Frankly, I'm surprised how civil our black members remain in light of all the shameless white supremacist commentary easily found daily on this forum. Some of you lily white pansies really need to put away your popguns and try on a pair of big boy pants.
Wait, in the above post you stated unless actual harm was done it wasn't racism, now you are claim just words by white people cause blacks harm. Are blacks so weak that words are all it takes to cause harm? Or are you, as usual using a double standard, one for ****** and one for the black members?
It is this simplisrtic opinion that many whites have that is part of the problem.
Racism is more than a word used as a slur, and it causes damage that is not temporary. Many outside of the African American or other non-white communities do not seem to understand to what extent racism can drive a person to unhealthy and societally negative behaviors. Reality dictates that emotions are involved in this matter and there is a very wide spectrum of emotions people will express in such situations. To understand the dual standards in such thinking, white people here get all bent out of shape because I present white behavior that is documented in ther annals of American history. Using the word white has got people like you whining about my racism, but yet you are here talking about how blacks must be weak because of words. But white racism has been more than words. Actions detrimental to our survival have resulted after those words were spoken.
Findings from large-scale national studies indicate that, while African Americans have a lower risk for many anxiety disorders, they have a 9.1% prevalence rate for PTSD, compared to 6.8% in Whites (Himle et al, 2009). That means that almost one in ten Black people becomes traumatized, and I think these rates may actually be higher since diagnosticians are usually not considering the role of racism in causing trauma (Malcoun, Williams, & Bahojb-Nouri, 2015).
Dennis R. Upkins
Racism causes PTSD. PTSD is no respecter of socioeconomic status. Rich blacks and poor blacks are suffering with PTSD as result of the racism we all must endure. Therefore, simple minded comments such as “just get over it”, “move beyond race”, and “why can’t you get past racism” is a show of just how ignorant people are to what racism entails.
So many people who are white who have never felt how racism feels when its directed to you, have sermons to preach about how one can get beyond this. But as in any other form of abuse there are things that trigger the stressors which bring back the negative experiences felt because of racism. I have a simple layman’s understanding of psychology. I am no expert on PTSD. What I have been told is that when a person has this disorder there can be events that trigger the old terror the individual went through due to the past abuse. So then looking at racism as people of color who continue to see acts of racism in all the various iterations, it is important to recognize how these events trigger a reminder to people of color of the bad experiences they had due to racism and because of that certain behaviors might arise or resurface.
So hearing a racial slur or racist comment can trigger memories of bad experiences blacks have had due to racism. It is easy for those who have never been done this way to make silly comments thinking they are making sense, but you aren't and you need to learn to just shut up. If you cannot present a positive to this situation, stand down and let us work with whites who want to do so instead of crying about how somebody hates all whites because they don't like a specific group of whites like you who happen to be practicing racism.
You said you have black family members, but you don't. Because if you had, you would understand things like this.
