What is racial trauma?

Exodus 1:11-14The Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. . . . They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.

Exodus 1:22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River.”

Racial trauma is trauma that happens because of someone’s connection to a particular race, such as the trauma the people of Israel experienced in Egypt. Trauma can result from a single event, such as losing a child. Trauma can also come from repeated events, such as being treated as inferior and overworked day after day. Such traumas affect each person who experiences them in different ways, and those traumas can create wounds that are passed on for generations.

Exodus 14:12“Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”

Numbers 14:3-4“Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

Trauma can warp our perceptions related to who we are. Sometimes, we put ourselves in situations where that trauma can continue because it feels natural and familiar to us. After the people of Israel were freed from slavery, they didn’t know how to live in their freedom. They doubted that they could become anything different, even after God had led them safely out of Egypt. Racial trauma can become paralyzing, and unhealthy racial stereotypes become a part of one’s identity. This is called “internalized racism.”

Luke 13:1About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple.

Acts 1:6When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

Racial trauma can come from our own personal experience, but it can also come vicariously through the trauma of others. Trauma can be triggered, such as by watching a video or hearing someone else’s story. A trigger prompts mental and emotional reactions related to a trauma. Any trauma, including racial trauma, can be passed across generations. Even something that happened decades or centuries earlier can be deeply ingrained in a current generation’s psyche.

Matthew 10:2-4Here are the names of the twelve apostles: . . . Matthew (the tax collector) . . . Simon (the zealot).

Everyone’s trauma, including racial trauma, is unique and experienced in different ways. Matthew’s response to the oppression of the Romans was to join them in oppressing his own people in order to gain wealth and security. Simon, in contrast, became a zealot—a fierce Jewish nationalist who resorted to violence to oppose Roman rule. When they met Jesus, both Matthew and Simon radically rethought how they had been responding to their people’s trauma.