Cultural Wounds and the Hole in the Soul

Panel 1: The Wound

Racism is not innate. It is learned. No matter what race you are born into, you are not born with hate in your heart. Similar to the love, attunement, and nurturing a baby needs to form a healthy psyche, tolerance is taught during part one of your life through those around you modeling equal love, empathy, attunement, and nurturing to people of all colors around them. If people around you model different behaviors towards people of color such as neglect, lack of empathy, and abuse, then you may learn to act the same way. Learning racism is a wound in itself, but it also inflicts wounds. Receiving hate, being ignored, not being represented in the media, and being disadvantaged due to skin color can deeply wound someone in ways many of us cannot imagine.

Panel 2: The Reaction

If someone has been wounded in part one of their life, and has already developed a lack of empathy as a defense, then their empathy may be stunted even further by learning to disparage other groups of people. The disparagement damages the psyche by planting a seed of anger and negativity that is so unnatural for any member of the human race. On the other hand, when someone is hurt mentally and/or physically by others based on their skin color, that creates an anguish that no one is designed to cope with. Even worse, witnessing the deaths of so many people of color due to racism can cause incomprehensible pain. This pain can shatter the psyche leaving someone scrambling to make sense of it all.

Panel 3: The Encoding

That learned anger and negativity is encoded into negative core beliefs such as "people of other races are inferior to me," "I cannot relate to people of other races," or "people of other races are more likely to be threats/criminals." Negative core beliefs about race can also sometimes be more covert, like "their problems are not my problem." These beliefs are unnatural. They are lies born out of a multigenerational lack of empathy and human connection.

At the same time, racism, both from individuals and the media, can create destructive core beliefs in those who  experience it. People of color can develop beliefs such as "my problems are less important," "people always see my race first," "I have to work harder to be accepted," "I am not beautiful," and/or "people assume I am tougher than I am." Sadly these beliefs are born out of the lies about race that, once acted upon by others, negatively impact their reality.

Panel 4: The Chaos

On a micro level, racism causes chaos in the lives of all individuals it touches. It is like a parasite that feeds on empathy and descends its hosts into a state of fear and anger of the other. Those that experience racism are thrown into chaos, often dealing with feelings of self-hatred, unsafety, and hopelessness. On a macro level, it divides whole peoples. It has created a monstrous obstacle in the way of a united humanity. For example, police brutality leaves Black people feeling devalued and, even worse, fearing for both their lives and the lives of their families. When a whole group is not attuned to and made safe by the very people meant to serve and protect them, it creates communal trauma. People of color live without a sense of security in the world around them.

Panel 5: The Defenses

In an attempt to defend behavior that is so unnatural, when the world speaks up on discrimination, people who perpetuate it shut off their empathy even further. The already weak line of communication gets cut off completely. As for the people who must defend themselves from discrimination, they do not develop trust for those meant to help them. They learn that they must rely on themselves at all times. They learn to edit their own identities to avoid portraying harmful stereotypes, to bottle up their feelings, and to be hyper aware of their skin color.

Panel 6: The Breakdown/Breakthrough

Breakdown happens when the victims of oppression speak out to no avail. When millions of cries for equality, understanding, empathy, and connection fall on deaf ears, it exposes deep human disconnect. When people of color try to call attention to their value as part of the human race and are met with rebuttals, it only contributes to the disconnect in empathy. Without concrete moves towards healing that disconnect, things break down into chaos. Right now, we are toeing the line between breakdown and breakthrough.

Panel 7: The Paradigm Shift

In order to shift into healing, we must approach those around us, especially those who have been deeply hurt by racism, with the utmost understanding, kindness, and, most of all, empathy. We must encourage others around us to connect to their humanity as well. We must keep our ears open to extend our humanity to those who are lifting their voices against injustice.

Panel 8: The Healing

Only through self reflecting and self correcting can we work on closing the wounds that racism has inflicted. We can all Be The Cause of the world's healing.

Panel 9: The Unity

In a perfect world, we would all be able to coexist equally. Every individual would have the same opportunities to succeed, every individual's life would be valued the same as any other. We could all live together as part of a united humanity. Perhaps one day, we will get there. First, we must all find the humanity within ourselves.