Our Shared Future, Reckoning With Our Racial Past Forum
Hosts: Hosted by Sabrina Lynn Motley, featuring Akilah Hughes
Forum Date: August 26, 2021
Interview Length: 1 hour, 28 minutes

 

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Our shared future reckoning with our racial past forum

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Our Shared Future, Reckoning With Our Racial Past Forum. Reckoning with Race, Wealth and Wellness. Hosted by Sabrina Lynn Motley, featuring Akilah Hughes.

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Reckoning with

Race, Wealth And Wellness       

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Sabrina Lynn Motley     

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Akilah Hughes  

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Discussing what's real about race. Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, Pilar Ossorio, and Damion Thomas.

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What's real about race?

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Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch Iii

Pilar Ossorio

Damion Thomas             

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For our panel on race, health and wealth, Juliet K. Choi, Louise Seamster, and Sean Sweat.

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Race, Health, And Wealth

Juliet K. Choi

Louise Seamster

Sean Sweat       

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And discussing mental health and trauma, Kyra Antone, Diana Chao, Dr. Joi Lewis and Monique Morris. And now our host, Sabrina Lynn Motley.

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Mental Health And Trauma

Kyra Antone

Diana Chao

Dr. Joi Lewis

Monique Morris             

Sabrina on screen          

Sabrina

If there's one thing we've all noticed is that conversations about race have changed over the past few years. Not only are we talking about racial identity and diverse representations, we're also talking about racism and its impact on each of us. We are considering race and equity far beyond Black and white and with this expanded perspective, so comes a whole new set of terms, rules, and expectations. So while we hear about race all the time and some of us even talk about race all the time, many of us, despite our own backgrounds, do not actually know the history of race or fully understand its impacts on our lives. Good evening. I'm Sabrina Lynn Motley, director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It's my honor to serve as your host for this forum entitled Our Shared Future, Reckoning With Our Racial Past, presented by the Smithsonian Institution.

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Sabrina Lynn Motley

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Director     

Sabrina on screen          

Sabrina

The Smithsonian, our country's resource for finding personal connection to the expansive tapestry of American history, is the world's largest museum education and research complex. Tonight, we will explore race and its impact on living well from health to financial well-being. We'll consider these topics with the help of a dynamic roster of scholars and experts. Now, there may be moments when the information presented is a lot to digest and frankly, even moments when you think we've missed the mark. This is a kind of conversation that must be collaborative in order to be effective. So we encourage you to share your story on our website. Learn more and add your voice to the conversation by following the link on your screen. Now, to begin this journey into America's past, it's my pleasure to turn the stage over to the ultimate tour guide, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III.

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www.oursharedfuture.si.edu/participate/share-your-story         

Lonnie on screen            

Lonnie

Hi, I'm Lonnie Bunch. Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Welcome to the first national forum of Our Shared Future, Reckoning With Our Racial Past. This initiative is our first attempt as an institution to foster understanding about the legacy of race and racism in the United States. The past sixteen months, with racial justice protests, voter suppression efforts and a pandemic laying bare the inequities in health care and housing, prove that race has never been more relevant. With 175 year history of seeking and sharing knowledge, the Smithsonian can apply its scholarship, research, collections, and convening power to this crucial subject. By listening to diverse audiences from all parts of the country, we hope to better understand how different people experience race, leading to a more robust national conversation that helps bridge our racial divide. This event is just the first of many Race and our Shared Future, virtual and live events across the country that will also include digital content and learning resources for students and educators. I hope you find it useful as you begin your own discussions with friends and family. It is important to examine unvarnished history even when it's complicated, and especially when it challenges our preconceived ideas. Race and our Shared Future is an opportunity to honestly assess the past and present. Necessary if we are to learn, heal and create a better shared future, one in which our nation lives up to its most cherished ideals of equality and fairness. A special thanks to Bank of America, founding partner for the Our Shared Future, Reckoning With Our Racial Past initiative.

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Lonnie G. Bunch III

Smithsonian Secretary  

Bank Of America Commercial    

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The racial and economic disparities that have long existed in this country have been widened by the coronavirus and amplified by the most recent acts of injustice. People around the world are coming together with greater urgency to demand action. At Bank of America, we know we all have a role to play to overcome the very real consequences of systemic racism and inequity. This includes individuals, governments, nonprofits, and the private sector. Racial equality and economic opportunity are deeply connected. That's why Bank of America has committed to address critical gaps in affordable housing, access to health care, employment and job skills, and the resources small businesses need to succeed. We can do more, and we need to do more now to further advance racial equality and economic opportunity for all.

Sabrina

Sometimes the clearest path toward empathy is through personal stories. So we went to New York, and North Carolina to hear from everyday people about the impact race has had on their lives.

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Our Voices

Race And Lived Experiences       

Lisa

I would say I'm mixed white and Latina.

Jasmin

Asian American.

Gary

I'm white.

Alex

I identify mostly with the African American race.

Eryn

White. Jewish.

Anirudh

Indian.

Shanti

Other.

Jaiden

In Nigeria, I was just a person. In America, I'm a Black person.

Viviana

I remember in elementary school, I don't know what my teacher said to me exactly, but it was something really derogatory about being mulatto. I didn't know what mulatto was, I was like what's a mulatto?

Anirudh

Something like oh, Indians are hairy or we smell different.

Timothy

I got suspended for three days because a white kid told the teacher that I stole 10 cents from him, then the same kid ended up stealing something else. Only, he didn't get suspended.       

Soo

There's a background of racism among Korean Americans because of lack of understanding.

Shanti

Racism is based on just people not accepting you at all and it has nothing to do with, you know, your skin color. It could be because you're disabled.

John

I asked a lady for directions. She immediately grabbed her child which had to be, like, seven or something and said, "We don't talk to them."

Lisa

Even though I'm half white. People don't see that. When I would go somewhere with my dad, who's--he's darker than I am, security would follow us. People would be like, sir, are you supposed to be parking here? Are you actually frequenting the store? And whenever I went with my mom, it was like, oh, can we get you a changing room?  

Gary

Was trying a case one time...where I was representing a Black person and I had a judge who called me in the back room. "Why are we wasting time on this little "N" case, why don't you just have him go ahead and plead guilty and get this thing over with where we can get to the more important stuff?"

James

During my teenage years, I had a chance that I could drive a tractor or work in the fields, and because of the color of my skin, I had to work in the fields. I couldn't drive a tractor. My dad explained to me that we are Black African men and we are workers of the fields.

Jasmin

I am not good at math. I'm horrible. I'm a decent driver.

John

You know how many times I was asked, do I play football? No, I did gymnastics.

Alex

You can do this because you're African American. No, I can't, because that's not what I do.

Eryn

My experience with racism has been being married to a woman who is Black and Mexican. We used to work together and someone in our office, actually, was talking about how, in their opinion, Black people were less intelligent than other people and saying how this was scientific fact.Jasmin

Growing up, I always wanted to be, you know, a European or not Asian at all. Now that I'm older, I have a huge respect for it, and I'm very happy to be who I am and proud.

Sabrina

In truth, we are one human race. Skin color, hair, and other physical features equate to our being 99.99% the same. Race is a social construct that has a real impact on our lives. And racism is a real device used to fuel systems of inequity and limit equal access to resources and power. One of the most effective, pervasive, and often subconscious factors in how we experience race today has been race science. This non-fact based set of theories has perpetuated biases and fear. But before we get into the full conversation, here's Akilah Hughes to introduce the big picture.

