Does Resharing Past Experiences With Racism Lead To Systemic Changes?

When it comes to racism, storytelling is often heralded as a vital tool to mitigate racism. The widely-held belief is that by listening to personal stories of racial trauma, one will be able to better understand their experiences and will take action towards being less racist. The argument that is often made is that retelling an experience with racism can lead to empathy, and empathy will lessen our racism. If storytelling does in fact diminish our racism, it comes at a high cost. Non-white people are often expected to regurgitate past racial traumas for the sake of white enlightenment. What is often not talked about are the effects that having to constantly retell these past traumas can have on an individual over time. We should be questioning the usefulness of empathy in a) eradicating racism, and b) creating structural and systemic changes. This article seeks to interrogate the utility of resharing past racial traumas for white education.

Following the murder of George Floyd, we saw a shift—organizational leaders were now welcoming and even inviting conversations about race, racism, white supremacy, and anti-blackness. Many businesses enlisted non-white anti-racism educators to help with facilitating these conversations. Along with external help, many organizations invited their non-white employees to share their experiences with racism in the form of listening sessions and open discussions. In addition, employees who were part of Black and person of color affinity groups were invited to retell stories of past racism they had experienced. The invitations are extended with good intentions, but one factor that is not often overlooked is the emotional toll that this can have on a member of a racialized group. It’s noteworthy to juxtapose different types of traumas that a human can experience; individuals who have experienced abuse or childhood trauma are not often asked to reshare or re-live their experiences for public consumption. We don’t ask people to share the abuse they experienced from a parent or the trauma they faced while in the military, for example, yet individuals who have experienced racial trauma are expected to open up about their experiences. The question then becomes whether it’s possible to understand how to support a racialized individual without them having to reshare their past traumas.

In March of 1991, Rodney King was brutally beaten by a group of officers in Los Angeles following a high-speed chase. When the video went “viral” (before virality was really a thing), there was public outrage. The mistreatment and abuse of Black people is not a new phenomenon, however, catching it on camera was something the world was not used to. Based on the aforementioned argument, listening to or watching first-hand accounts of racism (e.g. viral videos) should theoretically reduce our racism over time. But is that what’s actually happening? Fast forward almost thirty years after Rodney King, and the world was struck by the video of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. Since the beating of Rodney King, has structural and systemic racism shifted in a significant way? The verdict is still out. Will the video of George Floyd’s murder produce long-term changes? If the past it the best predictor of the future, one could argue no; racial mega-threats like the Rodney King beating, the murder of Eric Garner, and the murder of George Floyd have not led to many significant policy changes.

Given this information, why is there so much emphasis and encouragement to reshare racial trauma? Racial enlightenment: a term one can think of as the process of informing others of past traumas faced by a racialized group, does not equate to structural change. Education can increase awareness, but in and of itself it does not necessarily lead to systemic changes. The toll that retelling traumatic stories can have on the individual sharing often goes overlooked. The retelling of past traumatic experiences can also cause re-traumatization, and can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The same individuals that share their experiences with racism often become casualties in their own workplaces; having to sacrifice their privacy and wellbeing so that their white counterparts can be informed, enlightened, and can “put themselves in their shoes.” In our workplaces, we must rethink asking racialized people to retell and reshare their experiences with racism—we can simply study history and examine how racialized groups have been treated to learn more about these unique experiences. It should not be a requirement to reshare horrific stories to understand how to support and advocate for racialized communities. This is not to discount the healing and growth that can come from sharing, if one so chooses. This article is more so an invitation to think more critically about what impact retelling these stories has on those directly affected. We can enlist the help of data and research to better understand how to support racialized communities. Research, for example, will reveal racial disparities in healthcare, housing, food accessibility, business capital, etc. We can use data to better inform our understanding, and recognize who needs support in different ways. Racial trauma has been commodified in the media and on the internet. We see the commodification of Black pain by corporations that announce their commitment to Black lives but fail to support their own Black employees. Trauma porn elicits engagement, particularly when it’s racial trauma. We don’t stop to think about how we are exploiting and re-traumatizing the racialized people that experience the trauma first-hand. In lieu of regurgitating past racial traumas for public consumption, it’s important to study the history while also working to understand the ways that systems allow these inequities to continue.

This article was previously published in Forbes.

The Pink Elephant newsletter is a weekly LinkedIn newsletter designed to stimulate critical and relevant dialogue that centers around topics of race and racial equity. The newsletter is curated by Janice Gassam Asare, Ph.D. who is a writer, speaker, consultant, educator, and self-proclaimed foodie. Janice is the host of the Dirty Diversity podcast, where she explores diversity, equity and inclusion in more detail. Dr. Janice’s work is centered around the dismantling of oppressive systems while amplifying the voices and needs of the most marginalized folks. If you are seeking guidance and consultation around diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace, visit the website to learn more about services that can be tailored to your specific needs. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share with others you feel would gain value from it. Lastly, if you’d like to get free tips on diversity, equity, and inclusion, sign up for Dr.Janice’s free newsletter through her website.

Authors note: It's been a year since the release of the best-selling book The Pink Elephant. In honor of the one-year book-versary, The Pink Elephant is now on sale at drjanicegassam.com. Buying books directly from authors is so impactful, especially for independent, self-published authors.

Photo 1 credit:  RODNAE Productions from Pexels