Historical Trauma: Context and Effects
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the concept of historical trauma, its impact on African American and Native American communities, and its intergenerational effects. It discusses the physical and psychological repercussions, including increased health risks and societal disparities. The narrative follows Dr. Helen Kim's work with a young mom, illustrating the challenges of navigating a system intended to help but often exacerbating trauma. The story emphasizes the need for systemic change, focusing on community engagement and trauma-informed practices to foster healing and resilience.
Takeaways
- 🛠️ The United States has inflicted historical trauma on African American and Native American communities through slavery, genocide, colonization, and forced relocation.
- 💔 Historical trauma involves collective, cumulative emotional wounding across generations from cataclysmic events targeting entire communities.
- 🧬 Trauma is incorporated in the body, altering gene function and being transmitted across generations, affecting descendants even without direct trauma exposure.
- 📉 Manifestations of historical trauma today include significant disparities in poverty rates, arrest rates, academic achievement, home ownership, and employment rates between African American/Native American communities and whites.
- 👶 Historical trauma leads to individual trauma in new generations, often in the form of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) like abuse, neglect, mental illness, and early death.
- 🚨 Those with high ACE scores are at increased risk for various health issues, including smoking, hepatitis, alcohol abuse, STDs, and suicide attempts.
- 🔄 Current systems designed to help people often perpetuate structural racism and historical trauma, causing further harm to those already oppressed.
- 💔 The story of a young mother, M, illustrates how systemic failures and biases contribute to ongoing trauma and hinder the healing process.
- 👩⚕️ Dr. Helen Kim's attempt to help M through a supportive letter backfired due to systemic and personal biases, highlighting the need for trauma-informed, culturally sensitive approaches.
- 🔄 To effect meaningful change, systems must shift from reactive to preventative approaches, prioritizing community-led reforms and upstream investments in child, family, and community well-being.
Q & A
What is historical trauma and how does it affect communities?
-Historical trauma refers to collective cumulative emotional wounding across generations resulting from cataclysmic events that target a whole community. It affects communities by being incorporated in the body and altering gene functions, which can be passed on to future generations, leading to ongoing issues like discrimination, health and income disparities, and even genetic changes.
How can historical trauma be transmitted over generations?
-Historical trauma can be transmitted over generations through changes in gene function that are incorporated in the body. These changes can be passed on to one's children, allowing those who have not directly experienced the trauma to still feel its effects.
What are some examples of current manifestations of historical trauma in the United States?
-Examples include higher poverty rates for African American and Native American children, disproportionate arrest rates for low-level offenses, large achievement gaps in education, and significant disparities in home ownership and employment rates.
What is the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) on health?
-Adverse childhood experiences can lead to a higher risk of smoking, hepatitis, alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicide attempts. These experiences can cause chronic toxic stress, affecting brain function and physical health.
How does the trauma of one generation affect parenting and the next generation?
-Trauma from one generation can lead to neglectful or abusive parenting patterns, vulnerability to social stressors, and a higher likelihood of becoming abusive under such influences, thus perpetuating a cycle of trauma in the next generation.
What role did the 1956 Federal Highway Act play in the trauma of North Minneapolis?
-The 1956 Federal Highway Act led to the construction of Interstate 94, which resulted in the deconstruction of the community fabric and vitality of areas like North Minneapolis and St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood. This disrupted a once vibrant and economically stable community, leading to increased poverty and violence.
How did the system's practices contribute to the trauma of the young mom 'M' in the script?
-The system's practices, such as requiring M to attend programs that cost money and resulted in her losing her job, placing her baby in the hands of strangers for transportation, and poor communication between caseworkers and caretakers, added to M's stress and trauma, making it difficult for her to focus on her child and heal.
What is the role of Dr. Helen Kim in the story presented in the script?
-Dr. Helen Kim is a psychiatrist who runs a program serving pregnant and postpartum moms with depression and trauma. She aims to help these moms protect and nurture their children and to parent with awareness, love, and compassion.
Why did Dr. Kim's letter to the court cause further harm to M?
-Dr. Kim's letter, which detailed M's abusive past and struggles, was used in court without her permission or prior review. This public exposure of her trauma without her consent led to feelings of humiliation and increased conflict with her mother, exacerbating her stress and trauma.
What is the importance of community involvement in reforming systems to address historical and generational trauma?
-Community involvement is crucial as it ensures that reforms are informed by the voices of those most affected by historical and generational trauma. It allows for the development of policies and practices that are more responsive to the needs of the community and can help break the cycle of trauma.
