I recently made a social media faux pas. I was so incensed to read a damning comment about a Congressman, so I fired off a reply. My mistake? I didn’t investigate the context for which the comment was intended. Perhaps it was a justifiable beef, and I was overreacting without understanding the situation.
We live in a hypersensitized environment. I am not immune to overreact to deliberate and egregious attacks on the rule of law and attacks on systems that have evolved to protect those that are most vulnerable, especially diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The lawmaker in question is Black. I was incensed that a man who has served with distinction and mounted untold hurdles to achieve his role in public service was singled out for ridicule. One could argue that others (folks of all ethnicities) have also been called out but lately there has been a disproportionate number of Black leaders who have been cast to the side. Black military leaders have been dismissed.1 (Qualified women have also been dismissed.)2
The current administration has purposely demeaned and belittled folks of color in excess numbers. They imply that such folks no longer suffer from any form or forms of discrimination. Their argument is that the civil rights era is over, all of our racial injustice issues have been resolved, there are no voting inequities, and it is time to stop worrying about what happened in the past. They would tell us that all of the issues that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been corrected.3,4 That is so wrong and so harmful to a country that prides itself to be a democracy. As Doris Kearns Goodwin notes, Abraham Lincoln at age 28 was troubled by “the mood of the country, a tendency to substitute passion for judgment, to engage in mob action in disregard of laws.”4 When substituting passion for judgment, the environment is fertile for a dictator and a perversion of the rule of law that negatively affects our democracy.
In response to the argument that the civil rights movement is over, I argue that the trauma persists and bring your attention to a recent article. Drs. Subica and Link, in the journal Social Science and Medicine, posit that cultural trauma is a fundamental cause of existing health disparities.5 Cultural trauma is defined as “an overwhelming and often ongoing physical and psychological assault or stressor perpetuated by an oppressive dominant group on the culture of a group of people sharing a specific shared identity/affiliation (e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, religion).” They further suggest that cultural trauma “involves an assault by a dominant group on an individual’s culture—through force, threats of force, or oppressive policies—for the purposes of damaging, devaluing, or destroying that culture to advance the dominant group’s interests.” The telltale signs of past cultural trauma are still present today and, in my estimation, creeping back into our society in an insidious way via threats, fear and policies. And who suffers the most? Our children.
How easy it is to forget or whitewash our past leading to the current situation. We ignore the disparities right in front of us and assume that they are related to lack of initiative. We forgot how redlining set the stage for how generations to come will suffer and struggle to overcome their repression.6 Welfare was initially an act of white privilege back in the 1930s but now any such consideration for assistance is viewed with disdain.7 Perspectives are altered and often skew one’s judgement when they are internalized as the truth.8
Most upsetting to me is the acceptance of lies that continue to place some above others and seek to ostracize others.9,10 Lies will marginalize far too many folks and pit citizens against each other. Lies tear at the fabric of our society when they are accepted. The fact that the lie about the 2020 election persists and has led to the pardoning of those guilty of assaulting our Capitol is frightening on the surface and frightening in its depth of depravity. Oklahoma has now codified education to continue that lie.11
In response to my query above (Was I wrong?), perhaps I was guilty of being too quick with a retort, but I felt that I needed to stand up for those who others too easily cast aside. It is far too easy to assume that such a complaint is motivated by race because it actually is so motivated all too frequently in today’s environment.
Having lived through the civil rights era and seen progress, I am dismayed at our current state of affairs. I think that I am guilty “in style” (being too quick to criticize) but not wrong in substance. I will continue to fight against discrimination and attempts to demonize diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that make us stronger, not weaker. Meritocracy programs in their current forms are thinly veiled moves to advance a heinous agenda.12 Racism does persist,13 and I will continue to speak out, even if it is perhaps lacking style. Our children deserve it.
- https://diplomatictimes.net/2025/02/22/trump-fires-top-ranking-black-military-general-cq-brown-in-war-on-diversity/
- https://www.globaldefensecorp.com/2025/02/24/president-trump-fired-african-american-and-female-officers-from-army-navy-and-air-force/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/civil-rights-struggles-and-2020-election-denials/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/is-history-the-path-forward/
- Subica AM, Link BG: Cultural trauma as a fundamental cause of health disparities. Social Science and Medicine 292(2022)114574. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114574)
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/remember-redlining/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/welfare-is-not-a-dirty-word/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/perspectives/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/lies-and-myths-affecting-childrens-lives/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/the-cost-of-lies-2/
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/22/oklahoma-schools-teach-2020-election-big-lie-trump/83731606007/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/children-are-not-3-5ths/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/does-racism-still-exist-in-america/