2023 Black History Month Spotlight: Undoing Racial Harms

By Ameerah McCoy, MSW, LSW

Black History Month is known as the 28-day celebration of African Americans’ global contributions. Yet, in the Black community, we take time to acknowledge and reflect on our ancestors’ struggles and present-day achievements and envision what more we can do to advance and empower our community. Depending on who you ask and where you are located, advancement for Black people can mean many things. If you speak to the Black community in Flint, Michigan, advancement may mean fixing the water crisis so their community can live healthier lives. In some southern states, empowerment may mean ending voter suppression tactics. If you ask the Legislative Black Caucus in New Jersey, advancement and empowerment mean reparations.

Introduced in 2019 by former Senator Ronald Rice and Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, A938/ S386 provides the blueprint for how New Jersey needs to rectify its role in perpetuating slavery and institutional racism far after the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation. Although New Jersey was a divided state, it was the last to abolish slavery and consent to the 13 th Amendment to the United States Constitution and worked slowly to phase out the presence of slavery. 1,2 However, in 2008, New Jersey was the first of the Northern free states to issue a public apology for its role in slavery and subsequent discriminatory practices. Nonetheless, 15 years after the apology, thousands of descendants of enslaved Black people do not find themselves in a better socioeconomic status than their 2 nd great-grandparents. The distinction between the haves and the have-nots is still disturbingly clear throughout the state.

Consequently, bill A938 provides the right direction for advancement and empowerment for Black communities in the Garden State. This legislation goes beyond obtaining restitution. This bill seeks to create a Reparations Task Force comprised of professionals from different areas of study in relation to Black people and minority communities. The task force will study New Jersey’s role in upholding slavery and its effects of oppression. The issues being examined include voter disenfranchisement, the juvenile justice system, housing discrimination, education, and the wealth gap. Their work will involve hosting public forums and providing reports. The task force will conclude with a final report on their findings and recommendations for the Governor.

It would seem like a no-brainer to support legislation that attempts to understand and improve the circumstances of a marginalized group. However, the reluctance to make this bill a priority indicates why the Black community needs a task force to guide lawmakers on addressing racially sensitive issues. But outside the task force, which will disband at the conclusion of their final report, who else is there outside of the Black community to show support and help advocate? Bill A938 powerfully states: “It is in the interest of the State and of the people of New Jersey for the government to initiate and foster methods of improving knowledge and understanding between African Americans and other ethnic groups in New Jersey and to adopt and initiate means to foster communication and dialogue, for the purpose of achieving truth, transformation, and reparation.”

In true fashion, the social work community can be an ally in bringing more awareness to how a reparations task force is a step toward generational healing and reconciliation. In 2008, former Assemblyman Michael Carroll stated, “there are no more victims [slaves] left. The last slave died… in 1979…" 3 Although there are no living slaves in the state, the trauma caused by that brutality is still felt among African descendants. Moreover, epigenetics scientifically explains how our ancestors’ environment and behavior alter our genes and makeup our DNA. 4 Africans that were uprooted from their homeland and sold throughout the United States underwent a dramatic social and cultural genetic impact. 5

Today, we see these genetic influences through Post Traumatic Slave Disorder (PTSD). 6 Healthwise, Black women are three times more likely to die from childbirth than their white counterparts, either due to difficulties from pregnancy or childbirth— commonly due to medical professionals denying the existence of complications and myths of “inferior health” among Black people. 7 Culturally, the breakdown of the Black family derives from chattel slavery practices. 8 Not to mention, slavery loopholes and anti-Black policies and practices resulted in the migration of Black men and women from the cotton field to the prison yard. In 2015, African Americans made up 42 percent of the jail population and 61 percent of the prison population in New Jersey, yet they only accounted for 14 percent of our state’s population. 9

Despite the obstacles the Black community continues to face, I am confident that our profession can lend invaluable support. At the clinical level, we can work to heal intergenerational trauma and empower clients. Equally important is the work at the mezzo level. We must teach the larger community about cultural humility to provide them with tools to engage minority groups through open discussion and self-reflection on personal biases. At the same time, the macro level needs to combine the work from the micro and mezzo fields to advocate endlessly to bring about societal change. Legislators are well aware of how institutional oppression impacts our society, but they overlook the dysfunction because it is not felt by the majority population and represents an uncomfortable truth. We must continue to provide the facts on how poverty, high incarceration rates, and underfunded school systems ultimately affect the state’s economic progress and constituents’ trust in government— particularly among Black families.

With all this to consider, it is important to understand that no one is blaming anyone currently living for the practice of slavery in New Jersey. The Black community is asking that we receive the liberties and wealth to which we should have been entitled more than 400 years ago. We do not want to let another decade go by without being able to provide our descendants with real estate property, trust funds, and quality medical care. Ignoring our plea sends a message that the harmful ideologies people held during the era of slavery are still believed today. We know that Black communities, and other ethnic minority groups, will struggle to advance in society until they are as equally valued and respected as the majority population. Until then, we need community leaders, advocates, and social workers to work together to support the reparations mission and empower and uplift the community until legislators make real advancements.

References:

1 Hester, T. (2008). New Jersey weighs apology for slavery. Boston.com. http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/02/new_jersey_ weighs_apology_for_slavery/

2 Asszony, C. (2021). New Jersey and the Civil War: A complicated history we should better understand. My central NJ. https://www. mycentraljersey.com/story/opinion/2021/04/16/nj-and-civil-war -complicated-history/7241617002/

3 Martin, M. (2008). New Jersey apologizes for slavery. National Public Radio (NPR). https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=17925822

4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022 August 15). What is epigenetics? CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/epigenetics. htm#:~:text=Epigenetics%20is%20the%20study%20of,body%20reads%20 a%20DNA%20sequence.

5 Micheletti, S. J., Bryc, K., Ancona Esselmann, S. G., Freyman, W. A., Moreno, M. E., Poznik, G. D., Shastri, A. J., 23andMe Research Team, Beleza, S., & Mountain, J. L. (2020). Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas. American journal of human genetics, 107(2), 265–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.012

6 Halloran, M. J. (2019). African American Health and Posttraumatic Slave Syndrome: A Terror Management Theory Account. Journal of Black Studies, 50(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718803737

7 Milano, B. (2019). How slavery still shadows health care. The Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/10/ ramifications-of-slavery-persist-in-health-care-inequality/

8 Atkinson, M. (2020). Post traumatic slave disorder and relationships: Revisiting relations of black men and women. SUNY Cortland. https:// digitalcommons.cortland.edu/slides/8/

9 Incarceration trends in New Jersey - Vera Institute of justice. (n.d.).from https://www.vera.org/downloads/pdfdownloads/stateincarceration-trends-new-jersey.pdf

Ameerah McCoy is a licensed social worker and Director of Constituent Services for Assemblyman Gary Schaer, Legislative District 36. She holds a Masters degree in social work from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Ameerah currently serves as the Women’s Caucus Co-Chair for the NJ Young Democrats.