Hidden Trauma

A lot of black academics criticized President Obama for engaging in "respectability politics" when he did things like launch the My Brother's Keeper initiative. But when the President met with the young people involved in the Becoming a Man program in Chicago and during his visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation, he likely heard stories like the ones in this article by Sam P.K. Collins titled: The Hidden Trauma Plaguing American Kids.

While conversations about PTSD often focus on soldiers returning from combat zones, research in recent years has shown the development of symptoms in children who live in violent environments...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies symptoms of PTSD as flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety and loss of trust in people. For children of color still reeling from the effects of crime, poverty, limited health care, and poor schools in their low-income neighborhoods, the mental disorder can take a toll on the mind...

One in three young urban dwellers who experience mild to severe forms of PTSD say that people may doubt the severity of what they see, especially if they live in high-crime, high-poverty areas. But D.C.-based psychotherapist Lanada Williams argues that constant exposure to even the smallest incidences of violence — whether it’s physical, sexual, or verbal — can spur the development of mental ailments in children, especially in cases where school officials misinterpret cries for help as acts of delinquency.

Via the research Collins referred to, we are beginning to develop an understanding of the effects chronic (or complex) trauma has on child development and the behaviors that result. As he notes, failure to acknowledge it is part of the vicious cycle that feeds suspensions/expulsions from school and ultimately the school-to-prison pipeline.

“When children of color act up, we don’t try to get to the meat of what’s affecting that child. Instead, we adjudicate them and move them through the system,” Williams, also CEO of Alliance Family Solutions, a private counseling practice, told ThinkProgress.

Children of color (especially black boys) who suffer from chronic trauma are the ones who are also being robbed of their childhood innocence when they "act up."

Black boys as young as 10 may not be viewed in the same light of childhood innocence as their white peers, but are instead more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime, according to new research.

President Obama touched on this in his interview with Jeff Johnson on BET.


At about 17:00:

Part of what I think is so heartbreaking and frustrating for a lot of folks when they watch this is a recognition that - simply by virtue of color - you've got less margin for error - that's particularly true for black boys...And so its not simply that we want to make sure that the perfect young man is treated OK. We also want a boy - who's a boy, or a young man who's maybe a little confused, maybe makes a mistake - we want them to be given the same benefit of the doubt as any other boy would be given.

This has nothing to do with respectability politics. It has to do with getting real about the challenges that too many children face as a result of the cycles created by racism. It also has a lot to do with not allowing the suffering of "hidden" trauma by these children to go unnoticed any longer.

A pragmatist's musings on ending racism

Racism is a highly-charged emotional issue in this country. Rightly so. But I find it helpful to step back from the emotions every now and then to take a rational pragmatic look at where we are and what our goals should be going forward.

In order to do that, its important to recognize the two broad categories of racism: personal and systemic. Personal racism includes both the covert messages we've all internalized as a result of living in a white supremacist culture as well as overtly racist words/actions. Personal racism is basically a white-people's problem as my friend Robinswing articulated a while ago when she said "We Can't Fix Ya!" Ending personal racism is an individual journey.

I can't speak for anyone else, but that journey for me was initiated and has been maintained by some very patient people of color in my life. I have tried my best on this blog platform to pass those lessons on to the few people who read here. White people are "my people," and its important to me that we eventually get it.

But the truth is, people of color can walk away from personal racism. Unless they care individually or collectively about our opinions, they can chose to ignore us. Even the racist rantings of a Sterling or Bundy or Robertson (Duck Dynasty) are meaningless unless we give them weight.

Ultimately it is systemic racism that impacts people of color directly. It happens when racism becomes embedded, both overtly and covertly, in institutional patterns and practices. Both the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement were successful in ending different forms of systemic racism: slavery and legal segregation. But those patterns and practices have been embedded in our systems of education, health care, housing, employment, immigration and criminal justice.

While personal and systemic racism are certainly intertwined, I believe that the former is a slow process of personal transformation. No one can control when/if another person is open to that process. We can only seize the moments that are presented to us.

But if, as Rev. William Barber has articulated, we are in the midst of a Third Reconstruction, I think it behooves us to focus on further eradication of systemic racism. Others may disagree, but I think the most pressing areas today are in our education, immigration and criminal justice systems.

When viewed in this light, our "talk" about racism should be focused on gaining allies to do the work of dismantling systemic racism (you can see that on display with Rev. Barber's Moral Mondays Movement). This is where the current work of criminal justice reform presents a fascinating opportunity. Conservatives have joined the fight - not to rid the system of racism - but to reduce government spending. There are similar alliances developing with big business on the issues of education and immigration.

Now...if you've been paying attention, you might have seen how President Obama is providing leadership on these issues. His administration is busy advocating for universal pre-K, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, opening up the opportunity for a college education to more young people, passing comprehensive immigration reform, cracking down on police brutality, initiating a clemency initiative, and being Smart on Crime.

