President Donald Trump is an old man wants to be a dictator. Right out of Putin's playbook, he has tried to silence comedians who criticized him, blew up people in boats in the Caribbean without due process, kidnapped the president of Venezuela and his wife in the middle of the night and threatened to take Greenland. He has sicced border patrol agents on U.S. cities, deported people from the country that are in the U.S. legally, controlled what prestigious universities can teach, and removed historical truths from museums. He has mentioned we may never have another election and that he might run for a third term as president, which is illegal under the U.S. Constitution.
As I am writing this post I am watching news reports where ICE agents sent to Minnesota to terrorize citizens have murdered two protesters, exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech. In the book My Grandmothers Hands, the author discussed how racialized trauma lodges itself in the body of historical trauma survivors. As I type, listen to, and witness the killings by ICE agents, I feel tension in my body. It conjures up memories/flashbacks of the 1960's. A decade where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, President John F. Kennedy and thousands of other citizens were killed. A period where the national guard and police along with their dogs were sicced on people who exercised their constitutional rights to protest.
Some say the current attack on Latino/Hispanics and immigrants is not an African American battle. A few weeks ago, ICE agents raided and terrorized citizens in a building with mostly African American residents in Chicago, in the middle of the night. They were supposedly looking for an undocumented Hispanic resident. I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Addictions counselors and recovery coaches that work with African American, Latino/Hispanic and other clients with histories of historical trauma, should check in with them in upcoming sessions to learn how they are being impacted by these traumatic times. There is a relationship between re-traumatization and relapse. In the book Gifted Child, the author says, we can handle any trauma. What we cannot handle is not having the opportunity to talk about the trauma.