Part II: Trauma in the Black Community. Economic Disinvestment and the Trauma It Creates
The former Great Plains Black History Museum on Lake St. in North Omaha. Image credit: Lyndsay Dunn NOISE
By Payton Hogan
PAYTON HOGAN, M.S., IS A LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST AND CONSULTANT RAISED IN NORTH OMAHA.
Let your imagination roam with me for a second.
Imagine walking down the street. To your left you see a row of locally owned businesses, ranging from bars, to food shops and restaurants, a winery and a game store. On your right it looks almost identical with a teen medical center, antique stores, a community center, and maybe a community theater as well. As you imagine this place, how do you feel? Are you perceiving a bustling and thriving area full of innovation and life? How do the kids who live in this area feel? What is their experience of life as they walk down this street? Do they feel safe? Do they feel welcomed and valued? Meditate on this for a second.
Now, imagine walking down another street. On this one, abandoned buildings are boarded up, the locals on the street are talking about “what used to be here back in the day.” On many corners, beautifully decorated murals and altars are dedicated to members of the community who were killed in those spots. Businesses are pretty spread out and areas for gathering such as bars, restaurants, and supermarkets are non-existent. What is your experience as you walk down this street? Do you feel as alive and inspired as you did a few moments before as you traveled down the previous road? Or did things suddenly begin to feel desolate, empty, maybe even lifeless and hopeless. This is the daily experience of the Black community in North Omaha.
I recently sat down with the board president of the Malcolm X Foundation, community activist Leo Louis, to discuss the impact that mass incarceration, gun violence, and death have on the Black community in North Omaha. Surprisingly, Louis thought the traumatic experiences that happen day-to-day are not necessarily registered as traumatic for many of the individuals who live through them. In fact, these experiences are common to households and neighborhoods all throughout the community. It’s as if these things are a normal part of life. Louis described growing up in a household with a father who was enticed by the economic promise of crack cocaine during the 1980’s. More than 800 per 100,000 black men were arrested for cocaine related charges in that era and Louis’ father was among them.
Abandoned buildings and homes in North Omaha and a sidewalk memorial. Photo credit: Kietryn Zychal NOISE
Louis explained that from a young age he felt like he had to “become a man and survive.” He no longer had the security and leadership of his father in the home or the example of a cohesive family unit. He described a phone call he had with his then-incarcerated father when he was in fourth grade. His father stated, “I might be in here for a really long time. I might miss your graduation. But stay with your education and send me some letters.” This was, and is, a reality of many homes in the North Omaha Black community.
In psychoanalyst Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development, an important transition stage between childhood and adulthood occurs between the ages of 12-18 and is known as identity vs. role confusion. In this stage, an adolescent begins to search for an intrinsic and extrinsic sense of self. This stage identifies and, in many cases, solidifies the belief system and values that will shape an individual's life. Many kids who lived through the 1980’s crack cocaine crisis traumatically bonded to one particular identity presented to them.
They became stuck in a survival mentality.
Erickson goes on to state that individuals cannot pass on to further stages of development until healthy development is completed in a given or particular stage. This leads to a stunted personality and sense of self.
The trauma caused by poverty and disenfranchisement often leads to other trauma responses such as resorting to distributing crack cocaine, engaging in gun violence, often leading to death.
Image credit: Lyndsay Dunn NOISE
Psychologist Abraham Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs. In order to progress up the five tiers of human needs toward self-actualization, an individual must have satisfied each of the prior needs. An individual cannot truly begin to place energy into love, affection, and belonging in society if they do not even feel secure and safe. The collective Black community– not just in North Omaha, but in cities across the United States– is just trying to survive. Gun violence and any other sort of violence can seem necessary to someone looking to survive physically and financially. Someone in survival mode does not think about who else is hurting because they can’t. The sole purpose of survival mode is simply to stay alive. If we asked a veteran of our country’s armed forces who served in combat what survival mode was like, I could almost guarantee it would be pretty similar to the Black community’s trauma response.
We need to acknowledge trauma as trauma. We need to understand that seeing death amid desolate buildings does something psychologically to a community. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is prevalent in community members who have suffered and just want to survive. The last thing that should be done to that community is to eliminate resources aimed at helping it.
Thankfully, the North Omaha Recovery Plan, spearheaded by Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney, will inject nearly $300 million into the Black community. It’s a first step toward reversing decades of disinvestment in North Omaha. It may not be the last step required.
Trauma is real. When trauma is not addressed it can only beget more trauma. When kids walk outside and have a place to gather that feels and looks safe, when kids walk down the street and see markers and symbols that remind them of success, innovation, and a healthy economy, when kids feel valued for their culture and community, a community can truly begin to heal.
