When we consider that we are not only walking around with our own lived experiences and traumas but also those of our ancestors, we must slow down and take a hard, honest look at our past. The feelings of fear and mistrust so many Black people feel can be attributed to the experiences both lived and inherited. The impact of these traumas are lodged in our DNA. These responses are not only a survival response, but one generated from DNA-encoded information. Because it was believed that Black people do not feel pain, they were experimented on without any anesthesia.įast-forward to the early 20th century Tuskegee experiments and current high infant and maternal death rates in the Black population, and the Black community’s general distrust in the medical system makes sense. Marion Sims is considered the father of modern gynecology, and most of his test subjects were Black enslaved women. This practice can be seen today in families where Black parents may be proud of their child’s achievements and celebrate them at home, but in the presence of mixed company, downplay their children’s talents so they aren’t seen as a threat.Ĭonnections like these can be made in many different areas of our everyday existence. Similarly, during slavery a parent would downplay their child’s intelligence or strength to protect them from being seen as valuable and sold on the auction block. The stress on work ethic is a hypervigilant response to a centuries-old trauma, and is reinforced by a desire to disprove stereotypes that are still circulating today. On a cellular level we still recall the negative outcomes. Many parents today may not fear that their children will receive actual lashes, but the trauma from those experiences is embedded in our DNA. If they appeared fatigued or unproductive, they would be called lazy and would be beaten. On any given day, an enslaved person would have to work from sunup to sundown. This philosophy is based on cultural conditioning, anthropological assertion, and lived experiences of our ancestors. But we’re not taking into account that all habits, practices, and beliefs are created first before they are reinforced.Ī common teaching in the Black community is regarding work ethic: We must work twice as hard to be just as good as the next person. When the question comes up whether these behaviors are inherent or learned, society generally believes the former. Some of these behaviors can be found in the African American community today, not just on an individual level, but overall on a cultural level. Symptoms of PTSD include a feeling of a foreshortened future, exaggerated startle responses, difficulty falling or staying asleep, outbursts of anger, and hypervigilance. DeGruy asks, “How does… being Black in America impact your stress level, therefore your body’s ability to operate its own immune system? Once you understand it then you can deal with it.” And while part of that is certainly due to ongoing social injustice, some of the impact might very well be inherited.īasically, being Black in America means living with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused not only by one’s lived experiences, but the experiences of our ancestors. One study conducted on worms found the residual effects of trauma lasted for 14 generations.įor the Black community, the impact of centuries of unaddressed trauma still manifests today. Specifically, scientists who study epigenetics have found that trauma experienced by parents can impact the DNA and behavior of their offspring for generations to come. It is not an actual change in the sequence of your DNA, but rather changes in the structure of your DNA. The concept that something experienced centuries ago could impact habits, practices, behaviors, perspectives, and fears beyond a person’s lived experience was fascinating.Įpigenetics is the study of how certain genes are turned on or off. DeGruy’s lectures, I began to contemplate the depth of the impact American chattel slavery had on my family and community at large. She’s a clinical psychologist with a doctorate in social work research and author of the book “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury & Healing.”Īfter attending one of Dr. During my exploration, I came across the work of Dr.
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