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Since Katrina, I have worked with hurricane survivors and have trained mental health providers treating the victims of this catastrophic event. I have traveled to New Orleans and other cities in Louisiana and Mississippi and have been profoundly affected by the destruction that I witnessed as well as the psychological trauma experienced by so many African Americans. Victims confronted multiple levels of trauma: the hurricane itself; the displacement of thousands when the levees broke; the desperation of waiting for help that was long overdue— whether on rooftops or in unendurable conditions in the Superdome or the Convention Center, with no food or water for days. Many witnessed death and destruction, including bloated dead bodies floating in the floodwaters. As I have traveled throughout this country and have spoken to African American survivors of Katrina, they express a profound sense of sadness and loss that Linda Burton and colleagues have described as a deep and painful yearning and psychological longing for their home.1 Even those who have remained in or returned to their city have been overwhelmed by the surreal experience of viewing the destruction and devastation that is still everywhere in the Lower Ninth Ward and other historically black communities. This chapter examines the multiple dimensions of the psychological trauma produced by Hurricane Katrina—both for the victims of the storm and for a broader African American community. To understand the ways in which trauma was produced, we must understand two things. First is how the trauma fed on historically created vulnerabilities. As others have demonstrated in this volume, blacks faced greater likelihood of experiencing various hardships associated with the disaster and the aftermath owing to their preexisting economic and social vulnerabilities. Second, a fairly consistent message emerged from events and media coverage of the storm: that black Americans were not full citizens of America. Enshrined in law for much of American history and 78 7 VVVVVVVVVVV Racism, Trauma, and Resilience The Psychological Impact of Katrina NANCY BOYD-FRANKLIN RACISM, TRAUMA, AND RESILIENCE 79 recapitulated during Katrina, this message became a prominent feature of the hurricane. Throughout American history, blacks have shown resilience in adapting to this reality by creating alternative support systems (homes, churches, and community institutions). Hurricane Katrina swept many of these supports away and exposed the fragility of worth and belonging that has long defined the African American experience. This chapter examines the psychological impact, this history, and the ongoing story of African American resilience. In a world that is often a very dangerous place for black people, “home” becomes a refuge, or as bell hooks (and Evie Shockley, in this volume) has described it, as a safe place where African Americans could “be affirmed in our minds and hearts despite poverty, hardship, and deprivation, where we could restore to ourselves the dignity denied us on the outside in the public world.”2 In this context, home is not just a house; it is a communal web of familiarity, safety, and love that protected many victims of Katrina for many generations. It was this profound sense of “home” or “homeplace” that many African Americans have lost in the aftermath of the storm.3 Media commentators were largely unaware of the cultural significance of home or homeplace to many African American residents. This home may have been passed down through generations and the only possession of value that they had in the world. For many, this was not just the loss of their family home, but their communities, their church homes, and the close, communal network of people who made up their blood and nonblood “families.”4 Trauma faced by so many was a complex, overdetermined experience that included (1) the hurricane-related trauma of the physical dislocation and loss of life and property and (2) the effects of racism and classism in the post-Katrina response that was visible to far more observers than merely the victims. As an African American woman and a psychologist, even as I watched in horror in August 2005 as television coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina revealed thousands of black people being treated with the most extreme forms of disrespect and racism, I saw these events as part of a larger story of race and trauma. The message of the coverage was also striking for what it revealed about belonging, blame, and deservingness: who belongs to America, who is to blame for racial inequality, and who deserves to be rescued. Given this reality, the ensuing and...

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