Akilah

Hey there. I'm Akilah Hughes, I'm a writer, comedian, and podcast host. Here to give you the big picture all about race. And I'm Black, if you didn't notice. Make a note. I'll let you in on a little secret. Racism exists, but we can overcome racism by being honest about it and where it is perpetuated and how our lives are affected by it. For example, we have all heard stereotypes about each other. So without saying out loud. See if you can identify which group has been said to lack rhythm and spices. Who's been called cheap? Who is said to love chicken? Who has too many kids and the whole family living under their roof? Who's good at math? All of those are damaging stereotypes. And we've all heard them.  And we all know in reality those things aren't true of an entire  group of any kind of people, even when it's a positive stereotype, like this group has money or that group's athletic. Buying and selling those kinds of stereotypes really sets up a world of inequality that we're here to fix. When we talk about racism, people get bummed out and shut down because we're going to talk about it. You know, like, let's really unpack what feels uncomfortable about admitting our place in a system of inequality.

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The big picture

What's real about race?

Akilah

You know how some people say that they don't see color and then that means that the makeup on their face doesn't match the makeup on their neck? Right. That's the problem. We see color. I mean, unless we're literally colorblind. And if you are, please don't cancel me, because it's all love. And the world we should be working towards is not colorblind. It appreciates our differences. And, and, and it works to dismantle this pile of discrimination that y'all know is real. Racism is part of every part of our lives. And the more you learn about how it affects wellness, how it affects wealth and how generational trauma affects people, the more you can apply that awareness to your life and help be part of the change. You don't have to thank me right now, though. Probably will at some point. I'll be waiting.

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The Big Picture

Wellness

Wealth

People 

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The big picture

What's real about race?

Sabrina interviewing Dr. Ossorio             

Sabrina

Here to guide us is Dr. Pilar Ossorio, professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Ethics Scholar-in-Residence and ethics program lead for the Morgridge Institute for Research. Welcome, Pilar.

Pilar

Hi.

Sabrina

So I'd like to start by looking at the origins of race as a social construct. What exactly is race science and why do we all experience it or think of it differently?

Pilar

Right. So when you ask what is race science, I would define it as a kind of science that assumes that human beings can be...divided into discrete, immutable categories that are defined by racial essences, biological racial essences, if you will. This is a kind of science that...I guess originated maybe in the 1700s. So, the first...taxonomy of race, or at least the most influential taxonomy of race was developed by Carl Linnaeus or Carolus Linnaeus and published in about 1758. And he thought there were four human races, so Native American, European, African, and Asian. And he not only attributed different physical traits to those races, but in addition to physical traits, he also, right from the beginning, built in notions of racial superiority and inferiority into this taxonomy. So this sort of taxonomy justified European colonization. Obviously, if you think that Europeans have the character traits that makes them--make them good at governing, then that was a way of justifying colonization and justifying various kinds of racial inequalities.

Sabrina

Okay, so if I hear you correctly, race science isn't very scientific, is that correct?

Pilar

Well, by the early 20th century, it had become clear that that sort of simple idea of fixed discrete categories of humans didn't hold up. Right? So, anthropologists had been going around and other scientists going around the world measuring all kinds of traits in people, and they couldn't find discrete categories. Right? So that, you know, on a scientific basis, it was beginning to fall apart. And then also, you know, World War Two, the Nazis basically used this to justify mass murder and genocide. So, um...the rest of the world reconsidered, both societies at large and scientific communities reconsidered race science. And I think mainstream science really moved away from that notion of race as being, like, fixed biological categories. Right? So there--Even though we're not explicitly trying with our science to justify racial inequality anymore, I think there are times when that still happens. It might still be implicit. And you ask why people experience this differently. And I do think it's because what we now understand about race is that it is something that societies impose. Right, that there's all kinds of variation among human beings, our variation is very complex and geographically patterned. And we have biological variation and social and political variation. And societies impose categories on that variation, right? But those categories are not fixed and immutable and intrinsic to people. But that doesn't mean that they're not real, right? Those categories shape our lives in many ways.

Sabrina

So, thank you. I'm going to leave it there. And I want to turn to Secretary Bunch, and I'm going to ask you to talk about the role of museums in popularizing race science. I mean, what has your experience been? How do you see this, particularly at the Smithsonian and at other museums?

Lonnie

Well, in many ways...museums have really reflected the identity of the community that they grew up in, which meant that notions of eugenics, the fact that they believed that certain races were more superior to others, really were at the heart of the creation of many museums being in the United States or in Europe. So what you see is, especially in the area of anthropology, you see these amazing collections where people are categorized based on race. You see museums based on racist ideas, collect human remains, collect sacred property. So in essence, what you really have are museums that are not places of all truth, but rather they are places that reflect the truths of that particular time. And the challenge is that places like the Smithsonian had collected many human remains. The Smithsonian had also made sure that the way they did exhibitions, that people of color were-- when they were in the exhibitions were really second class. So in essence, what museums traditionally have done is that they have supported notions of eugenics. And in essence, the challenge for museums is to recognize that those notions have been countered and that museums need to take the other stance. How to help people who come to the museums better understand the realities of race, not the pseudoscience of race.

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Lonnie G. Bunch Iii

Smithsonian Secretary  

Sabrina

So you've raised the issue of ethics in what you're saying. And can you talk a little bit about the ways that museum ethics have changed over time? And I think this is particularly true for people like ourselves who work in museums, who love cultural institutions, but who really grapple with some of these issues still today.Lonnie

I think the challenge for museums today is to shine the light on their own work and that the fact that now it is no longer acceptable to keep human remains. So because of a variety of federal acts, we now have repatriated remains of, you know, thousands of people. We've returned funereal objects and sacred objects. So in essence, that is really a first step in museums rectifying and remedying prior acts. But the challenge really is how to go beyond that, how to make sure that museums create an environment where the visitors who come to the museums understand the history, understand the culture. In essence, what museums need to do is to define reality and give hope. And part of the challenge of that is for museums to look at themselves. You can't say that you have changed the way museums done their work by simply repatriating remains. It also means you have to think differently about the people that work in museums. You have to think differently about the way they interact with different communities. And in essence, what you really want to make sure is that museums find the right tension between scholarship and the communities they serve.

Sabrina

Thank you, Secretary Bunch, for your leadership and for being with us today. Not only has race science been ingrained in society through museums and media, it's also been enforced through sports and stereotypes of the Black body, depicted for its unbridled strength. So while moments of racial progress have been framed by athletes who defy discrimination, racial mythology continually limited those barrier-breaking athletes. To guide us further into this conversation, Pilar and I are joined by Damion Thomas,  curator of sports for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, he also leads the museum's sports and race initiative. Let's start with the example of the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, who also sought to compete with his peers without being restricted by segregation. His quest for a bout in the ring to prove personal mastery ultimately dissolved into a national threat to white supremacy. So, Damion, help us understand why that particular fight was a key moment for race science in sports.

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Damion Thomas, Ph.D.

Smithsonian Museum Curator Of Sports

Damion

Well, Jack Johnson had actually won the heavyweight championship a couple of years before 1908. And there was a call put out to Jim Jeffries, who had retired as the heavyweight champion to come out of retirement. So  now you have these two formidable fighters meeting on July 4th, 1910. And it really is considered to be a battle of the races. And earlier in the 20th century and the latter part of the 19th century, you get these ideas of social Darwinism. This idea that we're creating a hierarchy of race and the idea that African Americans are inferior in all ways, including on the playing field. And so you get these two men symbolizing and representing their races in this boxing match, and all of the racial stereotypes and racial science are put to the test. Jack Johnson is expected to lose this fight because the perception is that African Americans are emotional and they'll be guided by their emotions, whereas Jim Jeffries was the epitome of white masculinity, is a thinking man and it's believed that he's gonna win because he's white. And ultimately, Jack Johnson won this boxing match. He knocked Jim Jeffries out. And this was a key moment in history because even after the fight, there were race riots all over the country, white mobs going into Black neighborhoods, saying actually that fight doesn't mean anything and it doesn't challenge these notions of inferiority.

