Addressing Racism
We believe that as psychoanalysts our shared values include tolerance of difference, seeking emotional truth, empathy and listening, understanding the role of individual and collective trauma, diversity in every sense of the word, and fundamental human equality.
On August 21, 2020, The Dorothy Holmes Commission on Racial Equality (CO-REAP) was established with the mission of investigating systemic racism and its underlying determinants embedded within APsA and psychoanalysis, and to offer remedies for all aspects of identified racism. The Commission’s task is to identify and propose actions to remedy apparent and implicit manifestations of structural racism that may reside within APsA, in its member institutes, and in our interactions with the wider psychoanalytic world and with the public in general.
Learn more about the Holmes Commission.
Recent press statements related to deadly incidents of racism:
- APsA Decries the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery
- APsA Statement on Racism
- Racism Needs to Be Heard and Addressed
- APsA Affirms That Black Trans Lives Matter
- Othering is a Public Health Crisis
Further Resources for Addressing Racism
We have collected the following resources from our Department of Psychoanalytic Education’s Diversities Section, the Coalition for Clinical Social Work, APsA members and staff. These resources will be updated periodically to help inform and guide anti-racism efforts by the psychoanalytic community. This is by no means an exhaustive list and inclusion does not imply formal endorsement by APsA. Readers will find a variety of views and approaches and are welcome to submit additional resources to info@apsa.org
ACT
There are lots of ways to act right now, including attending protests yourself or supporting those who are, getting more involved in politics and election work, and committing to doing your own work around racism and structural racism. You can also consider funding a candidates’ scholarship at your home institute to support training for African American and/or other underrepresented persons. Donate time or money in support of free or low fee treatment for people of color.
5 Ways White People Can Take
Ways You Can Stand In Solidarity with the Black Community
Support Black-Owned Businesses
Participate in Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Week (Juneteenth) 6/19-6/25
Protest
How to Protest Safely During Covid-19
ACLU – Know Your Rights
Petitions:
No Cop Unions – Expel Police Unions from the AFL-CIO
Take Action To Stand-up for Racial Justice
DONATE
Bail Funds
The Bail Project
National Bail Out
Black LGBTQ+ Support
Emergency Release Fund
Black Trans Protesters Emergency Fund
(donate through PayPal or Cash App)
Homeless Black Trans Women Fund
Solutions Not Punishment
Frontlines Organizations
Black Teacher Project
Black Visions Collective
Color of Change
Communities Against Police Brutality
Community Justice Exchange To make a localized contribution to a Bail Fund in your state
Restore Justice
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Black Community
Mutual Aid Hub
Reclaim the Block
JOIN
Many organizations are pushing legislation, organizing phone banks, and election work around police reform. Make a commitment to get involved, at least until November.
The Antiracist Research & Policy Center
https://twitter.com/AntiracismCtr
https://www.instagram.com/antiracismctr/
Audre Lorde Project
Black Lives Matter
Black Women’s Blueprint
Black Voters Matter
Equal Justice Initiative
Force Multiplier
Showing Up for Racial Justice
READ
Psychoanalytic Readings
The following is a list of psychoanalytic readings relevant to current national events regarding race. For a more thorough collection of readings on the diversities please go to the following: APsA DPE Diversities Resources Database Webpage(Beta)
The American Psychoanalyst (Vols. 50(3), 50(4), 51(1)), three-issue series on race, edited by Michael Slevin and Beverly Stoute, with articles by Anton Hart, Dorothy Holmes, Annie Lee Jones, Michael Moskowitz, Richard Reichbart, Beverly Stoute, Warren Spielberg, Kirkland Vaughans
A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology by Daniel Gaztambide
A Relational Encounter with Race by Melanie Suchet
The African American Experience: Psychoanalytic Perspectives by Salman Akhtar
The Anatomy of Prejudices by Elizabeth Young-Breuhl
Vaughans, Kirkland, (2014), “Chapter 32. Disavowed Fragments of the Intergenerational Trauma,” In Vaughans, K. and W. Spielberg, eds. The Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents, Praeger: California.
