PSU Magazine Fall 2004

therapeutic intervention during or after the advent of slavery would suggest that PTSD among slaves most likely resulted but went untreated. On September 11, 2001 , Americans became more familiar wi.th PTSD. Lots of citizens were reported to be suffer– ing from the disorder as a result of wit– nessing the destruction of the World Trade Towers and those trapped inside. With what is known about trauma, is it probable that significant numbers of African slaves experienced a suffi– cient amount of trauma to warrant a diagnosis of PTSD? The following are a list of some of the conditions that gi.ve rise Lo mental and/or emotional traumas which justify the diagnosis of PTSD and which are consistent with the slave experience: ♦ A serious threat or harm to one's life or physical integrity; A threat or harm to one's children, spouse, or close relative; Sudden destruction of one's home or community; Seeing another person injured or killed as a result of an accident or physical violence; Learning about a setious threat to a relative or a close friend kidnapped , tortured, or killed; Experiencing intense fear, terror, and helplessness; The stressor and disorder is consid– ered to be more serious and will last longer when the stressor is of human design. 10 PSU MAGAZlNE FALL 2004 lL makes sense to me and other theorists that Africans, who were slaves for nearly two and a half centuries and thus labeled as sub-human and treated as chattel, could not possibly emerge unscathed. PISS theory takes into account the development of survival adaptations necessary for enduring a hostile slave environment and exam– ines how these adaptations, both positive and negative, continue to be reflected in the behaviors of African Americans today. l:e question remains, how are such effects of trauma transmitted through generations? The answer is quite straightforward, through the family, the community, and society. How do we learn to raise our children? Almost entirely through our own experience of being raised. Most of us learn how to raise our children to a large degree based upon how we ourselves were raised. Of course there are things our parents di.cl that we decide we'll do dif– ferently, but for the most part parent– ing is one of myriad skills that are passed down generation to generation. Today we know that i.f a child has an abusive parent, the likelihood that he or she will grow to be abusive and/or abused i.s greater than if that child came from a safe and supportive home. We know that i.f a child comes from a violent home, there is a greater likelihood the child will grow to be violent. We know that if a child comes from a home in which one or both parents went to college, there i.s a greater likelihood that child will go to college. We know that our children receive most of their attitudes, life ski.Us, and approaches to life from their parents. We also know that most of these are learned by the time they are five or six years old. I recall overhearing a conversation between black parents and white par– ents at a school meeting. Their children were classmates and in Little League together. The black mother commented on the achievements of the white parents' child saying, "Your son is really coming along." The white parents responded with pride, "Thank you. He is quite the man. He's in the talented and gifted program here at the school, and he's an excellent player on the Little League team. In fact, he has really excelled in school as well as sports this year. He's just like his father." The white parents went on for some time before they remembered the gifts and talents of the black parents' child. The white couple praised his numer– ous accomplishments, saying, "Your son is also doing quite well. I hear . But before they could complete the compliment, the black parents, who were also proud of their son said, "Oh , he's such a mess at home. Sometimes we could just strangle him. " Roll the scene back a few hundred years to a slave master walking through the fields and coming upon a slave family. The slave master remarks, "Well now, that Johnny of yours is really coming along." The slave par– ents, terrified that the slave master may see qualities in thei.r son or daughter that could merit sale or rape, say, "No si.r, he ai.n't worth nothing. He can't work. Hes feeble and shiftless." The denigrating statements are an effort to dissuade the slave master from molesting or selling the children, and of course in understanding their motives, no one would fault them. Thi.s behavior was nothing special. After all , slave mothers and fathers had been belittling thei.r children i.n an effort to protect them for a couple of hundred years. l:e theory of PISS suggests there could be a connection between the behavior of the slave family and that of the modern day school parents. What originally began as an appropri– ate adaptation to an oppressive and danger-filled environment was subse– quently transmitted down through generations. While on the surface seemingly harmless, such behavior serves to both humiliate and injure the young black children of today who can't understand why thei.r parents speak so poorly of them. All too often these children actually begi.n to believe the demeaning criticisms. Furthermore these cri.tici.sms create feelings of being disrespected by the very people who ·