Thanks to the ever-present media and and rise in social media use, people across the economic spectrum are seeing dramatic examples of racism in our society in clear video.
We’re talking about Black men shot for no reason, youth sentenced to disproportionate sentences and customers being arrested for sitting in a coffee shop, to name a few.
Similarly, we are beginning to hear and understand the dramatic stories of our most vulnerable young people, young people who have been victimized, neglected and left out of our nation’s prosperity. Finally, science is catching up to what many of us have always known — that impact of racism, violence, poverty and neglect, if ignored, can impact the entire lifespan.
Our nation is beginning, perhaps, to have a long overdue conversation about the structural inequalities of our society.
However, as we begin to have this conversation, it is important to not just talk about the “big” incidents, or the ones that make the news. It is important for us to remember that the trauma of violence and racism does not just happen in large, dramatic ways, but in everyday microaggressions, everyday slights, and small incidents of violence and neglect.
[To read the rest of this article by Dannyelle Austin, click here.]
[Photo via facebook.com/hopeworksyouth]
Comments (0)