Join us as we invite Dr Carlette Norwood in a unique online event where we’ll explore the racial trauma, how it affects us and how we can mange it moving forward.

The effects of racism can be described as racial abuse, racial trauma, and racial battle fatigue, and can manifest intergenerationally for many generations. Historical trauma is the “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over a lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group experiences” (Brave Heart, 1998). Any people whose culture has a history of oppression or genocide may experience the effects of trauma which have been handed down generationally. History, as it relates to the Black experience, is a common thread that connects ancestral traumatic experiences to present-day historical events that have occurred across our lifespan, and we often use history as a metaphoric map or timeline that guides those experiences toward our future.

However, historical knowledge of past racism is more prevalent among Black people than white people who show little historical knowledge of racism in both isolated incidents and systemic manifestations of racism. Therefore, their lack of knowledge and understanding of racism from the past strongly suggests a lack of knowledge and understanding of racism in present-day and provides a foundation for denial and inaction about injustice. This phenomena helps perpetuate historical racial trauma among Black people.