WELCOME: PODCAST INTRODUCTION
To ensure a thorough and sound understanding of the exhibit this Omeka site is accompanied by an attatched podcast titled, The Good Psyche, that allows the audience to have a vast and amplified interpretation of how racial discrimination and trauma effects the mental health of Black Americans. The implementation of this spoken commentary will help stimulate a more personalized connection of this topic and its impact on cultural change today through the lens of a cultural-psychological approach on racism.
A Cultural-Psychological Approach to Racism:
In Salter et al.'s 2017 empirical article, "Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective", the researchers emphasize that the term racism is used interchangebaly with the phrase 'individual prejudice', however, they in fact accentuate that racism is also institutionalized. They allude to this as systemic racism where the ideologies and belief systems fixed amongst cultural groups curate social normalcy. This in turn is propogated by stereotypes that underlie discrimination. Salter et al. stresses that racialized thinking is reflective in our everyday realities which produces racial inequalities and disparities prevalent in many areas such as our criminal justice system as well as health care. Using a cultural-psychological approach to racism the investigators of this study uses this alternative perspective to change the idealized superior v. inferior racial domination structure amongst societal minds and instead relays on how we can divulge away from ways of thinkings and actions that causes injustice and individual biases.
In parallel to Salter et al.'s 2017 piece, this podcast is intended to showcase the everday realities of minorities specifically how Black Americans who experience racial discrimination are subjugated to the adversities of poor mental health from experiences of grave racial trauma forcing us to question if racial discrimination/prejudice will ever change within our society even in the next 5-10 or so years.
The following predictions will be discussed in the podcast and supported by empirical evidence based on cultural-psychological constructs:
1.Mortality rates of black males by police force will continue to increase until policy changes within law enforcement as well as extensive and appropiate training are enacted reducing police bias and eventually resulting in a decline of racial profiling, stop and frisks of minorities, and more significantly fatalities among black males. This will hopefully eventually increase their lifetime expectancy.
2. Racial discrimination will exist as long as history will continues to rhyme with its past which will as a result due to the constant exposure of trauma lead to a continuous increase in mental health issues amongst African Americans: PTSD, anxiety, etc.
3. Racial discrimination will always be a recurring preeminent issue until provisions of the justice system ensure and pursue systemic equality.