Black Lives Matter: Time for Change
This post is not meant to be instructive because not everyone is coming from the same psychological, physical, social or spiritual place, or experience regarding the recent tragic events. I am saddened and appalled by the recent brutal deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others, which are shedding light on the institutionalized racism that began with the birth of this country. I want to share some materials that are helping my individual growth and to better understand the root of the incomprehensible violence propagated against black people by law enforcement and others.
As a physician, I took the oath, “First do no harm.” And right now, I believe that as a human being and as a psychiatrist, staying silent is doing harm. I see some of my professional organizations grappling with obvious social injustice and with just how much to speak out. I agree with the American Psychiatric Association’s statement.
As a forensic psychiatrist, I witness the social injustice built into our criminal justice system. I try to do my part by helping the court better understand mental illness when I see it. But this is just a very minor piece of a larger system that is very often simply unfair.
When someone comes into a psychiatrist’s office, we ask “What brings you here today?” in order to try to assess the issue and where they are currently at psychologically and emotionally. Similarly, when someone with an alcohol problem takes the first step in a 12-step program, they are acknowledging the problem. My hope is that by acknowledging the systemic racism built into our criminal justice and law enforcement systems both on a global and social level, that it is the first step in a long journey toward healing.
I am encouraged that people all over the world - and particularly in the U.S. - are taking that critical first step of acknowledging institutionalized racism, police brutality, and social injustice. This is so important. James Baldwin said it eloquently in Raoul Peck’s enlightening documentary, I Am Not Your Negro: “Not everything that is faced can be changed … but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Here are a few additional resources I’ve found helpful on my own journey that may be helpful to you as well.
The Netflix documentary 13TH from 2016 was recently highlighted again on Netflix and does an excellent job laying out the history and current situation of how the thirteenth amendment may have abolished slavery, but how mass incarceration has become the modern-day version of it. Oprah’s conversation with the creator of 13TH, Ava DuVernay, is also worth watching.
Another documentary film, Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, that I originally saw at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2018 has also impacted my understanding of racial inequality and needless police brutality.
My colleague, Dr. Lauren Stossel, recently wrote a moving and illuminating piece in Lancet about her experience treating one of her patients at Rikers. Her powerful words are very much in line with my experience of evaluating defendants housed on Riker’s Island at the request of their attorneys.
The work of Angel Kyodo Williams has also been extremely valuable to me. A recent 10 Percent Happier Podcast (I mentioned the 10 Percent Happier App in my Meditation post) with Lama Rod Owens called An Uncomfortable (but Meaningful) Conversation about Race has also been helpful to me. In the conversation, Lama Rod Owens stresses the importance of understanding where you are at as an individual and trying not to over intellectualize the problem but instead stay with a shared, felt experience (when possible) during this powerful time of social change.
While these and other resources have broadened my understanding of racism and social injustice, I invite you to find materials that speak to you personally. We are all on this journey at different points. The key is to recognize where we are at and to continue on the path toward change.