Sabrina

So it's interesting. And I'm thinking about what Pilar said and this idea that race science is absolutely not real, and still, this notion of biologically different--differences between races exist. And so, Damion, can you tell us a little bit about this brain versus brawn? Is it still something that we're living with? How does it affect athletes that we encounter today?

Damion

One of the things that's interesting about the intersection between sports and race science is that sometimes it challenges notions of race. But other times it reinforces these ideals. And so it is a space where race is always being negotiated, sometimes to the detriment of the groups who are impacted. And sometimes it also benefits them. And so it is a-- it is an issue that's continually being re-contextualized as different issues come to the forefront in society.

Sabrina

So to that point, there's a term, "race-norming," that has come to the forefront because of what's happening in the NFL. I had never heard of this, but can you tell us what race-norming is and how does it appear in sports today? What's the impact of this phenomenon today?

Damion

Sure. Race norming started in the 1980s. It at least became a big public issue, because what leaders were trying to do was to account for the racial bias in aptitude tests. And so what they were trying to do was to pit-- or not pit, but to measure candidates within their-- their racial categories. And then only thinking about how people scored in relationship to people who were classified as the same race. So it started as a way to try to mitigate racism and the impact of-- of these racially-biased tests. The way it was used by the NFL and the people that they hired was, they decided that African Americans experience higher levels of cognitive decline. Just naturally by-- as a-- as a race, and so African Americans are more likely to suffer from things like dementia. And so what the NFL decided to do is to say that because African Americans suffer more from these--these issues related to cognitive decline, that African American players would have to show greater harm than other races because of their participation in the NFL. And so this became a major story because two African American players who would have classified for a payout under the NFL's system if they were white, were not allowed to get a payout. And so they sued the NFL, because rather than using race-norming as a way to try to account for-- for racial differences, they were actually using it to punish African American players.

Sabrina

Okay, so that's a lot. And, you know, it begs the question--I'm going to ask you, Pilar, how is this allowed to continue?

Pilar

So actually, this kind of thing goes on in medicine a lot. So all kinds of organ function, lung function, kidney function, for instance, there is race-norming in medicine. So it's a much broader thing than just in sports, because-- and this is where I was talking earlier about some "race science" kind of continuing to impact contemporary practices even when we think we've moved away, right? There is this idea that different races have naturally differing levels of functioning in various aspects of our bodies. And so--and a lot of that was never really well-substantiated scientifically. Right? It just became the practice. And it actually gets "built into" medical machines, for instance, machines that measure lung function, spirometers, they have different settings for Black and white. Right? And that's part of--it's a kind of race-norming for lung function, right? So this continues, and only very recently with the Me Too movement have people in medicine been really speaking out against this and asking for reconsideration of race-norming in all kinds of ways. This probably affects, for instance-- So, when people get transplants, because there's race-norming for kidney function, African Americans have to be sicker before they are eligible for a transplant, right? And then this-- this has consequences down the line.

Sabrina

You're right. Exactly. The implications are real. I mean, to the body, to the wallet. This is a fascinating conversation. I wish we could spend more time. But I want to thank you for being here with us, for starting us off with such a strong conversation. You've told us how race-norming, race science or the lack of race science has an impact on not only our bodies and wallets, but on society as a whole. Thank you again so much for being with us. For everyone watching, you can learn  about these topics and much more on the Our Shared Future website.

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www.oursharedfuture.si.edu/participate/share-your-story         

Sabrina

One of the most critical reasons to understand race today is for its generational impact on health and wealth. Struggles over health and economic justice have been key to the construction of racial inequity since the dawn of America. Despite these factors, communities have found pathways of resistance and prosperity. Before we dive in, let's check in with Akilah.

Akilah

It's me, Akilah, again, here with the big picture. Hey, you doing okay, friends? All right, see, it turns out we're still not done talking about race. I don't know if you got the memo, but it's going to take a whole day, minimum. I mean, I can go on for weeks. So you know how every young white couple on those list it or ditch it shows with an average income of $30,000 always has an aunt with an extra $60,000 for them to buy a forever home? That is way less common for people of color, and that's not accidental. See, there's all kinds of stuff at play here. Disparities in homeownership, loan allocations, student loan debt, and hey, subprime mortgages. You know, just to name a few things that you probably heard of. And there's probably no one hearing my voice right now who doesn't realize that money gives us access to everything, including better healthcare. And don't get me started on healthcare. All right? Actually, I'm going to get started. All right. So do you know why the CDC is reporting that people of color are less likely to get a COVID vaccine? You wonder why? Well, in 1932, there was a U.S. government experiment on Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, who signed up for a "free treatment" for syphilis, only to have that very treatment withheld while being intentionally left to die for the sake of experiment. All without consent. All while penicillin, the cure, was readily available. And that is just one of many examples. Now do you see why people of color might be a little skeptical with the medical establishment? I thought you might. I'll be back. Actually, I'm going to stay here and you're going to be back, but I'll be here.

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The Big Picture

Race, Health & Wealth  

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The Big Picture

Health 

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The Big Picture

Race, Health & Wealth  

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The Big Picture

Race, Health & Wealth  

Sabrina

This stunning portrait of Henrietta Lacks is by Kadir Nelson and part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection. Henrietta Lacks never sought out to change society, but her 1951 doctor's visit would eventually play a key role in developing the polio vaccine and advancing the study of cancer, all without her consent, let alone her awareness. But with the success of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a conversation ensued about medical trust, compensation, and vulnerable communities. Guiding us through the connections between race, health, and wealth. We are joined by Louise Seamster, associate professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, Juliet K. Choi, president and CEO of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum and former senior director of the American Red Cross Disaster Service. And Sean Sweat, an M.D. Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Sabrina

Sean, I wanted to start with you. You flipped the script on the Hippocratic Oath and rewrote it to reflect a sense of racial justice and social justice. Why did you decide to do that? What was the motivation and what were the changes that you made?

Sean

Yes. So that was for a couple of reasons. Firstly, given the COVID-19 pandemic and how it was primarily affecting minority populations and, for example, Black and Hispanic communities, we really wanted to address, given all that has happened with the pandemic, that there's a lot we need to do in terms of healthcare, in terms of really providing for people of color and really fixing those gaps that allows them to fall through. In addition to that, we also wanted to address the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and just how, when it comes to violent individuals or people of color, there was no justice for them. There was no justice for them and what they went through and what they experienced. And so we wanted to use the oath as a time or as an opportunity for us to address, not only within healthcare, but beyond that, like, how do we want to really go forth leading in the medical care field and also beyond that?

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Sean Sweeaet

University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine M.D./Ph.D Candidate          

Sabrina

So you're-- you know, we started talking about the time period, and I think, you know, you've taken something that's ancient and made it relevant and  important for this moment. And I want to ask you, Louise, a similar question about this myth of racial progress. I mean, I think people think that we've made so much progress, things have changed. Can you break down for us what's the myth and what's the reality of this myth of racial progress?

Louise

So there's this story that, you know, because we've come past slavery and through the Civil Rights Movement and taking care of racism, that we've basically overcome and that anything kind of remaining is just this residual effects of-- of past forms of racism, and that it will slowly kind of peter off as as we move forward through time. And I'm always thinking about Malcolm X's quote saying, “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, that's not progress. If you take it all the way out, that's not progress.” Progress is healing the wound the knife made, and they haven't even taken the knife out, much less acknowledged that it's--the knife is even there. And so I think that we need to look at things like the racial wealth gap to look at this longer history and more the consistency in the outcomes, whether or not the forms of racism are changing.

