauma. Initially, this research and proposed healing model only addressed the victims of cultural trauma. However, the only way for real healing to occur is for everyone to participate in the healing process, therefore, experience the restorative