News about the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, trickled in on my newsfeed on May 14. As much as I tried to think of it as just another shooting in a vast series of such events that are endemic in a society that exalts gun ownership, a sense of unease permeated throughout the day. It drew parallels to the mass shooting in El Paso a few years back. That was an event that was similarly steeped in racist fears of “ethnic replacement” and demographic transformation of the U.S. populace.
To be truthful, my mind was likely compartmentalizing the event to cope with what the massacre represents, namely the microcosmic mimicry of structural violence that has long targeted marginalized folks and non-white people. This especially resonates with many of us who do not have the option to veil our outward appearance, as our skin tone is as much an identifying feature as it holds sociocultural meaning in a society that posits difference as a deviation from the social norm.
The ability to compartmentalize is also a reflection of shared historical psychological trauma. This compounds when we consider the events that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents lived through. A singular act, in similar vein to other incidents in recent and distant memory, impacts not only those directly afflicted but also those who witness or experience the event vicariously. Given that May is also Mental Health Awareness month, it’s important to examine how these events impact our communities.
In a recently published article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Alexander Tsai, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, noted that as stories are more widely covered, the impact is similarly much more widespread. Such is the case with Buffalo. This was also evident in 2020, when protests erupted after several incidents of racialized police violence came to light. These incidents are likely a small sample size; many more events have gone unrecorded.
In their study of Racist Incident-Based Trauma, published in “The Counseling Psychologist” in 2005, Thema Bryant-Davis and Carlota Ocampo note that racist incidents are potentially traumatizing forms of victimization that may result in “post trauma-like symptoms” that affect ethnic minority children and adults. These symptoms often include psychophysiological diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes. These are maladies that often impact entire communities, because the impact of structural racism goes beyond the individual to impact entire groups.
In looking at ways to heal, it’s also important to move beyond individual processes and include interventions that are communal in nature. Our communities are often a buffer that provide mutual aid and support. We have to ensure that our communities have the resources to promote collective healing and growth during difficult times.
Oscar Rosales grew up in the Yakima Valley and works and resides in Seattle.
Read more of the May 25-31, 2022 issue.