When the President's critics - like Michael Eric Dyson - say he needs to step up, use the bully pulpit and provide leadership, what they mean is that he should talk about racism. That is aimed at tackling the personal. For better or worse, this President has decided to focus on the systemic.

How should we measure a president's success?

I, for one, really appreciate Jonathan Chait's column yesterday titled: Obama Promised to do 4 Big Things as President. Now He's Done Them All. He uses the following statement from the President's 2008 Inaugural Address to name those 4 things:

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

And so President Obama's initiatives on the stimulus bill, Wall Street reform, health care reform, education reform and now climate change are noted as major accomplishments.

But what strikes me in this kind of analysis is that most of that list involves legislative accomplishments. That is primarily the job of Congress. In the separation of powers outlined by our founders, the main job of the presidency is not to legislate, but to administer the functions of the federal government. And yet when it comes time to evaluate a president's performance, that aspect of the job is most often not included.

We must not forget that President Obama not only had to clean up the financial and foreign policy messes of the previous administration. He faced a FEMA that completely botched the response to Hurricane Katrina, a Justice Department that was politicized and corrupted, and yes...a Veterans Administration that was incapable of dealing with the needs of soldiers deployed in unnecessary wars.

We're not likely to see headlines when - even in the midst of escalating climate disasters - FEMA performs competently and thoroughly. And yet, anyone who has ever had to turn around a poorly functioning system knows that is always a difficult and complex management process. I would count that as one of the major success stories of the Obama administration.

But perhaps nowhere was the job more daunting or necessary than at the Department of Justice. Particularly, we know that hiring in the Civil Rights Division had become a politicized process and the focus of investigations had shifted to claims of so-called "reverse racism." I've tried to document how AG Eric Holder and former Civil Rights Division Director Thomas Perez worked effectively to turn all that around.

And so, when I listen to the "what have you done for me lately" conversations (like the one engaged on Melissa Harris-Perry's show yesterday) that attempt to lecture President Obama on the need for structural reforms to address racism, I am amazed at the ignorance of actual structural reforms that have been undertaken by this administration. At least one guest actually mentioned the work by DOJ and the Department of Education on ending the school-to-prison pipeline. But there was no reference at all to things like:

• historic levels of investigations into police brutality
• prosecution of banks for "reverse redlining"
• challenges to voting restrictions and unconstitutional immigration laws
• settlement of centuries-old claims of Native Americans against the federal government
• shifting the conversation from being "tough on crime" to being "smart on crime" with a resulting historic drop in prison admissions
• launch of the Clemency Project

That summarizes some of the work of just one federal department that I have been following pretty closely. To measure the actual impact of a presidency, the same could be done for every one of them. This should especially be important to Democrats. Because as I've been saying for quite some time, the best way to advance a liberal agenda is to ensure the practice of good government. That's the president's job.

An administration committed to civil rights

Ever since Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, I've wanted to watch every moment of his journey because I think something truly remarkable is happening. There are times when it is the relatively small things that often go unnoticed by our media that actually stand out to me.

For example, did you know that today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia? And are you aware that yesterday the President issued a statement commemorating it?

Tomorrow, as we commemorate the 10th annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, we recommit ourselves to the fundamental belief that all people should be treated equally, that they should have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, and that no one should face violence or discrimination -- no matter who they are or whom they love.

This comes a week after Obama's Secretary of Defense said it was time to review the military's ban on transexuals. B.F.D!!!

And then, of course today we are also celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Supreme Court decision on Brown v Board of Education. Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and AG Eric Holder wrote this to commemorate the occasion:

...for all the progress our nation has seen over the last six decades, this is a process that continues, and a promise that has yet to be fully realized, even today.

While the number of school districts that remain under desegregation court orders has decreased significantly in just the past decade, the Department of Justice continues to actively enforce and monitor nearly 200 desegregation cases where school districts have not yet fulfilled their legal obligation to eliminate segregation “root and branch.” In those cases, the department works to ensure that all students have the building blocks of educational success – from access to advanced placement classes, to facilities without crumbling walls and old technology, to safe and positive learning environments.

The Departments of Justice and Education are also working together to reform misguided school discipline policies that fuel the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Some of these policies, while well-intentioned, have resulted in students of color facing suspensions and expulsions at a rate three times higher than that of their white peers. And the Administration is moving in a variety of ways to dismantle racial barriers and promote inclusion, from America’s classrooms, to our courtrooms, to our voting booths – and far beyond.

This is happening because President Obama appointed people to these critical positions who "get it." For example, this morning AG Holder made some powerful remarks to Morgan State University graduates. In reference to the Sterling and Bundy sagas, he said:

But we ought not find contentment in the fact that these high-profile expressions of outright bigotry seem atypical and were met with such swift condemnation. Because if we focus solely on these incidents -- on outlandish statements that capture national attention and spark outrage on Facebook and Twitter -- we are likely to miss the more hidden, and more troubling, reality behind the headlines.

