Moreover, the literature is ripe with research on how prolonged exposure to childhood trauma as measured by Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019) such as racism “manifest as toxic stress, yielding an increased allostatic load to the body causing prolonged activation of physiologic stress responses, which over time may yield poor health outcomes and future illnesses” (Ortiz and Sibinga 2017). More specifically, we are presented with a moral obligation to act on the behalf of our African American students given that on our current trajectory, they are likely to be victims of the same racism, mistreatment, and trauma if they have not already been the unfortunate recipients of such. With well over 6 million students in California’s public schools as reported in the 2018-2019 academic school year, including 76.2 percent who were classified as non-white with 5.4 percent as African American (California Department of Education), we are presented with a unique opportunity to impact the health, safety, and well-being of our state and nation’s most valuable resource. There is always something that we can do, particularly those of us in education.
#Sick and tired of being sick and tired how to
Some took to the streets to participate in protests and used social media to disseminate and share resources while others opened their wallets and made financial contributions to the victims’ families, various organizations that fight for social justice, and towards the bail funds for protesters.Īnd then some wanted to help and either didn’t quite know exactly how to go about it or felt that there was nothing substantive they could do. This brutal act arrested the ability of many to sit passively by and do nothing and made a compelling case for action in some way. No longer solaced by the privilege of simply turning off or tuning out of television or other media or of witnessing waning outrage, protests and news coverage, or of being afflicted by a false sense that this too shall pass and we can return to normal, the murder of Floyd, in particular, struck a raw and sensitive nerve that spoke to the generations of trauma endured, unhealed, and unrequited among African Americans. A sleeping giant was awakened in the hearts and minds of those who, in the words of the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer were “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” (Johnson, 1977). The outcry that racism is a public health crisis for African Americans, which has never been more accurate, has been declared among several community organizations and officials in San Bernardino County, California with one of the largest populations of African Americans in the state (Singh, 2020). This collective rage and frustration could no longer be answered with promises for a better tomorrow with statistics reporting police violence as the sixth leading cause of death for African American males. What happened next forever changed history with a groundswell of outrage from all generations and crossing just about all racial and ethnic backgrounds for systemic change and reforms as protests for racial justice became the new normal. Listening to and viewing the details surrounding the untimely deaths of the George, Breonna, and Ahmaud and the relatively brief periods between each have scarcely allowed any time for their families, let alone the communities directly impacted, to grieve. For those who have debated the veracity of this statement, local, regional and national statistics easily accessible online debunk any questions or skepticism. African Americans suffer disproportionate abuse and mistreatment from law enforcement.
Recent tragedies surrounding the untimely and violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery stopped us in our tracks and forced us to face a very disturbing reality.
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