{"id":208,"date":"2015-05-04T12:39:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T17:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpacad2.winona.edu\/winona360\/?p=208"},"modified":"2016-02-08T13:37:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T19:37:03","slug":"noted-professor-joy-degruy-speaks-on-post-traumatic-slave-syndrome-at-wsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2015\/05\/04\/noted-professor-joy-degruy-speaks-on-post-traumatic-slave-syndrome-at-wsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Noted Professor Joy DeGruy Speaks on Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome at WSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Van Grinsven & Mann<\/span><\/p>\n

Post-traumatic slave syndrome is still significant in today\u2019s society, according to a speaker at Winona State University Wednesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The WSU Inclusion and Diversity Office, KEAP Center and Council, Black Cultural Organization and Minnesota State Southeast Technical College hosted Dr. Joy DeGruy on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in East Hall. Her seminar was titled \u201cPost-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America\u2019s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGruy is an international speaker, presenter, author and researcher. Along with her novel, DeGruy has published a number of articles and spoken at various locations, such as Oxford University, Harvard University and Columbia University.<\/p>\n

Before DeGruy spoke, Director of Inclusion and Diversity, Alexander Hines, voiced his frustration with the complaints he had received regarding the topic of that nights program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I wasn\u2019t going to do this, and I never do this,\u201d Hines said. \u00a0\u201cWhen I\u2019m in my office and I work with faculty and staff to put on programs like this, I get little nasty emails of \u2018Why would you do post-traumatic slave syndrome? And black history month?\u2019 I guess I get a little bit frustrated with the topic that\u2019s still relevant today being micro-assaulted, micro-invalidated and micro-excluded from the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, after apologizing to DeGruy for voicing his frustrations, \u201cBlack history month, African American history month is every month.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGruy began by explaining how she came to the topic of post traumatic slave syndrome. She was struck by how people responded to the issue of slavery even today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very curious about why it was that people had such a visceral response to slavery,\u201d said DeGruy describing the unusual response that peaked her interest in the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I would walk around and talk about the book and tell people the title, there was a visceral response,\u201d DeGruy said. \u201cSlavery, really, who are you trying to blame. What excuses are you people trying. You know I wasn\u2019t there. I never owned slaves and you’re free now aren\u2019t ya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPost traumatic slave syndrome is multi-generational trauma,\u201d she said, adding that post-traumatic slave syndrome is not the same thing as post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of wish it was because it\u2019s treatable. There are medications, talk therapy, all kinds of things you can do. But post-traumatic slave syndrome requires a whole lot more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGruy described post traumatic slave syndrome as the result of generations of people who suffered from trauma.<\/p>\n

There was a great deal of trauma going on in those 339 years that American chattel slavery was going on, said DeGruy. \u201cThe likelihood is a lot of people had stress related illness, a lot of people had PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n

To solve more than 339 years of traumatic injury, DeGruy suggested beginning with with how children are educated.<\/p>\n

DeGruy said that it is crucial to include all of the slavery history that elementary schools don\u2019t normally teach about, like the details about slave ships.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many Jews died during the Holocaust?\u201d DeGruy asked the audience. \u201c6 million that we know at least died. And you\u2019ve been taught that, it\u2019s in the text. \u00a0But you\u2019ve never been given this information. You have no idea how many died, just en route? The lowest figure on record is 9 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tricia Angus, a junior studying business administration, said she believes DeGruy made a lot of good points during her seminar and that students at WSU could learn a lot from the presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think students can take a closer look at how they handle diversity in their everyday lives,\u201d Angus said. \u00a0\u201cHate is something that can completely be avoided at this university and in the U.S. in general. People can accomplish that by keeping an open mind and learning more about different cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to DeGruy, the best way to solve PTSS is through social justice and teaching young African-Americans, who are affected by it, to love themselves in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n

DeGruy closed her speech with an African proverb, \u201cIf you wish to go fast than go alone, but if you wish to go far go together. Lets go together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Van Grinsven & Mann Post-traumatic slave syndrome is still significant in today\u2019s society, according to a speaker at Winona State University Wednesday night. The WSU Inclusion and Diversity Office, KEAP Center and Council, Black Cultural Organization and Minnesota State Southeast Technical College hosted Dr. Joy DeGruy on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in East Hall. … Continue reading Noted Professor Joy DeGruy Speaks on Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome at WSU<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}