These outbursts of bigotry, while deplorable, are not the true markers of the struggle that still must be waged, or the work that still needs to be done -- because the greatest threats do not announce themselves in screaming headlines. They are more subtle. They cut deeper. And their terrible impact endures long after the headlines have faded and obvious, ignorant expressions of hatred have been marginalized.

Holder went on to describe the "disparate impact" of things like zero tolerance policies in our schools, the racial disparities that persist in the criminal justice system and attacks on voting rights as the form of racism that is more subtle and cuts deeper.

This is the work that truly matters -- because policies that disenfranchise specific groups are more pernicious than hateful rants. Proposals that feed uncertainty, question the desire of a people to work [shoutout to Rep. Paul Ryan] and relegate particular Americans to economic despair are more malignant than intolerant public statements, no matter how many eyebrows the outbursts might raise. And a criminal justice system that treats groups of people differently -- and punishes them unequally -- has a much more negative impact than misguided words that we can reject out of hand.

And in case anyone wonders where this administration comes down on the resent dust-up between Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Sotomayor on the current status of racism in this country... Holder set that record straight.

Chief Justice John Roberts has argued that the path to ending racial discrimination is to give less consideration to the issue of race altogether. This presupposes that racial discrimination is at a sufficiently low ebb that it doesn't need to be actively confronted. In its most obvious forms, it might be. But discrimination does not always come in the form of a hateful epithet or a Jim Crow like statute. And so we must continue to take account of racial inequality, especially in its less obvious forms, and actively discuss ways to combat it. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote recently in an insightful dissent in the Michigan college admissions case -- we must not "wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society... The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race."

The Obama administration is clearly not in the business of taking the easy road when it comes to the matter of civil rights for ALL Americans. They're pushing the envelope on every one of these important issues. Sometimes the work that advances that cause catches the national headlines - like ending DADT. And sometimes it comes in baby steps - like this week when AG Holder spoke out against the excessive use of isolation in juvenile detention facilities. But regardless, the focus is clear and the determination is relentless. That's why I want to pay attention and not miss a moment of how it unfolds.

My Brother's Keeper: Addressing the generational cycles of racism

Last night Chris Hayes hosted a conversation about President Obama's new initiative "My Brother's Keeper" with professors Imani Perry and Jelani Cobb. Due to the fact that this initiative will primarily be privately funded, the title of the segment was The Politics of Philanthropy. In it both the host and the guests made assumptions that are simply untrue.

Their first error was to assume that philanthropy only funds programs that address the needs of individuals to the exclusion of public policy. I know from my own experience of working in nonprofits that this is simply not true. Many of the individuals and foundations with which I came in contact were transitioning into providing support for systemic change - recognizing that an either/or approach was not sufficient, but that both are needed.

I also know that many organizations struggle with this tension. As children of color are literally being lost daily, limited resources often mean making decisions about whether to continue to focus efforts on the very real devastation to their individual lives, or attempt to swim upstream and try to affect the forces that are creating the problem in the first place. Hayes, Perry and Cobb - to my ear - appeared pretty dismissive of attempts to do the former. But I challenge them to spend one day with those young people and tell me that their individual lives do not present the same kind of urgency we feel about the need to fight for systemic change.

The second error they made was to suggest that the Obama administration is doing nothing about addressing the systemic issues that affect these young men of color. I would certainly agree with anyone who suggested that more could be done - especially in regards to criminal justice system reform. But as I've chronicled before, their position completely ignores things like the Departments of Education and Justice efforts to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline as well as this administration's work to end the war on drugs. To suggest that President Obama is ignoring the systemic issues that affect these young men is an assumption made in ignorance of actual facts.

More insidious in their assumptions is the idea that centuries of oppression in this country have no impact on the minds and hearts of many young people and their families. To ignore that is to ignore our history. Lifting them up individually is also a way to address the systemic issues of racism.  As President Obama said yesterday:

None of this is going to be easy. This is not a one-year proposition. It’s not a two-year proposition. It's going to take time. We're dealing with complicated issues that run deep in our history, run deep in our society, and are entrenched in our minds.

I am reminded of one time years ago when I was meeting with a philanthropic foundation's program officer to ask for funding for a program that worked to help students (mostly black boys) succeed in school. I had included some of the African American staff who worked directly with students in the meeting and they were explaining how so many of these young men are surrounded by fathers/uncles/brothers who were either in prison or had spent significant amounts of time there. The program officer commented that these young men must feel ashamed about that. The staff quickly chimed in to correct her - saying that many of them actually wear it as a badge of honor and see their own destinies as leading them there as well.