How can systems shift their focus to be more preventative and supportive of child, family, and community well-being?
-Systems can shift their focus by creating child and family-centered, trauma-informed policies and practices, reducing toxic stresses, supporting parent-child relationships, and promoting resilience and protective factors. This involves making upstream investments in communities and switching from a reactive approach to a preventative one.
Outlines
📜 Historical Trauma in the U.S.
The United States has a long history of inflicting trauma on African American and Native American communities through slavery, genocide, colonization, and forced relocation. This historical trauma, often denied or concealed, has lasting effects seen in discrimination, health and income disparities, and even genetic changes in descendants of the oppressed. Historical trauma involves collective emotional wounding across generations, with research on Holocaust survivors showing that the children of survivors display symptoms as if they experienced the trauma themselves.
🏠 Current Manifestations of Historical Trauma
Historical trauma manifests in various social and economic disparities. In Minnesota, poverty rates for Native American and African American children are significantly higher than for white children. African Americans and Native Americans face higher arrest rates for low-level offenses and large gaps in education and employment compared to whites. These disparities perpetuate individual trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as abuse and neglect, leading to severe health and social outcomes. Current systems often exacerbate rather than alleviate these issues, reinforcing structural racism and historical trauma.
👩⚕️ The Story of M and Baby B
Dr. Helen Kim, a psychiatrist, shares the story of a young African American mother, M, whose baby B is in foster care. M has faced significant trauma, growing up in a chaotic and abusive environment. Despite her efforts to improve her life, M's interactions with systems designed to help her often cause additional harm. M’s case illustrates how systemic practices can re-traumatize individuals, making it difficult for them to heal and succeed.
🏘️ The Impact of Urban Development
M's story continues with a discussion on the historical trauma experienced by North Minneapolis, a once vibrant community disrupted by the construction of Interstate 94. This urban development led to increased poverty and violence, disproportionately affecting African American residents. M, growing up in this environment, faced numerous challenges, including abusive relationships and homelessness, which were compounded by systemic failures and lack of support.
🔄 Repeated Trauma and Systemic Failures
M's situation worsened as systemic practices continued to fail her. Despite her efforts to comply with her case plan, she faced numerous obstacles, including homelessness and financial strain. The systems in place often forced her into situations that increased her stress and trauma, hindering her ability to focus on her child and improve her circumstances.
📉 The Consequences of Chronic Stress
Chronic toxic stress in an unsupportive environment has profound negative effects on mental and physical health. M's perpetual state of stress affected her ability to be present for her child, leading to further trauma. Dr. Kim wrote a letter to advocate for M, but without her permission, which caused additional harm and highlighted implicit biases. The system's fragmented and unresponsive nature often harms those it aims to help.
🤝 Steps Toward Systemic Change
To create meaningful change, reforms must be informed by those most affected by historical and generational trauma. Mill City Kids aims to partner with communities to articulate and implement reforms that promote well-being. System leaders are encouraged to engage in dialogue about historical trauma and structural racism, identify harmful policies, and explore long-term changes to support community and family resilience.
🔄 Shifting Focus to Preventative Approaches
Significant, long-lasting change requires a shift from reactive to preventative approaches, focusing on child, family, and community relationships. Advocating for trauma-informed policies and upstream investments can break the cycle of trauma, supporting resilience and protective factors in communities.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Historical Trauma
💡Intergenerational Trauma
💡Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
💡Structural Racism
💡Systemic Reform
💡Toxic Stress
💡Resilience
💡Protective Factors
💡Trauma-Informed Care
💡Community Engagement
Highlights
Historical trauma is a collective emotional wounding across generations due to cataclysmic events targeting whole communities.
Trauma can be incorporated in the body and alter gene function, affecting descendants who did not directly experience the trauma.
Manifestations of historical trauma include discrimination, health and income disparities, and genetic changes.
Historical trauma's impact is evident in the high poverty rates and arrest rates for African American and Native American children.
Achievement gaps between racial groups for 12th graders have changed little since the 1960s.
Historical trauma contributes to intergenerational trauma, affecting parenting and leading to adverse childhood experiences (ACES).
ACES increase the risk of various health issues, including smoking, hepatitis, alcohol abuse, and suicide attempts.
Current systems intended to help people can inadvertently create new trauma through structural racism and historical trauma reinforcement.
The story of 'M' illustrates the challenges faced by individuals within systems designed to help but causing further harm.
