You Have the Right to Exclaim Your Pain: Honoring Black Familial Voices Impacted by Police Induced Trauma in the United States

Abstract

The impetus of this Black Action Research was to explore the lived experiences of Black families exposed to physical assault, emotional abuse, murder, and racial profiling by law enforcement (i.e. police induced trauma). Narrative qualitative methods were selected to conduct this body of research. The study utilized a Critical Race Theoretical orientation as a framework to honor counter-storytelling in understanding these experiences that often go untold, unheard and unnoticed. A total of 10 narratives were shared of which all resided in Los Angeles County and identified as Black/African American. The results that were found after analyzing the narratives revealed the following emergent themes: (a) aggressive racial profiling that goes unchecked, (b) fear for Black men and boys (c) surviving police encounters via avoidance, and (d) predominant conversation of race throughout one’s lifetime. The goal of this article is to speak truth through Black action research methodology in order to bring about recognition, validation and healing.

Police Brutality and Mexican American Families in Texas, 1945–1980

“…The historian Catherine Clinton captured this thought when she wrote that “the problem is not to compare the violence against men to that against women in order to weigh in winners and losers, but rather to assess the scope of this violence” (Clinton 1992, 314). With its focus on Mexican American families, this study seeks to achieve what the scholar Allen Eugene Lipscomb recently advocated with respect to the study of Black families in similar circumstances—research that not only honors their lives and experiences but advances their “healing and resiliency” as well (Lipscomb 2020, 132).…”

The Traces of Oppression and Trauma to Ethnic Minorities in Indonesia Who Experienced Rape on the 12 May 1998 Tragedy: A Review of Literature

“…Trauma occurs when the individual loses a sense of security within himself/ herself (Van der Kolk & Bessel, 1987, p. 12). The causes of trauma in modern society today include warfare (Crosthwaite, 2016), guilt (Brothers, 2007;Tribunella, 2010), shootings (Nader, 2015), psychosis (Morrison & Larkin, 2015;Mueser et al, 1998), and authorities (Lipscomb, 2020). Trauma that victims experience is difficult to eliminate because trauma has already psychologically affected them.…”

We Got You BRUH? An Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Racist Clinical Approach for Working with African American Men Experiencing Grief, Loss and Trauma

“…The case studies shared are in alignment with Black action research (BAR) which is research that strives to honor Black living and lived experiences. It seeks to celebrate and highlight unapologetically the uniqueness that is Black people to promote community healing and resiliency (Lipscomb, 2020).…”

“…The relentless experiences of race-based trauma, grief and loss has subsequent adverse impact on the mental health of African Americans underscores the need for social workers, marriage and family therapist, clinical counselors and psychologists to be trained in race-based trauma assessment, treatment and interventions due to the psychological and the emotional impact (Aymer, 2016;Brondolo, Brady, Pencille, & Contrada, 2009;Bryant-Davis, 2007;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;Carter, 2009;Lipscomb, 2020;Lipscomb & Ashley, 2018). However, once trained in how to assess these types of traumatic loss experiences rooted in raceclinicians must utilize approaches that center the person (i.e.…”