The news these days is heartbreaking. As oppression has always been. My skin color means I will never fully understand the trauma of racism. My heart calls me to feel as much as I can, and to be of service as I can.
My friend Lucia White posted these important words on Facebook yesterday, “Let me see how I can put this: To be of support to people of color during this turbulent social time – be deeply empathetic, honest, humble, quiet (with open ears), socio-politically active. Trauma is trauma is trauma, even if you yourself have not experienced first hand said trauma…That’s how you show up in community to support people of color, while people of color work to heal in the midst of recurring traumatic experiences. Additionally, people of color are asked to be on the front line of social change while also being the target of so much racism and other forms of discrimination. That’s not an easy feat, especially since we didn’t create this problem. There is not an easy bounce back for many of us emotionally, mentally, and physically…yet we somehow are expected to bounce back. And that is typically an uncommon expectation concerning all other forms of trauma, yet we must be some sort of exception. ‘Use self care’ sometimes feels like it’s applicable to everyone but us. TRUTH.”
As I sit with everything these days, I am struggling with what to write, how to contribute to healing and transformation.
For now, I will share these upcoming events:
The Hola Asheville Festival is this Saturday, June 24 in Pack Square Park from noon until 8 pm. ¡Gratis!
The Buncombe County Lunch & Learn series on local African American history starts on Tuesday, June 27 (info in poster above). If you want to attend any of these talks, RSVP via email to chiloh.campbell@buncombecounty.org.
[Quick note to my dear subscribers: I will be on vacation next week, and may not post! I’ll be back at it in July. Thank you for your continued support and interest.]
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Ami Worthen 
I was at a conference in LA this week looking at “Disparity in Perinatal Mental Health”, which is right up my alley. It was a great two day conference, with a lot speakers talking about the effects of non-ending violence and oppression on Black and Brown bodies in the US, and the intersectionality with neuroscience and mental health. Anyways, one of the pieces I loved was by a woman named Nkem Ndefo, who talked about how PTSD should be reclassified as “Present Traumatic Stress Disorder” for Black and Brown communities (instead of Post…), and how by continuing to talk about things like “self-care” and “resilience”, we are not acknowledging that those things cannot exist (in the way we currently define them) in systems of ongoing and continued trauma. Your post and quote from your friend reminds me of that.
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So true. Sigh.
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