North Minneapolis experienced trauma through the construction of a highway, leading to increased poverty and violence.
M's personal story shows the cycle of trauma within her family and the impact of adverse experiences on her life.
The healthcare and social systems failed M by causing additional stress and not providing adequate support.
Dr. Helen Kim's experience with M highlights the importance of considering the impact of systemic practices on individuals.
The need for a shift in systems to be more trauma-informed and responsive to the needs of those they are designed to help.
The importance of community involvement in reforming systems to better serve those affected by historical and generational trauma.
The necessity of changing policies and practices within organizations to mitigate the negative impacts of current systems.
The role of system leaders in engaging in dialogue about historical trauma and structural racism to inform organizational change.
The potential for upstream investments and community-focused policies to break the cycle of trauma and promote resilience.
Transcripts
the United States has a history that has
inflicted trauma on African American and
Native American communities over
hundreds of years this historical trauma
often distorted denied or concealed is
seen in slavery genocide colonization
forced relocation and other traumatic
events of generations past which have
lingering and profound consequences
today but what is historical trauma
historical trauma has to do with
collective cumulative emotional wounding
across generations resulting from
cataclysmic events these events target
not just individuals but rather a whole
collective community the trauma is held
personally but can be transmitted over
generations trauma is incorporated in
the body and alters how genes function
these changes can be passed on to one's
children those who have not directly
experienced a trauma can feel the
effects generations later in the form of
discrimination and stereotypes
cumulative health and income disparities
and even changes at the genetic level
and those who are descendant from the
oppressed intergenerational trauma has
been best studied in the research on the
offspring of Holocaust survivors and can
be summed up in one sentence the
children of survivors show symptoms
which would be expected if they actually
lived through the Holocaust
what are some current manifestations of
these past traumatic events poverty
rates for children under 18 in Minnesota
are four times as high for Native
American children and nearly five times
as high for african-american children as
for white children in Minnesota from
2012 to 2014 African American and Native
Americans were nearly nine times more
likely than whites to be arrested for
low-level offenses like trespassing
disorderly conduct and lurking across
the country black-white achievement gaps
for 12th graders remain unacceptably
large changing little since first being
reported in the Coleman report of 1965
Minnesota has the second largest home
ownership rate in the country but also
the third highest disparity in home
ownership rates between white households
and households of color the Twin Cities
metro has one of the highest overall
employment rates among other large metro
areas yet American Indian employment
rates are among the lowest at nearly 25
percent below that of whites while the
black employment rate is nearly 13
percent below that of whites historical
trauma leads to new generations of
individual trauma often in the form of
adverse childhood experiences or aces
which can include physical emotional or
sexual abuse physical and emotional
neglect mental illness of a household
member separation of a parent due to
divorce or incarceration early death due
to drug and alcohol abuse in the home
and other traumatic events if we
consider just the health consequences of
such events those with at least four
categories of aces show 2.2 times the
risk of smoking 2.4 times the risk of
hepatitis 7 times the risk of abusing
alcohol 2.5 times the risk of sexually
transmitted diseases and 12 times the
risk of attempting suicide in addition
to the hardships passed down from
generations of trauma current systems
that are designed to help people are
actually creating new trauma our systems
and societal practices perpetually
reinforce structural racism and
historical trauma
which causes harm to those who have been
most oppressed over time no city kid
seeks to catalyze a process whereby we
all identify our role in seeing and
changing harmful policies and practices
in the short-term and collectively
advocate for a longer term investments
and community and family capacity to
heal and thrive
this is a story of how a good person
working within a system designed to help
people create new trauma my name is dr.