The Discriminatory Gesture: A psychoanalytic consideration of posttraumatic reactions to incidents of racism, by Anton Hart
Free Speech, Love Speech, Hate Speech, and Neutrality: In and Out of the Consulting Room by Donald Moss
Powell, D. R. (July 2020). From the Sunken Place to the Shitty Pace: The Film Get Out, Psychic Emancipation and Modern Race Relations from a Psychodynamic Clinical Perspective. Psychoanalytic Quarterly
Guards at the Gate: Race, Resistance, and Psychic Reality by Forrest Hamer
“I Knew My Mind Could Take Me Anywhere,”: Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Dignity of African Americans Living in A Racist Society Chapter by Dorothy Holmes, Dignity Matters
Mapping Racism by Donald Moss
Our Country ‘tis of We and Them: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Our Fractured American Identity by Dorothy Holmes
Race, African Americans, and Psychoanalysis: Collective Silence in the Therapeutic Situation by Dionne Powell
Race And Psychoanalysis: Aboriginal Populations in the Mind by Celia Brickman
Race and Transference in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis by Dorothy Holmes
Race, Self Disclosure, and “Forbidden Talk”: Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary Clinical Practice by Kimberlyn Leary
Racism: Processes of Detachment Dehumanization and Hate by Farhad Dalal
Racist states of mind: Understanding the perversion of curiosity and concern by Narendra Kevel
Racial Socialization and Thwarted Mentalization: Psychoanalytic Reflections from the Lived Experience of James Baldwin’s America by Beverly Stout
Reality Matters: The shadow of trauma on African American subjectivity by Janice Gump
Reflections on White Racism by Joel Koval
Surviving hate and being hated: some personal thoughts about racism from a psychoanalytic perspective by Kathleen Pogue White
Unraveling Whiteness. Psychoanalytic Dialogues by Melanie Suchet
Whiteness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly by Neal Altman
White racism: Its origins, institutions and the implications for professional practice in mental health by H.F. Butts
The wrecking effects of race and class by Dorothy Holmes
Other Readings:
Articles / Op-EDs
“America, This Is Your Chance” by Michelle Alexander
George Floyd’s Death Is A Failure of Generations of Leadership – NY Times
Blogs
We Are In A Moment of Collective Grief. But there are glimmers of hope.
Racism Experienced in Childhood Lasts A Lifetime by Sue Kolod
The Twin Pandemics of Racism and COVID-19 by Annie Lee Jones
Books
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
We Want To Do More Than Survive Bettina L. Love
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Papers
Applying White Followership to Racial Justice Organizing (Villalobos, 2015)
Toward a Psychological Framework of Radical Healing in Communities of Color
(French, Lewis, Mosley, Adames, Chavez-Dueñas, Chen, & Neville, 2020)
Revolutionary Solidarity: A Critical Reader for Accomplices (essays from Ferguson)
Collective Resource Sites
Additional Anti-Racism Resources
Black Lives Matter Translated
A crowd-sourced repository with resources in 23 languages with an emphasis on conversations within immigrant communities and families about Black Lives Matter and systemic racism
NY Times Anti-racism Reading List
LISTEN/WATCH
Following are several films/documentaries, podcasts and videoscasts.
Films
Abolition, COVID-19 & Decarceration
(Ruth Gillmore)
“Black Psychoanalysts Speak”
(through PEP-Web subscription or purchase of 24-hour video pass)
Black Lives Matter on “What Matters”
(Videocasts)
Just Mercy
(free to stream for the month of June)
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
The 13th
When They See Us
(Netflix)
Podcasts:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Racism in America – supported by the Department of Psychoanalytic Education at APsA
About Race Podcast
The Diversity Gap Podcast
Kimberle Crenshaw
(intersectionality podcast)
Native women about experiences of Indigenous People
NPR podcast, Codeswitch
NYT 1619
Shadow Proof / Beyond Prisons
Whites for Racial Justice
(List of race/racism related podcasts)
SAY THEIR NAMES
Finally, please read and feel “A Prayer for America” (in italics below) shared by Carnella Gordon-Brown, LCSW. Winnicott said that we have to be able to feel experience “in our bones”. For those of you who are not living through this, we encourage you to feel this in your bones. For those of you who are, we are committed to bearing this with you.