Recognizing that reality is in no way an attempt to blame them for it. From slavery to Jim Crow to the war on drugs, our country's history is littered with attempts to tear black families apart and terrorize black men. It should come as no surprise to us that those policies have created cycles of despair and hopelessness among many African Americans. The question then becomes, what do we do about that? It is initiatives like "My Brother's Keeper" combined WITH efforts to make systemic changes that are needed. As President Obama said:

We need to give every child, no matter what they look like, where they live, the chance to reach their full potential. Because if we do -- if we help these wonderful young men become better husbands and fathers, and well-educated, hardworking, good citizens -- then not only will they contribute to the growth and prosperity of this country, but they will pass those lessons on to their children, on to their grandchildren, they will start a different cycle.

Breaking that cycle happens when we demonstrate that we have Christian Campagne's back.

President Obama and Christian Campagne walk into East Room for "My Brother's Keeper" event.

"My Brother's Keeper"

Anyone who has listened regularly to President Obama's speeches knows that there is a refrain that he returns to over and over again because it makes up the core of his values. Here is how we were first introduced to it in his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention:

For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga.

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Here is how he said it in his 2008 speech on race in America - A More Perfect Union:

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

And so it comes as no surprise that this week President Obama will announce a new initiative titled "My Brother's Keeper."

President Obama will launch a significant new effort this week to bolster the lives of young men of color, seeking to use the power of the presidency to help a group of Americans whose lives are disproportionately affected by poverty and prison.

Obama on Thursday will announce a new White House initiative called “My Brother’s Keeper,” which will bring foundations and companies together to test a range of strategies across the country to support young male minorities, taking steps to keep them in school and out of the criminal justice system, a White House official said. He will also announce that his administration will launch a more vigorous evaluation of what policies work best and publicize results to school systems and others across the country.

This initiative will obviously build on the work Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder have done to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline that currently affects so many young men of color.

Its clear that this meeting with participants of the Chicago-based program Becoming a Man had a profound impact on the President because he has referred to it several times.

I think that this is also the kind of thing we'll be seeing Barack Obama devote himself to post-presidency...because he knows: "I'm not that different from Roger."

The Obama administration isn't sitting still on the school-to-prison pipeline

One way to sit still while the machinery of racism rolls on is to ignore what is happening to black and brown children in our public schools. The truth is that as we approach the 60th anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, we don't have a problem with public education in this country. What we have is a failure to adequately educate our black and brown children.

Former President George W. Bush found a way to sit still on this problem. After over 30 years of collecting data on racial disparities in our public schools, his administration chose to simply discontinue the practice. There wasn't much push-back to that. It was simply a matter of "what we don't see doesn't exist."

Early on in the Obama administration, that changed. The Civil Rights Office in the Department of Education began collecting the data again. And the picture wasn't pretty.

• 55% of high schools with low black and Hispanic populations offer calculus while only 29% of schools with high minority populations do so.
• Black and Hispanic students made up 44 percent of the students in the survey, but were only 26 percent of the students in gifted and talented programs.
• On average, teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues elsewhere.

But the really alarming data was that black and brown students are significantly more likely to be suspended, expelled or referred to law enforcement for behavior problems in school. That's what many people have begun to call the school-to-prison pipeline for students of color.

Armed with this information, the Departments of Education and Justice set out to do something about it. For example, DoE's Civil Rights Division began investigating school districts with significant disparities in their school discipline practices. And DoJ filed suit against the school district in Meridian, MS for some of the most egregious practices in the country - leading to a consent decree. 

This week we learned that the Departments of Education and Justice released guidelines to school districts to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Attorney General Holder summed up the problem this way:

"Ordinary troublemaking can sometimes provoke responses that are overly severe, including out of school suspensions, expulsions and even referral to law enforcement and then you end up with kids that end up in police precincts instead of the principal's office," Holder said in a statement.

In no way do these guidelines suggest that schools give a pass to student misbehavior. What they do suggest is that there are alternatives to either kicking these kids out of school or criminalizing their behavior with a referral to law enforcement. And apparently, while these are simply guidelines, they will have some teeth behind them for this administration.

The recommendations are nonbinding, but, in essence, the federal government is telling school districts around the country that they should adhere to the principles of fairness and equity in student discipline or face strong action if they don't.

Beyond being an issue that is important to me personally, all of this strikes me as a significant rejoinder to those who continue to suggest that the Obama administration hasn't done much for the black community. Go into any large urban area with high concentrations of families of color and right next to a concern about violence in their community, you will hear this as the number one cause of concern. As one young activist told me recently, this is THE civil rights issue of our time. For the families affected, they see their own babies being fed to the school-to-prison pipeline and are crying out for someone to notice. That the Obama administration has done so much to tackle this problem while the media and so many progressives ignore it speaks volumes about who is sitting still while the machinery of racism rolls on.