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Louise Seamster, Ph.D.

Asst. Professor, Sociology & African American Studies    

Sabrina

So, Juliet, let's talk a little bit about the consistency of outcomes, which in many cases hasn't been particularly consistent and has led to a lot of mistrust among the general populace, which is a problem for public health officials because it's critical to successful policy implementation. Can you talk a little bit about how we can address trust in a time of COVID, when we need people to get vaccinated and they're not?

Juliet

Sure. I mean, our public health leaders, I do truly believe, have been doing the best they can do with the changing information, the changing situation. But when it comes to building trust with the community, at the heart of this, this is all about community partnership and community engagement. We've heard the phrase often, but I think we can really see how this this dialogue comes alive when community partnerships really matter. Meeting families where they reside, where they live, how they live. It's what I like to say, it's not just about reaching out, but it's reaching in. And in order to bolster that trust with the public, I think this really means we need to make sure that our workforce, our leaders, reflect us, no matter what walk of life we come from, no matter the color of our skin, our religious background. So, again, at-- at heart, it's community partnership, community engagement, reaching in and reaching out.

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Juliet K. Choi, J.D.

President & Ceo, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum            

Sabrina

I think one good example of that comes from American-Indian communities where, you know, I think my understanding is that it has a high percentage of the population that has been vaccinated. Given the history of these particular communities, how did trust in public health officials happen so that people would get vaccinated?

Juliet

Yeah, I really appreciate this question. It really is a remarkable narrative, a remarkable tale, because at one point in time, earlier on in 2020, the Native American community was experiencing COVID fatalities two and a half times the rate of their white counterparts. You're talking about many Native communities that live miles and miles away from the local closest healthcare facility. So this really was about one-on-one outreach, a sense of love and care, particularly taking good and close care of the elders and treating one another as a treasure and with a lot of love. The healthcare workers, the frontline workers, these were all individuals from community. And with that in a very short amount of time, yes, there are a lot of studies that are reporting that the Native American community is now the most highly vaccinated population in the country.

Sabrina

So, Sean, let's talk about the rest of us, the other communities where the pandemic is still showing us the healthcare disparities. Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like to you as a medical student? What do you see when you're making your rounds and engaging with various community members?

Sean

Yeah, so I'd like to actually start answering that question by  kind of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic earlier on. So, for example-- and really addressing how the pandemic has really primarily affected Black and Hispanic communities. So we understand that a lot of jobs that were considered essential during that time period, whether it be grocery store workers or delivery persons, those are primarily held by people of color. And so I think with that being said, they were predisposed to COVID at a much greater rate than others. They didn't have the luxury, for example, of staying at home and being safe. It came down to actually going into work, risking exposure to bring home an income. And that just goes back to this longstanding fundamental issue in healthcare of access to healthcare. People need to be able to afford healthcare and have access to it.

Sabrina

So--

Sean

Oh, sorry?

Sabrina

So, no, sorry. I just-- I want to stop you there because I wanna take your point and actually kick it over to Juliet, because this notion of access to healthcare particularly becomes important in disaster relief, where we see so many people during these critical moments who haven't had access to healthcare before a disaster happens, and, you know, the impact is even worse. What have you learned about this kind of work that you can apply now to the pandemic that is raging all around us?

Juliet

Sure. And, you know, I really appreciated what Sean was sharing as well. I think one of the critical lessons is, when there's a time of crisis, whether it's a disaster or a global pandemic, you know, we're going to seek support and assistance in a way that is most comfortable to us. So we can have the government notifications, the information that's pushed out. But at the end of the day, especially in a moment of crisis, you're going to turn to your loved ones. You're going to turn to your place of worship. Folks that you already know, what I call trusted voices, trusted leaders, trusted validators. So in a time of crisis, these types of community relationships, understanding how each community functions, is incredibly critical. And at the end of the day, whether it's seeking healthcare, or housing, or food assistance, again, I really come back to access to care for any individual and every individual really, really, I think is the civil rights issue of the century.

Sabrina

Let's talk about the racial wealth gap and what does it mean? And what are the forces driving it?

Louise

Okay, so the racial wealth gap is both a number and a concept. So it's-- it's symbolizing the... continuity of racism, as I've been saying, in America, where at this point white wealth is 10 times at the median that of Black wealth, or Hispanic wealth, or Indigenous wealth for the median family. And this number has been relatively consistent across the past five decades and more, so we have been, as-- you know, as scholars, we've been looking at this number as an indicator, like I said, of racial progress and its lack to show how you could have changing mechanisms, where it might have at one point been exclusion from the housing market, an inability to get a mortgage through things like redlining or the discriminatory implementation of things like the GI Bill. But that at this point, that shifted so that it's actually through things like subprime mortgages or even through student debt, that-- were the things that families were told they were supposed to do to make it and get ahead in our society. You're supposed to go to college and you're supposed to buy a house. Those two things, especially for Black and Brown families, has only been able to be achieved through  taking on more debt. And so that is how the-- you know, the very thing that was supposed to be what got people of color ahead is now turning into the thing that's holding them further behind.

Sabrina

Right. And you call this predatory inclusion?

Louise

Mm-hmm.

Sabrina

Can the wealth gap ever be closed? Are we gonna live with this for the duration?

Louise

I think it will be challenging and it will not close on its own. I think that's the most important thing, is that it's not something that's naturally going to ch-- you know, close over time. But I do think, absolutely, like, we can achieve economic racial equality. And fortunately, people have some great policies on the table that can go far towards doing that. For instance, if you canceled $50,000 of student debt, in work I've done with co-authors, we found that that would increase Black wealth for all families, not even just people who have student debt. For all families, it would increase Black wealth by a third.

Sabrina

So you're talking about possibilities, which I think is a good way for us to close our conversation. And I want to know from each of you, what are the ways that people are making things work? I mean, we are actors, not just acted upon. So if I can ask you--maybe I'll start with you. Sean, despite everything that we're up against, people you know, communities that you work with, give us one example of-- where you see a spark of possibility.

Sean

Yeah, I'd like to take this time to kind of talk a little bit more about implicit bias. We understand it to be something that is built upon our previous interactions or previous thought processes. And that can really simply impact how we treat other people. And so I think in order for us to really achieve any sense of health equity, we need to really address that. I think, you know, for me as a Black woman, if I were to enter an emergency department seeking out care, it's insulting for me to think that the kind of care that I may receive will depend on who is at the bedside and what their implicit biases are. And so for me, as a medical student in training, I really take it upon myself to promise myself that if I, for example, see someone who is-- see a colleague not treating a patient well, or if I see a medical care professional disrespecting a patient, I tend to, as they say, see something, then you say something. For example, it could be pulling a colleague aside and talking to them one on one or going back to the patient and talking with them more to figure out if their needs are actually being met. I think along with that, in order for us to really address implicit bias, we need to self reflect. Think about, again, how we're interacting with others. And I think also what ties into that is this understanding of not only cultural competency, but also a cultural humility. I was reading a commentary recently about how cultural competency is more so this knowledge that--of cultures and having kind of a surface level of understanding of them. With cultural humility, you're more so taking on a deeper appreciation of cultures. You're really-- it's more of an interpersonal process where you're trying to actually understand cultures in such a way that when you see  someone who doesn't look like you, you appreciate them for who they are. And I think all that is to say that if we-- if we can come to a point where we're appreciating people for who they are, for example, their patient narrative and their background and their experiences, we then can go forth and develop a treatment plan for them that really meets their unique needs.