Black and Unarmed and Killed by the Police…an incomplete list…This is America
Beloved William Green, 1/27/20 (Prince George’s County MD, age unknown)
Say His Name
Beloved Samuel David Mallard, 1/16/20 (Cobb County GA, 19 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved George Floyd, 5/25/20 (Minneapolis MN, 46 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Ahmaud Arberry, 5/12/20 (Brunswick GA, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Sean Reed, 5/6/20 (Indianapolis IN, 21 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Steven Demarco Taylor, 4/18/20 (San Leandro CA, 33 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Breonna Taylor, 3/13/20 (Louisville KY, 26 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Jamee Johnson, 12/14/19 (Jacksonville FL, 22 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Michael Dean, 12/3/19 (Temple TX, 28 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Ariane McCree, 11/23/19 (Chester SC, 28 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, 10/12/19 (Fort Worth TX, 28 years old)
Say her Name
Beloved Miles Hall, 6/2/19 (San Francisco CA, 23 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Juston Landry, 1/11/19 (Lake Charles LA, 26 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Emantic “E.J.” Bradford, 11/22/18 (21 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Shem Botham Jean, 9/5/18 (Dallas TX, 26 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Antwon Rose, 6/19/18 (Pittsburgh PA, 17 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Dedorah Danner, 10/18/16 (Bronx NY, 66 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Alfred Olango, 9/27/16 (El Cajon CA, 38 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Keith Lamont Scott, 9/20/16 (Charleston NC, 43 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Terence Crutcher, 9/16/16 (Tulsa OK, 40 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Korryn Gaines, 8/1/16 (Randallstown MD, 23 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Paul O’Neal, 7/28/16 (Chicago IL, 18 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Philando Castile, 7/20/16 (Falcon Heights MN, 32 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Alton Sterling, 7/5/16 (Baton Rouge LA, 37 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Jamar Clark, 11/15/15 (Minneapolis MN, 24 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Jeremy McDole, 9/23/15 (Wilmington DE, 28 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Samuel DuBose, 7/19/15 (Cincinnati OH, 43 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Sandra Bland, 7/13/15 (Waller County TX, 28 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved William Chapman, 4/22/15 (Portsmouth VA, 18 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Freddie Gray, 4/12/15-4/19/15 (Baltimore MD, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Walter Scott, 4/4/15 (North Charleston SC, 50 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Eric Harris, 4/2/15 (Tulsa OK, 44 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Phillip White, 3/31/15 (Vineland NJ, 32 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Meagan Hockaday, 3/28/15 (Oxnard CA 26 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Tony Robinson, 3/6/15 (Madison WI, 19 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Jerame Reid, 12/30/14 (Bridgeton NJ, 36 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Rumain Brisbon, 12/2/14 (Phoenix AX, 34 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Tamir Rice, 11/22/14 (Cleveland OH, 12 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Akai Gurley, 11/20/14 (Brooklyn NY, 28 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Tanisha Anderson, 11/13/14 (Cleveland OH, 37 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Kajieme Powell, 8/19/14 (St. Louis MO, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Ezell Ford, 8/12/14 (Florence CA, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Michael Brown, 8/9/14 (Ferguson MO, 18 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved John Crawford III, 8/5/14 (Beavercreek OH, 22 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Tyree Woodson, 8/3/14 (Baltimore MD, 38 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Eric Garner, 7/17/14 (New York NY, 43 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Dontre Hamilton, 4/30/14 (Milwaukee WI, 31 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Victor White III, 3/22/14 (Iberia Parish LA, 22 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Yvette Smith, 2/16/14 (Bastrop TX, 47 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved McKenzie Cochran, 1/28/14 (Southfield MI, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Jordan Baker, 1/16/14 (Houston TX, 26 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Andy Lopez, 10/22/13 (Santa Rosa CA, 13 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Terrance Franklin, 5/10/13 (Minneapolis MN, 22 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Miriam Carey, 10/3/13 (Washington DC, 34 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Jonathan Ferrell, 9/14/13 (Bradfield Farms NC, 24 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Eugene Jackson Jr, 7/26/13 (Austin TX, 32 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Deion Fludd, 5/5/13 (New York NY, 17 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Kimani Gray, 3/9/13 (New York, 16 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Johnnie Kamahi Warren, 12/10/12 (Dotham, AL, 43 years old)
Say His Name
Malissa Williams, 11/29/12 (Cleveland OH, 30 years old)
Say His Name
Timothy Russell, 11/29/12 (Cleveland OH, 43 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Rekia Boyd, 3/21/12 (Chicago IL, 22 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Reynaldo Cuevas, 9/7/12 (New York NY, 20 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Chavis Carter, 7/29/12 (Jonesboro AR, 21 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Kendrec McDade, 3/24/12 (Pasadena Ca, 19 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Shereese Francis, 3/15/12 (New York NY, 30 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Wendell Allen, 3/7/12 (New Orleans LA, 20 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Nehemiah Dillard, 3/5/12 (Gainesville FL, 29 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Dante Price, 3/1/12 (Dayton OH, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Sgt Manuel Loggins Jr, 2/7/12 (Orange County CA, 31 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Ramarley Graham, 2/2/12 (New York NY, 18 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Kenneth Chamberlain, 11/19/11 (White Plains NY, 68 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Kenneth Harding, 7/16/11 (San Francisco CA, 19 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Raheim Brown, 1/22/11 (Oakland CA, 20 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Derrick Jones, 11/8/10 (Oakland CA, 37 years old)
Say His Name
Aiyana Jones, 5/16/10 (Detroit MI, 7 years old)
Say Her Name
Beloved Steven Eugene Washington, 3/20/10 (Los Angeles CA, 27 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Aaron Campbell, 1/29/10 (Portland OR, 25 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Oscar Grant, 1/1/09 (Oakland CA, 22 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved DeAunta Terrel Farrow, 7/22/7 (West Memphis AR, 12 years old)
Say His Name
Beloved Sean Bell, 11/25/06 (New York NY, 23 years old)
Say His Name
This is the list that I have researched. It is not exhaustive. Here is the first unarmed Black man that I knew to have been murdered by the police:
