Book Excerpt Of The Week: “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

“Since the capture and transport of the first African slaves, those brought to the shores had to deal with systematic efforts to destroy the bonds of relationships that held them together, as well as continuing efforts to have them believe themselves to be less than human. The maintenance of healthy and secure relationships is the most important values within the African culture. So what do you think would happen if those relationships were destroyed and never allowed to fully take root again?

If you were going to devise a uniquely cruel system of punishment, you could never have devised something more devastating and insidious than American chattel slavery because it absolutely, categorically destroyed existing relationships and undermined a people’s ability to form healthy new ones.

Perhaps, the greatest impact though, were the daily efforts of the slave owners and others in authority to break the slaves’ will. Free will is at the core of being human…And God forbid you attempt to be educated or think for yourself.” -From, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

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Book Excerpt Of The Week: “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

“Some families take time to consider all that went well for them the previous day, to explore ways of making things even better, and plan what will go well the next day. Imagine every Black family doing this every day. It wouldn’t take long for you and your children to get in the habit of paying attention to the impact all of us have on others, and refining the impacts of our contributions. Everyday we would have evidence of the good that we do, and hence evidence of our value.

Where we are harboring beliefs that undermine our esteem, attending to the positive impacts we have will begin to destroy such limiting and fallacious beliefs. Creating value on a daily basis will provide strong, incontrovertible evidence of our efficacy and worth. False and negative beliefs about esteem and efficacy are some of the issues confronting many of us.

In the African American community there are many other false and negative beliefs that we leave unexamined. Beliefs about helplessness, beliefs about mainstream society, beliefs about victimization and many others that serve to put limits on what we can be, do, and have.

To address these falsehoods, we need to look at ourselves and a community as a whole from a strengths rather than from a deficit perspective. We need to identify, focus and articulate those positive characteristics in all of our interactions with our neighbors, co-workers, family and friends. And we need to especially share these encouraging observations with African American children whose views of themselves are still being shaped.” -From, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

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Book Excerpt Of The Week: “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

“One of the beliefs that Black people have been taught about themselves is that as a group they could and should not trust one another. Sowing the seeds of distrust was an important tool employed by slave owners as a way of preventing slave uprisings. In some cases this worked so well that some slaves would even alert the slave master to potentially troublesome slaves. If slaves shared a general distrust of one another, they were less prone to unite against a common enemy, namely the slave owners.

However, there was a time when Black people would learn once again to trust an rely upon one another. This was during segregation, when Jim Crow laws legally separated Blacks from Whites, creating virtually two completely separate societies. Under Jim Crow legislation, the law allowed for segregation so long as the conditions for Blacks were equal to that of whites. Despite the fact that the conditions were rarely, if ever at all equal, Blacks managed to build a strong fortress of protection around themselves. The scars of slavery still lingered, but with the reconstruction of family and community the process of healing had begun. In some places, Black segregated towns excelled economically and socially even beyond the towns of their White neighbors.” -From, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

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Book Excerpt Of The Week: “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

“Rather than crush self-esteem, we must do everything in our power to build it. Rather than be torn down by the anger that is present within us, we must be able to create and maintain a state of inner well being. Rather than allowing our children to be socialized by a racist society, we must consciously and deliberately educate and socialize them to understand their inherent nobility.” -From, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

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Book Excerpt Of The Week- Part 2, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

“Rather than crush self-esteem, we must do everything in our power to build it. Rather than be torn down by the anger that is present within us, we must be able to create and maintain a state of inner well being. Rather than allowing our children to be socialized by a racist society, we must consciously and deliberately educate and socialize them to understand their inherent nobility.” -From, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” By: Dr. Joy Leary

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Dr. Joy DeGruy Lecture

This is a great lecture by Dr. Joy DeGruy. I only wish the video would show the visuals of her power point presentation. However it was a informative and interesting presentation nonetheless.

In this presentation, Dr. DeGruy discusses: cognitive dissonance, lynching, Hurricane Katrina, how having a Black president in America hasn’t transferred power to Black people, post-traumatic slave syndrome, and various other topics.

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