Sabrina

Julia, where is there hope? Or is there like yet?

Juliet

Yeah. As an American society, I firmly believe, we're very much a resilient people. And I can't help but think about my parents. I'm the daughter of Korean immigrants. And what they had shared is that we can all bring our lived experiences to bear and give voice. And in this time, particularly with the pandemic, what I've seen so many people do is give voice to the people who have not been seen. And we're talking about Black and Brown and Indigenous communities. I think we're also talking about Asians, native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. And when we say giving voice, I think looking at numbers and data, making sure each and every person counts is critical. And we know that in different parts of the country, there are a lot of particularly immigrant communities, disability communities who've been very invisible. So what gives me hope is that there are so many more voices advocating for inclusion in this historical time of both a global pandemic and racial reckoning that our country is facing. So collectively, call me an optimist at heart, I am. That still gives me a lot of hope.

Sabrina

Great. We need you. Louise, I'll give you the last word. Where's hope?

Louise

Well, you know, I've been looking over the last year and I'm teaching about social inequality and thinking about how the pandemic has exacerbated inequality in many ways, but also how it's been this opportunity to rethink how we do everything. We haven't been able to just continue business as usual when a lot of people have been pointing out that business as usual was hurting a lot of people before the pandemic. And I've seen so many things that everyone said were--was an impossibility come to pass, like we have a child tax credit that's looking like it's going to, I think, halve child poverty. You know, just with the snap of a finger, basically, all these things that were supposedly intractable that people like me study for decades and say it can't be done, can just be done. And so I look at that and, you know, the student debt pause, I look at the eviction moratorium, all these things where people did have in their pocket how we could do policies in a more humane way. And it's you know, we have ability to think on the individual level, what we can do and on the community level. And then there's a level of policy where we do what we have seen above all in the past year and a half, the power of different levels of government to shape our day to day life. And so I'm hoping that that will carry us through for some momentum to think about how we want to rebuild our future.

Sabrina

It's a great, great place to stop. I want to thank you all for being with us, for sharing your time and insights for the amazing work that you do in communities across this country. And I hope to continue this conversation with you both here and perhaps at the Smithsonian one day. But again, thank you so much for being with us.

Sabrina

The current pandemic has revealed that despite how we define our own communities, it is the collective success that defines the possibility of the individual. As we think about the stressors to specific groups, we are encouraged to consider the impact on the whole. In 2019, the FDIC reported that 5.4% of U.S. households didn't have a bank account. And while that's national progress, that number broken down shows that 12% of Latino households, as compared to 3% of white households remain outside the banking system. Latinos are almost twice as likely to have limited access to build a credit history. That makes them vulnerable to predatory loans and excessive interest rates. Or worse, for caste based workers. It also excludes Latinos from the kinds of financial tools that lead to home ownership and entrepreneurship. Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina is changing  that narrative for statewide Latinos and immigrant populations. Today, they are over 92000 members strong, most of whom were previously Unbanked and Low-Income. Let's take a look at the lives it is changing.

Man

We apply for just a simple savings account at one of the biggest banks in America.

Woman

(SUBTITLED) It was a little difficult because they asked us for certain documents which we did not have. Often we are frightened -- How are we going to buy a house here?

Man

That got me into the credit union. As soon as I walk in, they embrace us. It felt like a family.

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Creating Financial

Access For All:

Cooperativa Latina Credit Union

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Durham, North Carolina

Luis Interview

Man

(Subtitled) We started in the year 2000, in Durham. At the end of the 90's, beginning of the 2000's a new community began to arrive…Immigrants filling jobs that nobody else was taking advantage of. It was very difficult to open a bank account to cash your checks…accumulate deposits or send funds to your country where your family was waiting for it. At that moment the Cooperativa arises as a Community-driven solution…to do something better.

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Luís Pastor

Ceo, Cooperativa Latina Credit Union     

Silvia

Trade unions are not for profit organizations. So that means that the money that they make, they need to put it back into the membership or the people that they serve, banks are for profit.

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Silvia Rincón

Svp Of Member Experience

Cooperativa Latin Credit Union 

Vicky

The mission of the credit union has always been the same. We are here to create economic opportunity for all.

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Vicky García

SVP OF Strategic Initiatives

Cooperativa Latin Credit Union 

Miguel

My wife told me about it and I did not follow her lead.

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Miguel Angel Fuentes

Member Cooperativa Latina Credit Union           

Edith (Subtitled)

I insisted and he kept saying "No" until I told him they were offering classes.

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Edith Fuentes

Member, Cooperativa Latina Credit Union          

Miguel

They have financial classes in Spanish.

Edith (Subtitled)

We took the financial classes, and it was the best decision we could have made. From those classes we learned that we could apply for a mortgage. We thought "Us! A house! No way!"

Miguel

The moment that we came from the signing all the papers, that jingling of those keys, it felt like my future was being handed to me. It felt like my wife had a place that she could call home and my daughter a stable household.

María (Subtitled)

Because we're Latinos, they helped us a lot to get a loan…for a van for my daughter who has special needs. She has a condition called hydrosephalia. She doesn't speak or walk. The van is very important to take her to appointments, to school.

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María Mozqueda

Member, Cooperativa Latina Credit Union          

Luís (Subtitled)

They needed a kind of vehicle that financial institutions do not finance.  We don't have a program for it either, but based on the philosophy that no immigrant comes here to default on a loan, we found a way to do it. From the beginning we decided to offer loans with or without official credit history. Because credit history is not a good indicator of whether a person will pay back a loan.

Silvia

Actually, our repayment rate is 99.2% when a lot of financial institutions think that the communities that we serve are "risky."

Vicky

We do not do risk based lending. Everyone or everybody comes through the door will get exactly the same interest rate.

Luís (Subtitled)

Because what happens in the American financial system is when a person speaks with an accent -- or has darker skin, or has a name you can't pronounce -- we end up paying more.

Silvia

Over the years, we have gained our member's trust. We get to know them. We have learned that we can go beyond financial products and services. So we have expanded to create programs that can have a bigger impact in their lives.

María (Subtitled)

My daughter Ingrid, her dream has always been to be a nurse. The Cooperativa Latina offers scholarships. And thank God they gave her a scholarship for four years. She graduated from Trinity University in Washington DC.

Silvia

She's the first in the entire family that is graduating from college, that went to college and now she's a nurse.

María (Subtitled)

What they provide for the people and the community is compassion. It's touched my life.

Miguel

It has changed how I see the world financially.

Luís (Subtitled)

The true heroes, the protagonists of this story are the members who come into the Cooperativa. We have over 100,000 people who own the institution and decide what it should be -- A place they can trust.

Sabrina

While our culture is beginning to understand mental health and trauma, it's not a new phenomenon. Race has fueled the stress, anxiety, and hopelessness that many of us experience. For one final breakdown of the big picture, here's Akilah Hughes.

Akilah

It's Akilah, bringing you the big picture on race. So this just in, racism is very much real and alive and not only in a recent sense. I mean, it just wears on you, tries your last nerve. And with alarming frequency, it kills you with the whole world watching. We all thankfully lived through the past year of the pandemic and also the ensuing and ongoing global protests for racial justice. But seeing images of people of color being disrespected, disregarded, attacked and, yes, killed on the nightly news at five, six, and again at 11 should be examined. The way it affects and changes us has got to be said out loud and honestly. So that's what we're hoping to do here today. And hey, before you complain about your own trauma, let me just affirm you and say, yes, everybody has trauma and trials and tribulations to overcome. But because people of color tend to face far more trauma out of their control, specifically because of racism, there's a level of having to overcome on a daily basis that is neither compensated nor given compassion. And we need to fix that. Chris Rock had this great joke about how most white people wouldn't switch places with him, even though he's rich. It doesn't get clearer than that.

