Interview: Ethnic and Racial Conversations- 5 Things To Watch For
How do you feel when you are engaged in or observe someone else being engaged in a conversation about race?
Do you find yourself feeling uncomfortable? Afraid? Uncertain?
If so, you are not alone.
In this article, I share my recent interview/work in recognition of Ethnic Minority Mental Health Awareness Month including my view of cultural inter-generational trauma.
Understanding the cultural implications of inter-generational trauma takes a lot of study and research. Why? Because inter-generational trauma throughout one’s heritage will need to be examined from an objective, scientific point of view. Culture, race, and ethnicity can be very sticky and emotions are often intense during such conversations.
I had such a conversation with researcher, entrepreneur, and cultural warrior Philippe SHOCK Matthews on his Youtube channel July 20, 2018. The conversation focused a lot on the intense historical challenges, racial biases, and racially motivated behaviors that peoples of ALL cultures have had to live through.
The suffering, the pain, the lack of validation, and the feelings of being unheard have haunted many cultures for decades.
Cultural Intergenerational Trauma
In this video, I discuss inter-generational trauma that has affected generations of people of color for centuries. We’re talking about African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics (Latinas/Latinos), Asians, and other ethnic groups feeling marginalized, misunderstood, and disenfranchised. All in recognition of Ethnic Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.
The conversations had before, during, and long after the interview truly touched me. I didn’t realize the great need for conversation around this subject. I noticed that there are things we must be careful not to do when discussing this emotionally and psychologically sensitive topic. These things include but are not limited to:
- Prejudging and misjudging the general topic
- Failing to look at a commenter’s character, values, and own experience
- Closing our mind and heart to another’s perspective
- Ignoring the truth to protect one’s ego, pride, or belief system
- Not talking about it at all
It’s up to us to “prevent” the continuation of the above defense mechanism. It’s a taboo topic. I certainly can’t ignore that! But it’s a taboo topic that should no longer be taboo. We’re here to change this.
As always, I wish you well
