A decade ago, Michael Brown Jr.an unarmed 18-year-old black man was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
The fatal incident began when police officer Darren Wilson saw Brown and a friend walking in the course of the road. Wilson claimed that Brown refused to comply along with his orders to go away the road and a fight ensued. The shooting, Wilson claimedwas in self-defense – a claim that Officers were used across the country to justify racist violence against blacks.
Brown's death on August 9, 2014, occurred just eight days after his highschool graduation and sparked nearly a 12 months of protests across the country. Three months later, a grand jury in Ferguson declined to press charges of the police officer, a call that sparked further protests and calls for racial justice in policing.
Almost 10 years later and lower than 90 miles from Ferguson, Sonya Masseyan unarmed 36-year-old black woman and mother of two, called local police on July 6, 2024 to research mysterious noises outside her home near Springfield, Illinois.
Instead of helping, white officersSean Grayson, shot Massey. As her son Malachi told reporters, the officer showed little regard for her humanity in the course of the killing, which was captured on body camera footage. At the officer's request, Massey a pot of hot water from the stove. Minutes later, she was killed when Grayson fired three bullets, certainly one of which hit her slightly below her eye.
Unlike the Brown case in Ferguson, Grayson was fired by the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office and charged with first-degree murder. Like Darren Wilson, he claimed he acted in self-defense.
These two cases of Police violence mark the cyclical nature of police violence against blacks – and the growing mistrust amongst black Americans for the local police.
Out of 2009–2019At least 179 people were killed by police or in prison in 4 St. Louis-area counties near Brown's death site.
These local statistics reflect nationwide patterns of police violence within the USA and show that Massey and Brown weren’t exceptions to the norm – but fairly representatives of the Everyday racism that permeates American society.
As we’ve learned through our research on racial violence in black communities, developing coping strategies is usually a mandatory reality of life within the United States.
What is racial grief?
With everybody latest incident of racist violence When a criminal offense is committed by a police officer, black people are inclined to feel a collective sense of racial grief.
The Grief is defined by the US National Institutes of Health as “the individual’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual response to losses due to racism and intersectional violence.”
In addition, many black parents experience a sort of anticipatory grief and stress as a consequence of the potential racist violence their children can experience throughout their lives.
For example, in a Study 2022The researchers found that pregnant black women experienced fear, stress, and anxiety about police violence toward their children even before their children were born. Even moms who reported positive experiences with cops expected their children to be treated negatively due to their children's race.
Racist grief could be a Coping response that allows black parents to emotionally and cognitively process incidents of racist violence in the neighborhood with others.
In Our study 2022A mother told us:
“I can't watch the videos anymore. It's a living nightmare and I don't need those images because I can't forget them. It's taking an enormous toll on me. I'm coping with it in therapy. I cry. I give myself space to feel my feelings. I refer to my partner about it. It gives me a sense of pain and meaning at the identical time.”
How do black parents react to racist violence?
When parents take into consideration how they prepare their children for the racist discrimination they might experience of their day by day lives, many use the so-called racial socialization to enhance their very own and their children's coping responses to racial prejudice and discrimination.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
Racial socialization is the method by which oldsters convey racial messages and values to their children. Psychologists consider this to be probably the most critical Development processes for black youth and includes each implicitly And explicitly practices methods exercises.
For example, some parents monitor the content of social media and limit their exposure to racist violence. Other parents Credit reports against racial discrimination with the affirmation that their children are loved, invaluable and valued.
Together racial socialization messages include statements resembling, “You should be proud to be black.” A message about racial prejudice may be, “You may be held to higher standards than your white counterparts.”
Overall, these messages aim to encourage pride in a single's race and culture while encouraging black youth to be cautious and aware of the continuing reality of racist violence.
In a forthcoming study on how black parents in Missouri refer to their teens about race, one mother reported:
“Like the Sonya Massey thing, my daughter saw the video and was like, “But she didn't do anything incorrect.” That's what normally happens. Like I told her, she called the police for help and he or she ended up getting killed. That happens sometimes because they act like they're afraid of black people for some reason. I feel like we're not making any progress in America with this racism thing.”
While black parents and their children proceed to face racial discrimination through their on a regular basis practices of Care, love and joyThere stays an urgent need to take a position within the health and well-being of Black communities through structural policy changes in education, health care, and native government.
image credit : theconversation.com