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The Big Picture

Mental Health & Trauma            

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The Big Picture

Mental Health & Trauma            

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The Big Picture

Mental Health & Trauma            

Sabrina

Thanks, Akilah. Now for further perspective, we again turn to some voices from across our country for reflection on the intersection of race, mental health, and trauma.

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Our Voices

Race And Mental Health And Trauma    

Kelvin

As African American now I have to be on the guard, as I told my son, as I was told, and how we learned is that your job during any altercation with a police officer is to come home safe. The things that was on social media are the things now that's been exposed to the rest of the world is seen and it's just reminding me that trauma's there everyday when you're African American.

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Kelvin   

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Luke     

Luke

Racism is a terrible thing. You never forget it. And imagine, over a lifetime when it's compound, it can indeed be quite stressful.

Elizabeth

I've seen it in the way children respond. As an educator, even in my own family, you know, you know that the struggle coming over as an immigrant, my dad acknowledged the trauma and told us it was okay. It was something he went through. But keep moving forward.

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Elizabeth           

Jasmin

Even earlier this week, I was in Hell's Kitchen. I got shoved by a woman. I don't know if it was racially motivated, but that hasn't happened to me before. When I go to Hell's Kitchen, I get a little PTSD because that woman who pushed me, she's still out there.

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Jasmin 

Marley

There was like so much hatred just in the media the media that it also started to come into me a little bit.

Gary

I didn't know anybody to go into a fight or flight that never got a mental health or any kind of assessment or anything else. We were kind of like, suck it up and deal with it.

Jeffrey

To have people at the top of their game to say, "I need help and I'm seeking help." Most recently, Simone Biles or Naomi Osaka. That's the equivalent within the Black community of the Earth spinning in a different way.

Sabrina

Our final panel includes Kyra Antone, who works on the communications team for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute. Diana Chao, founder of Letters To Strangers, the largest global youth for youth mental health non-profit. Dr. Joi Lewis, author of "Healing the Act of Radical Self Care" and CEO and founder of Joi Unlimited, and Monique Morris, an award winning author, social justice scholar, and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color. It's complex to discuss American history seated in conversation on land that became American through the raiding of First Nation land and the ethnic cleansing of its people. People who identify as Cherokee, Navajo, Apache, Coeur d'Alene and other groups that far predate America. We rarely consider the trauma of this initial injustice towards the now term, Native American people and the generational wrongs that followed. I want to thank you all for being here with us. I'm going to start with you, Dr. Joi. Introduce us to this notion of emotional trauma and racism and what has that impact been on mental health?

Joi

Oh, thank you for the question. You know, we are sitting in a nation that really was founded on stolen land to start with. Also in, you know, 400 years of slavery, internment camps, I mean, it all goes on. So it has been connected to, you know, emotional trauma that then has shown up in our bodies in a term that we call "epigenetics." It's like, wait a minute, you're still in this situation. And we're like, still stuck because they're really-- we call it post-traumatic stress syndrome. But for people of color, for Black folks, for Native folks--there hasn't been a post, right?

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Dr. Joi Lewis

Founder & President, Healing Justice Foundation & Joi Unlimited             

Sabrina

You raised so many questions. I'm going to follow up with you in just a moment, but I want to hear from Kyra for just a moment and talk about some of the things that Dr. Joi has laid out for us in terms of Native American communities. And Native communities, include native Hawaiians, you know, from coast to coast, sea to sea, what does that look like? What does that mean to you? This trauma.

Kyra

Yeah. So when she first explained that, it made me think of like, how our default setting is kind of like survival mode. So we're often, like, always alert. And that can be difficult to be in, like, settings where you want to learn, settings where you want to be open and communicative. It can be difficult in times like that because we were never--like, you look around at these pictures and we were never supposed to come this far. And so I think back on like genocide, when genocide didn't work, they tried relocating us and taking us from our lands and...Thank you. And when that didn't work, they tried--Assimilating us. They tried-- You tried boarding schools. And when that didn't work, they tried dehumanizing us just in any way. We were never meant to be--to come as far as we have come. And so it's very difficult to step back and think, [exhales] just really reflect on how far we've gotten here and to--Sorry.

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Kyra Antone

Communications Associate, Center For Native American Youth  

Sabrina

No. It's a lot and it's real, and I'm going to give you a second to collect your thoughts and come back to you, because I definitely want to hear more particularly about what this looks like for young people, for young Native American communities across the US and beyond. I'm going to turn to you, Monique. And you know, we're hearing about this concept of generational trauma. Does it affect all groups? And does it manifest or how does it manifest itself in the body? What does that feel like?

Monique

So I would just say return to breath. And also, you know, transgenerational trauma is really about the unresolved collective grief that is, hasn't yet been processed and that has still maintained a space in how we interact with each other, with ourselves, with the institutions that may have been part of a tapestry of harm in our lives. And so when we come into contact with any of these scenarios, sometimes we may feel a rapid breath, or we may feel some anxiety or some tension in our bodies. And, you know, those looking from the outside might say, "Why are they reacting this way?" "Why are they running from the police?" "Why don't they feel comfortable in school?" All of these questions that have everything to do with the fact that these were institutions or agents that were part of a tapestry of structural oppression and harm in the lives of Black, Indigenous and other people of color. And so when descendants from that walk into these institutions, they instantly feel that energy. It speaks a lot to how many cultures--And your question around, "Are all of us impacted by it?" And the answer is yes. All of us are impacted by it because hurt people, hurt people. Hurt people build institutions that hurt people. And we are walking into this space and living in this environment where our bodies are still reacting to the energy that lives in that space. And you know, we often only think about the way we learn or how we know information or how we process information from our intellectual space. Or you know, from our, you know, emotional space. But there's also a spiritual space. There's an ancestral space. And that wisdom sits in our bones. That wisdom sits in our bodies, and it recognizes the harm. And so that's why healing has been so important. And I know we're going to get to that later--

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Monique Morris, Ed.D.

Author, President & Ceo Of Grantmakers For Girls Of Color         

Sabrina

Definitely--

Monique

That's why that's been such a central question, because it is living in our bodies. It manifests through our predisposition for certain diseases. It manifests in our relationship with stress. It manifests in how we are even responding to institutions.

Sabrina

Thank you. You guys have been throwing so much information out here that I want to come back to, but I want to take what you said and actually turn it to Diana, because you've said that, in essence, it's all around us. It's in us. It's before us. And so when it comes to Asian, Asian American communities, how do you encourage people to thrive, to live? I mean, again, what I'm hearing is that we can't escape it, and if you can't escape it, how do you deal with it?

Diana

I think the fact that we're here having this conversation to really talk about our history, our vulnerabilities, but also the resilience of our community, our backgrounds, et cetera, give us--That's really to the core of it, to reclaim the voice that so many have taught us we need to silence. And I think a big turning point for me is realizing not just that Asian American communities are so diverse and have very different needs and different experiences. But also realizing that just because maybe I am a first generation immigrant, that that doesn't mean that intergenerational trauma, the impacts of American colonization and all sorts of other expeditions around the world, haven't left an impact on me and so many other Asian Americans. And just even descendants of those who were impacted by these wars in Southeast Asia during the Cold War and beyond. So I think at the core of it, learning to recognize that maybe I am a minority in this country, but Asians are the majority in the world. And the truth is that our voice is as loud as we want it to be. And so even if people try to silence me because I know these facts now, because I've learned this story, I can confidently say it with an accent or not. And if they don't want to listen to me, I'm still going to listen to myself and my community.