Helen Kim I'm a psychiatrist at a large
inner-city hospital and the director of
a program that serves pregnant and
postpartum moms with depression and
trauma our goal is to save and improve
lives by helping distressed moms protect
and nurture their children and to help
them parent with awareness love and
compassion I'd like to share with you
the story of a young mom who will call
m/m has a four month old baby bee who is
in foster care she was referred to our
mother baby mental health program for
evaluation and treatment M is a 22 year
old african-american woman striving for
a better life despite her difficult
upbringing she grew up in North
Minneapolis in a family with generations
of trauma within a neighborhood that
itself had experienced historical trauma
which now manifests in violence and
poverty how did North Minneapolis
experience trauma as a neighborhood the
area was once vibrant and economically
stable up until the US government passed
the 1956 Federal Highway Act this led to
the construction of interstate 94 now
one of Minneapolis a--'s biggest
highways and the deconstruction of the
community fabric and vitality of areas
like North Minneapolis and st. Paul's
Rondo neighborhood the residents were
black often poor and politically
marginalized so their neighborhoods
represented a path of least resistance
for the construction of the highway
today the overall rates of poverty in
North Minneapolis are much higher than
that of the rest of the city and higher
still for its african-american residents
getting back to em she has seen
experienced and overcome a lot to be who
she is today a young woman seeking more
from life but in order for her situation
to improve she will need to be helped
not harmed by organizations and systems
set up to serve those facing harsh
realities M grew up in a very chaotic
home with a mother who was very young
Moody and abusive and a physically
violent father who left when M was very
young her mother later met another man
who moved into the family's home and was
physically abusive to M's mother and
also M & M's older sister
and finally couldn't take the chaos and
violence at home so as a teenager she
dropped out of high school left home and
met a boy named Dee a teen who himself
had dropped out of high school
his parents were addicted to drugs and
failed to care for him all through his
life he had grown up in a family with
generations of trauma as well
when dnm met it was love at first sight
she said they were their own family and
they tried to make it on their own they
lived in cars they couch hopped they
moved into a shelter they got jobs at a
fast food restaurant
the relationship brought stress
including physical abuse but they were
also fiercely loyal to one another then
M&D unexpectedly got pregnant the
fighting between them got worse as the
stress got higher as a result D started
using drugs and became more violent he
came home hi multiple times
african-americans are one third to one
half as likely as White's to have access
to mental health and addiction treatment
three months later they delivered a
healthy baby boy B they still had no
outside support and we're living in the
family shelter although they were doing
their best neither had healthy parenting
models to guide them the stress
continued to heightened after B's birth
they were struggling to make ends meet
and DS drug use was increasing one night
he came home hi and really said in on em
somehow during the altercation the baby
sustained a skull fracture about 1/3 of
parents who were abused as children
continued a pattern of neglectful or
abusive parenting another third remained
vulnerable to social stressors and are
more likely to become abusive under such
influences M screamed for help and
called 9-1-1 and the baby was rushed to
the hospital where he lost consciousness
and had a seizure M thought the baby
would die but fortunately be recovered
over the subsequent weeks all the while
D was nowhere to be found and M was at
the hospital alone eventually baby B was
discharged not with his mother M but to
an emergency foster home so M no longer
had her baby and she then learned that D
had been arrested and was in prison for
M the only good news was that the
emergency foster home was a very caring
household and M felt really good about
baby B being there M trusted the
emergency foster mother to take care of
and protect baby B M now without a
partner or a child suddenly lost
eligibility to stay at the family
shelter and found herself homeless again
the system that was set up to help keep
a roof over her head was now putting her
back on the street unsure of what to do
she decided to move back in with her mom
this was a really hard choice because
her mom was furious at M for losing her
baby to the system her fear and anger
came out in these vicious arguments that
made living there even worse
during all of this M was also required
to comply with her case plan which
included attending the mother baby
mental health program five hours a day
for four days a week meeting with a
parent educator once a week and
attending a weekly domestic abuse group
that cost twenty-five dollars per
session to comply with this case plan M
had to miss work and lost her job in
addition the cost of the group therapy
posed a problem because when she lost
custody of her child she also lost
access to her Minnesota family
investment program cash assistance the
baby meanwhile was being shipped back
and forth between the foster home
daycare and M's parenting classes this
was in accordance with her case plan and
approved by her assigned caseworker baby
B was regularly placed unaccompanied in
the back of a cab driven by a stranger
to have a child placed in the hands of a
stranger is something that would cause
any mother great distress this was a
very traumatic experience for M that she
had to endure repeatedly since this was
the only way for her to see her child
additionally due to poor communication
between her caseworker and the variety
of caretakers the baby did not always
arrive where and when M expected which
further increased her level of fear the
baby would sometimes arrive crying or
completely emotionally shut down in an
unreactive dissociated state of stress
the caseworkers were often busy and
unavailable when M tried to tell them
about these issues to me it became clear
that the system was asking her to be a
more protective parent while at the same
time forcing her to do things that go
against her protective instincts as a
