The Talk: Conversations on Generational Trauma and Systemic Racism
Article: “Why ‘The Talk’ about race isn’t limited to Black families” (NBC)
By Rainier Harris
For Immigrantly, I wanted to do some reporting on a topic that matters deeply to my community: generational trauma. You might’ve heard this term used to describe the traumatic effects catastrophic events like slavery have on different oppressed communities even generations after the trauma was initially inflicted. Unfortunately, the trauma can persist in different forms like police killings we see today. A key thing that I wanted to talk to some experts about was whether talking to children about how to behave around police, known as “The Talk” could change how generational trauma gets reinforced.
Kristen Welker, who moderated the final presidential debate in 2020, asked then-incumbent President Donald Trump and now-President Joe Biden, about The Talk, the conversation that black parents have with their children directing them on how to behave so police officers won’t shoot them.
Biden responded by acknowledging the existence of systemic racism in the United States stating matter-of-factly “There is institutional racism in America.” Trump responded by touting one of his favorite claims which is that, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, he has done more for Black people than any president in American history.
The Talk has been a subject of academia and psychologists for decades now. But a fundamental question has been largely left unaddressed: is The Talk worth having in the first place? That is to say, does having The Talk reinforce the existence of systemic racism and facilitate the passing on of generational trauma from one black family to the next?
When Brandon Jones was just eight years old, he and his family had just returned home from his grandmother’s house. He decided he wanted to ride his bike down the block, but once he made it to the end of the block and turned the corner, a police officer approached him. “Hey, you!” the police officer said. “[I knew] he was talking to me because I was the only kid there, I was the only person there,” Jones recalls. “And I just took off.”
He turned his bike and pedaled up the sidewalk to get back to his house when the police car sped up the street. Jones hopped off his bike and ran to his front door. “I remember just being terrified,” he recalled. When his mother answered the door, the police officer said that he wanted to talk to Jones because the kids said he broke some windows down the street. “Well we just got in, he didn’t break anything, he literally just got home and I said he could ride his bike while [the rest of the family] gets settled inside the house,” his mother said in his defense.
Dr. Jones is now a psychotherapist and behavioral health consultant at the Integrated Services Manager at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center and a professor at both Metropolitan State University and Century College. He said whenever shows like COPS would show up on television as he was growing up, his parents would tell him what not to do in the presence of police officers. “If you’re ever in this situation, don’t say anything, if you’re ever in this situation, put your hand on the steering wheel” he recalled his parents telling him.
Many young African Americans have experienced the “police talk.” Early on, they’re told how to conduct themselves in the presence of a police officer, what to do, what not to do, and precautions to take because their parents fear a misstep in conduct can cost their child their life. For some, it is a formal sit-down conversation that parents have with their children. For others, it is a series of ongoing conversations that serve as a constant reminder of how to interact with police officers while doing everyday activities like watching television shows or movies with cops in them.
The systems of oppression left black Americans in what Dr. Michael Halloran, Associate Professor of Psychology at LaTrobe University, calls an “anxious state” of hyper-vigilance. “The psychology of slavery didn’t end, it continued on...there’s still that attitude of oppression of black people by white people that continues on.” While the trauma of slavery alone may be mitigated over time, the implementation of other systems of oppression reinforces the psychological attitude of oppression. The generational trauma of black Americans is sustained by maintaining the power dynamic on a systemic and interpersonal level between the perpetrator of the trauma, white people, and its victims, African Americans.
Stress and epigenetics, the study of how one generation’s genes can be expressed and impact the next generation, also play a role in generational trauma. Dr. Jones says that the stress inflicted upon black Americans in the transatlantic slave trade is the source. Black Americans do certain activities to alleviate that stress, which forms into habits, which is infused into culture. The activities may involve drug dependencies or crime in order to sustain life in poverty and alleviate stress. “Those cultures… come from a place-based out of stress and responding to stress,” which affects the body, which directly impacts the mind. Since the brain is overstimulated trying to regulate the stress, it is not operating at its highest capacity. Time and energy dedicated to regulating stress prevent people from indulging in other activities.
“We need to name racism for what it is and not use mental health diagnoses to label people as "mentally ill" when in fact they're living with the effects of generations of abuse and discrimination,” said Dr. Alisha Ali, Associated Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University Steinhardt. “This is the responsibility not just of the African American community, but of all of us.”