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Diana Chao

Mental Health Advocate, Director Letters To Strangers  

Sabrina

Yeah, I hear you talking a lot about history, about knowing your history. And it's not old. It's not dead. It's not past. It's very much present. And you know, at the risk of sounding like an old person, I do want to ask both you and Kyra about, what does this look like to younger generations--And knowing that we can't lump everybody into one group--But are you and your peers looking and thinking about mental health differently, do you think, than somebody who may be older? What kinds of questions are you asking? And importantly, what kind of resources are you finding? I'm going to start with you, Kyra.

Kyra

Yeah, so I believe we are looking at mental health differently than the generations before us. And I think a lot of that has to do-- is just, they didn't have time to heal and process those things. They were too busy trying to survive in the places that they were in. And so, for example, like my grandparents went through boarding school and even, you know, they raised my parents and my parents raised us. So it's dealing with all of the things that they needed to in that moment. And like, their main focus was just ensuring that they'll have grandchildren, or a next generation to look forward to. And so I think I don't blame them for not being able to handle, like thinking about mental health because they didn't really have a choice in that time. And so, though youth now, we kind of have to heal because we have to not only experience the things that they did, we not have to only relive their traumas, but we have to heal their traumas. And just taking a step back and realizing that it's not a bad thing and that strength doesn't equate to like, being silent or like being silent doesn't equate to strength. That it's okay to go out and talk about these things. And it doesn't make you weak. I think that's really important.

Sabrina

Thank you for that. I want to ask you the same question. How are your peers thinking about mental health and where are they finding resources?

Diana

Yeah, I mean, you can probably imagine the Internet plays a huge role. And for all its faults, and it has a lot of faults, it has been really powerful in getting these resources and knowledge out to people who otherwise might not have known about it. So, for example, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 13 and an eye disease that made me blind when I was 14. And these two things, at first glance, don't necessarily seem to be related to each other. But it wasn't until I was able to connect with other Asian-Americans, especially Asian-American doctors, those who specialized in trauma, in eye diseases, things like that, that I began to learn about psychosomatic symptoms. Or like Monique had mentioned, you know, these physical manifestations of psychological distress. And so that's just one example of how even though social media can be a pretty negative breeding ground, it can also be a really powerful way for people to find their community for the first time in a very long time.

Sabrina

Mm-hm. Monique, does any of this resonate with you, given the young girls, women, that you work with?

Monique

Absolutely. You know, at Grantmakers for Girls of Color, we resource more than 180 organizations around the country that are working with girls and fems of color. And absolutely, they are seeking community and finding community where they are able to connect with other survivors of trauma. So I want to say that the centrality of trauma is an important part of the conversation. And the centrality of healing is equally important when we're talking about movement building to address some of these structural violence or these manifestations of structural violence that have been so pervasive in our communities. And young people are finding themselves in organization and they're finding themselves in the communities they build using a host of networks, you know, opportunities for exploring. But it's also that they're finding other modalities for healing that have not necessarily been recognized by many in the Western, you know, sort of healing community. Right. That they are--or medical community--That they are finding healing through dance, and they're finding healing through connection with some of their own ancestral practices that were erased from or intentionally disrupted through some of these violent acts in our communities. And so I really appreciate what both of you are offering in terms of how young people are thinking through some of these issues. And you especially see that, where girls of color are leading organizations and they're doing it through braiding or they're doing it through dance and they're doing it through letter writing. And connecting with other survivors of, not just some of these grand transgenerational traumas, but also through the physical traumas that they experienced through sexual violence, that they experienced through exposure to other forms of violence that typically are left out of our narratives around safety and harm.

Sabrina

So you've talked a lot about healing as being really important. But even when you find healing, there's still often stigma attached to, you know, you were talking about, you know, the things that you felt in your body. Diana, can you talk about ways that you and people that you know in the community are thinking about stigma and dealing with stigma? And I'm going to ask you the same question.

Diana

Yeah. So I think one prominent example that comes to my mind about the issue of stigma is, you know, a lack of education, research, understanding about how mental illnesses in general can affect people of color. If you look at the diagnostic manual, the DSM, that's used by mental health professionals in a Western educative setting to diagnose mental illnesses: The DSM has been adopted as a sort of golden standard for diagnosing mental illnesses by people around the world, in countries far away as they approach Western psychiatry. But the problem is that the DSM was made for and by white people. And so they have these culture bound syndromes, which are symptoms of mental illness that you find predominantly within one cultural group, typically a minority ethnicity group in the US. And these symptoms are relegated to only the appendix of that DSM, which is this huge, huge book that's being used by people around the world trying to get into mental health treatment and yet not finding the symptoms of their people in these pages. And so that's just one example of how stigma becomes an issue because we can't even have the conversation when the conversation doesn't even recognize that we exist.

Sabrina

Can you follow up with that?

Joi

Yeah, I mean, I think that it's really about--I think she really explained it very well and it's about who is doing the diagnosing. Right. And that I am finding within our communities that introducing cultural healers, folks who are in the community who look like us, that folks don't have a problem when there are healers who are in the community, who are offering, you know, ancestral healing services. To say, you know, let me listen to you, let me create space and do healing circles and come--Then folks are like, you know, lining up, looking for opportunities to be able to do that because that stigma is then taken away. It's about whenever there are folks who don't look like us, who are white folks, who are saying something is wrong with you, then therein lies the problem. Because, historically it has always been like that. And it's like, first of all, we're going to, you know, create this past trauma that we have talked about. Right. That we have, you know, locked you up, stolen your land, enslaved you, and then said, "Oh, you know, now something is wrong with you." No, you've created this trauma. Something happened to us. However, whenever you have folks who I know love me, who care about me, who are going to sit, and you know, use things from the land, come and, you know, sew with me, use things, use medicine, bring things back to me. I'm here for that. And people are ready and willing and looking for opportunities to come and wail and get it out and you know, be together. And you don't find people running away from that. As a matter of fact, you find people going towards that and looking for more opportunities to get that kind of healing. And the work that we are doing at the Healing Justice Foundation and across the land and the things that folks here on this panel are doing, people are standing in line trying to get more and more of those opportunities with community healing.

Sabrina

So I wish that I could take you all home with me and we can have this conversation forever. But the fact of the matter is that we need to close soon. But I have a question. I'm going to start with you, Dr. Joi, to sort of set us up. And then I'm going to ask each of you to share one thing that really does epitomize your sense of self care and your sense of self care as a radical act of joy, and of healing. So you talked about, a lot in your work is about healing, joy, this notion of radical self care. What does that mean? How do we get past the touchy feely parts of all of that?

Joi

Well, you know, I like to start with a quote from sister, Audre Lorde, who says, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation. And that is an act of political warfare." And you know that right there is, that's it. This is not about touchy feely. This is about political warfare. Right. And that the fact of, there is nothing more important in this world than taking care of ourselves, and that we really have to think about it as you know, putting in deposits right, into like, our energy bank. Right. Because if we don't have enough that is going into our energy bank, it's like walking around and writing bad checks. Right. Because, there are going to be things that are happening in the world every day that are taking our deposits--Taking out withdrawals. And so every time I take, you know, I do meditation or, you know, I do mindfulness, that is putting something into my energy bank to make sure that I am not writing bad checks. And as a matter of fact, you know, that is political warfare. And we are here for it every day.

Sabrina

Thank you. Kyra, tell me, how do you practice radical healing, radical joy, radical self-care?