mother repetitive highly stressful
experiences like these caused changes at
the genetic level affecting one's
response to stress and adversity this
was a new form of trauma that M had to
navigate and one that was a result of
system practices in a lot of ways M
could never focus on the baby because of
her perpetual stressed state of
fight-or-flight her struggles with money
her negative interactions with systems
her travel back and forth to an unsafe
neighborhood all left her in a
heightened state of reactivity a trauma
response which made it very difficult
for her to be present even when she did
have supervised visits with the baby
chronic toxic stress in an unsupportive
environment leads to unregulated release
of stress hormones the result is
profoundly negative effects on the brain
including executive function attention
and memory and also detrimental effects
on physical health until the system
backed off M had little opportunity to
succeed or to heal as her psychiatrist I
thought I could write a letter that
would spell out how we needed first to
safely and stable house m to help her
lower her stress response and allow her
to increase their capacity to parent B
until then she couldn't learn the
necessary skills because of her
threatened highly reactive State I did
not see her as someone with mental
illness but rather an individual with
complex trauma who was being reach Ramat
eyes by systems that were set up to help
her the system itself had become a
threat to her success so I wrote a
letter about how the system needed to
back off in order for m to regain her
ability to focus on B I also mentioned
how she was doing a great job in therapy
and had overcome a lot of her own trauma
after growing up in a difficult and
abusive home the letter was intended to
be used in court to make a case for Em's
efforts during her next custody hearing
I failed to ask M for permission to
write this letter and unfortunately M
didn't get a chance to read the letter
before her court date because I didn't
have time to show it to her and if I'm
really honest with myself I thought I
didn't need to because I thought it was
a pretty good letter when my into the
court room she felt as though everyone
the judge the opposing attorney the
system caseworker her public defender
everyone was reading this letter except
her the judge later praised her in front
of everyone for overcoming so much and
trying to be a good parent
despite her horribly abusive childhood
unbeknownst to the judge and mother was
also in the courtroom she was shocked
and felt completely attacked exposed and
humiliated especially after stepping up
to help take care of M and her baby
Emma's mom was furious and the two of
them nearly got into a fistfight upon
leaving the next day em said to me in a
very gracious way with tears in her eyes
dr. Kim I wish you didn't write that
letter it made my life so much worse my
mom threatened to kick me out of the
house we almost got into another
fistfight I got her to calm down but
that letter made things so much worse
for me I wish you hadn't written it this
was a very painful thing to hear from em
I let her know that I was sorry for how
much I had hurt her we had some tears
together am said to me it's okay dr. Kim
we're gonna put this away and move on
afterward I reflected on how brave and
was to tell me how I had hurt her with
my letter and how generous she was to
forgive me for my mistake I thought
about what would have happened if M had
been a white educated professional woman
what I have dared to write a letter
without her permission or to send it to
her lawyer without showing it to her
first if I'm totally honest with myself
I have to say no I wouldn't have I do
have my own implicit racist bias and
that somehow her being young and black
affected what I felt I could do for her
instead of with her although my
intentions were good I caused her
further harm I realized one can have
good intentions yet harmful impact
MD and be interacted with a system that
was not only fragmented but also not
responsive to their needs as a result
the system harmed rather than helped
them systems are composed of people and
practices so in order to shift systems
we first need to shift people ourselves
once we shift ourselves we can begin to
explore practices that help more and
harm less we cannot change the past
however we can change the way we see
each other and how systems can help
people but how now what
as a first step we must realize that
meaningful reforms need to come from the
voice of those most oppressed by
historical trauma and generational
trauma and aligned with best practice
and evidence community members need to
work through trauma and the
fight-or-flight response before they can
see an articulate reforms that can truly
activate their own power to heal and
thrive
to this end Mill City kids will partner
with communities through community
representatives who can work with them
in their trauma to articulate meaningful
reforms that will advance child parent
and family well-being the use
representatives will provide guidance to
system leaders and collectively build a
reform agenda in a parallel process we
are asking system leaders to join in a
dialogue and engagement process with
other system leaders about historical
trauma and structural racism in the
context of children pre nailed to age
five and implications for their
organization host conversations within
their organization looking at the impact
of current system policies and practices
and how they are negatively impacting
people identify within their team
policies and practices that could
immediately change to better serve
people and explore and partnership with
community longer term changes that we
might collectively pursue to build
capacity and communities and families to
serve their own many of our current
investments are in systems that focus on
the impacts of trauma
rather than child family and community
relationships that can protect against
such impacts to make significant
long-lasting change it is imperative to
shift
our focus to systems and communities as
well as to switch our mentality from a
reactive approach to a preventative one
we can advocate to reduce toxic stresses
support parent-child relationships and
promote resilience and protective
factors by creating child
family-centered trauma-informed policies
and practices and systems as well as
making upstream investments and
communities we can break this
destructive cycle
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