Cracking the Codes

This past Thursday during my Social Welfare Policy class we were introduced to "Cracking the Codes". It was a chilling look at how we erroneously believe we "now live in a “post-racial” America". Admittedly, I fell into that line of thought when Obama won the election back in 2008. Even when I saw an interracial couple, I would think to myself, "Wow, we've progressed so much!". But after four weeks of being immersed into my MSW program at Cal State Dominguez Hills, that couldn't be further from the truth. While it's true that some progress has been achieved, we still find ourselves being divided on key social issues such as LGBTQ rights and immigration. Even though we're living in the 21st century, hate continues to manifest itself within our "progressive" society.

Something the film touched on that was quite revealing is the notion of Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome(PTSS). What is PTSS? PTSS describes a set of behaviors, beliefs and actions associated with or, related to multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans that may be inclusive of but not limited to undiagnosed and untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in enslaved Africans.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Traumatic_Slave_Syndrome] How did "Cracking the Codes" address PTSS? They had an African American mother discuss a prior experience where she was at a school meeting for her son. At that meeting, she was having a conversation with a Caucasian mother that happened to be her son's best friends' mother. The Caucasian mother was delighted to acknowledge her son's outstanding achievements and yet managed to reflect on the fact that the African American mother's son had actually performed better. However, the African American mother didn't acknowledge or praise her own son's performance. Why didn't she want to show any praise for her son? Because during slavery a colored mother would do so to protect her son or daughter from the slave owner and instead of praising or acknowledging praise they would devalue their own children. It's amazing how decades later, (some) African American mother's unconsciously react the same way when their son/daughter is receiving any form of praise. It's not that they aren't proud, it's just an instinct to protect their child. What's the big deal? These children NEED that praise. They need it so that they can feel appreciated by their OWN mother and family.

I'm just spilling my thoughts on this but I highly recommend that everyone watches this film and takes some time to think about it. Quite insightful!