Kyra

I think simply just existing. I think that is part of it. Just really speaking up in spaces that weren't meant for you, being able to be joyful. And I think for like native youth, it's really important to see people who like, look like you in those spaces, and that has really helped us. And especially when you look for--'Cause it's kind of tiring having to go and explain yourself like in therapy or something, and have to explain where you're coming from and kind of like educate them. And it should really be their job to go and like, go into those communities and really see where you're coming from rather than you having to constantly explain it. And so just showing up in those spaces and getting those types of-- Giving back to your community in those ways. But also just taking care of yourself and not falling to like, the trendy self care of like wearing a mask or doing this type of thing. But really leaning on your community and leaning on your culture. I think just like I said, simply existing is self care.

Sabrina

Love that, leaning on your community. Diana, how about you?

Diana

You know, Monique had mentioned earlier the quote, "Hurt people, hurt people." And for me, when I first heard that quote, I had always thought that there's got to be some follow up to it. This chain can't just keep on breaking itself. And so I personally subscribe to the idea that healed people, heal people. And that means that sometimes I have to take these steps that I don't necessarily want to do, like go see a therapist or make sure that I'm taking my medication every day, things that feel just like, too much sometimes. But I'm doing it because I want my community to heal. I want to break the cycle of pain. And more importantly, as I'm doing my work with Letters To Strangers and working with our 35,000 plus young people from over 20 countries--every single day, as I talk to them, I'm hearing stories of very different individuals that share the same undertones: this human desire and need for a connection, for empathy, for feeling like you can be true to yourself, like you have agency.

Sabrina

Thank you. Last word, Monique.

Monique

I listen to Prince.

[laughter]

Monique

Seriously, I made a promise about a decade ago that I would not willingly participate in the oppression of any people or my own self in any way. And it's important for me to sort of situate my own acts of self care in the context of, willingly participate in the oppression of myself. Right. And so that looks different depending on where I am and in what situation I am. But I always try to-- I'm lucky enough to lead an organization that is trying to shift how philanthropy even engages in some of these questions, particularly as it impacts girls and fems of color. So that in and of itself brings me joy to be able to be a part of the solution in that way.

Sabrina, Kyra, Diana, Joi, and Monique  

Sabrina

Thank you all so much. I feel like I have four new friends. I have learned from you. And this has been a wonderful conversation. And the thing that I love about it is that you've made the connection between the self and community. It is not being selfish to take care of yourself, to heal yourself, to be kind to yourself. And these conversations, I'm sure, will resonate with so many who are listening to us and standing with us. More from this conversation can be found on the Our Shared Future website.

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www.oursharedfuture.si.edu/participate/share-your-story         

Sabrina

Finally, we end with a story of possibility. In 2020, the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd ignited national shockwaves and became a visceral moment of racial reflection for our country and also the greater world. But for the community of Ferguson and the surrounding neighborhoods, the fatal shooting of Mike Brown in 2014 has endured as a rallying cry for social and racial justice. As a response, the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity at St. Louis University was established with the mission of eliminating disparities in individual and community wellness. In the next video, Kira Hudson Banks and Amber Johnson, who launched the institute with co-founders Keon Gilbert and Ruqaiijah Yearby, introduce us to their work with the community of St. Louis.

[jazz piano instrumental]

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Amber Johnson, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Institute For Healing Justice And Equity, St. Louis University

Various Shots Around Neighborhood

Man Drawing   

Amber

Racism, gender injustice, environmental harmony and discord, economic injustice.  These are real problems. These are big problems. There are multiple ways to heal. And art and play help us tap into what's necessary.

Kira

St. Louis University had a Big Ideas competition. They wanted a big idea that would tackle a big problem.

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Kira Hudson Banks, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Institute For Healing Justice And Equity, St. Louis University

Amber

When we think about how systemic racism has extracted wellness from our lives, it has caused us to not be whole because racism shows up in every single pocket of life.

Kira

And so Amber and I came together with this idea abut creating a center for healing justice.

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Shots around St. Louis University            

Amber

We said, well, how can we leverage the university's resources to create real change on the ground, that is embedded in community?

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Shots around neighborhood      

Kira

We know that racism has impacted folks in terms of mental, physical health, increased disproportionality of having different diseases, increased rates of depression or anxiety symptoms. That really is racism that impacts wellness. It's how we treat people on the basis of race.

Amber with people at radical forgiveness            

Amber

Radical Forgiveness is a painting and art therapy exercise where we ask people to be present to their biases and how others have been biased towards them. Was it lack of resources? Was it lack of time and attention by another loving human being? Radical forgiveness is about healing from our trauma so that we don't reinforce it and re-perpetuate it. And then radical imagination, which is all about play therapy and visualizing the world we want to live in.

Amber leading students at radical forgiveness    

Amber

Using the tools in this kit, can you imagine the world we want to live in, minus the constraints of the world we currently live in? When we are imagining the world we want to live in, it can be anything we want.

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Woman with students at radical forgiveness      

Woman

So if this is our community, these are learning stations all throughout the community.

Amber leading students at radical forgiveness   

Woman

I think we would like, have waling spaces throughout.

Kira

There are so many ways in which racism can impact us, and we're just starting to understand the depths of it. We are all harmed by systems that treat people disparately on the basis of their skin tone and of their race and of their ethnicity.

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Amber leading students at radical forgiveness   

Amber

What we're asking for is different. We're asking for it to be better, not for it to be amazing. It's complex and it requires a lot of moving parts and gears.

Woman

It provides that environment where the hurt can resolve itself in some way.

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Amber leading students at radical forgiveness   

Amber

Today, someone painted, "When will I be able to start forgiving?" And that's the imagination piece, just allowing yourself the capacity to imagine a life without the pain that you carry every day. 'Cause even if it just opened you up to think about the things that you want to forgive others for or that you want to forgive yourself for, that is a step. That's a big step in the right direction. If we don't heal from our trauma, we repeat it. Hurt people, hurt people. Healed people, heal people.

Kira

When you make those intangible things tangible through the art, through actually creating, through play, it opens up possibilities.

Amber

When we allow ourselves to be curious, we open up the world. Being curious, it creates the conditions for us to say, "I don't know. I don't have the answers. Let's figure this out together."

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Students Holding Signs Of Forgiveness   

Amber walking outside 

Amber

Every activist that I know does that work because of the joy, because of beauty, because they want life to be good. Not because they hate what is, but because they love what could be.

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Women at radical forgiveness   

Woman

If you can't cry, if you have no tears, then you have no joy.

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Amber walking outside 

Amber

We have enough hurt, we have enough angst, we have enough anxiety. It's time for more joy.          

Sabrina

And to close, we leave you with the hope that tonight has seeded a sense of exploration. By considering the elements for true quality life, physical, mental and financial well-being, we can reflect on what we're doing right and what demands improvement. As well, as the patterns that emerge when we observe where the inequities fall time and time again. But I think the pattern can change. Take one story that fascinated you from tonight's panel and seek its full telling. Visit our website, or even better, visit one of the Smithsonian museums or those of our affiliates and partners. More exciting than receiving insight is seeking it out. You can stay connected to the initiative either through our website, social media following the hashtag: #RaceAndOurSharedFuture or in an upcoming forum. We'd like to thank Bank of America for serving as the initiative's founding partner. Additional support has also been provided by Target Corporation, Verizon, and Google Arts and Culture. On behalf of my colleagues at the Smithsonian, I want to thank you for joining the first Our Shared Future: Reckoning With Our Racial Past Forum. Be well.

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www.oursharedfuture.si.edu/participate/share-your-story         

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DM.EXPERIENTIAL