Trauma- By Pierre Pinson

"Seen my brother's blood on the pavement. How you wake up in the morning feeling evil?/  Trauma. When them drugs got s hold of your mama/ and the judge got a hold on your father/  Go to school bullet holes in the lockers."

-Meek Mill, "Trauma" 

The United States has experienced a significant uptick in mass shootings and while outrage  has  swept  the  nation,  there  has  been  an  overwhelming  response  of  empathy  for  the  primarily, white perpetrators. Some have even considered alternatives to incarceration — not  because  of  former  President  Bill  Clinton's  malevolent  crime  bills  but  because  white  people  have  been  affected  at  a  higher  rate  than  they  would  like.  These  mass  shooters  undergo psychiatric evaluations and the media pundits who cover their cases often speculate  if trauma or mental illness is an explanation.

Across the nation, people are touting mental  wellness for everyone —unless you're a Black man from "the hood." Our nation has already  reached a consensus: it is normal to destroy Black bodies and it's "crazy" to to even threaten  the  existence  of  anything  white.  According  to  our  nation,  "Black  Lives  Matter,"  is  an  alternative fact. The destruction of Black bodies is America's oldest pastime and most faithful  tradition.

In a world where everyone diagnoses themselves, the people who need it most go  without treatment. No one considers the mental health of Black people—not even us. 

"Got war and  peace inside my DNA/  I got  power,  poison,  pain, and joy inside my DNA" - Kendrick Lamar, "DNA" 

Science teaches us that DNA has memory, an ability to recall traits in order to pass them knot  offspring. DNA also recalls  trauma. Epigentics is  the scientific  theory  that  trauma changes  our genetic makeup, effecting what traits we pass onto our children and future generations.  Referred to as "the study of heritable changes in gene function" the book Lamarck's Revenge  explains: 

"Causing  violent  death  or  escaping  violent  death  or  simply  being  subjected  to  intense  violence causes significant flooding of the body with a whole pharmacological medicine chest  of proteins, and so in doing changes the chemical state of virtually every cell. This produces  Epigentic changes that can, depending on the individual, create a newly heritable state that  is passed on to offspring. " 

"I got realness I just kill shit 'cause it’s in my DNA." Kendrick Lamar, "DNA" 

Black people have lived under the thumb of oppression and the constant threat of violence  for centuries. Epigentics explains how the trauma of being kidnapped, beaten, shackled and  sold  into  slavery;  impacted  our  ancestors  who  may  have  passed  that  trauma  to  our  grandparents  who  passed  it  to  our  parents. Modern  traumas  such  as  street  wars,  police  shootings,  and  mass  incarceration,  literally  change  us.  However,  our  evolution  provides  that—what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

"The results are deadly/ Because that child will suffer and that's what can most affect me/  The little girl I met this last summer said " Don't forget me."/ I won't forget you/ How could  I with all you been through? / A bullet hit your cousin in temple while he was with you." - J.Cole "Window Pain" 

The  reality  of Black life in  the U.S. is  that what  does  not  kill  us,  continues  to ail  us. Post Traumatic  Stress Disorder  (PTSD),  can  occur  after  someone  has  experienced  a  traumatic  event. The symptoms include:

• SLEEPLESSNESS: "At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn/ Candlesticks in the dark visions of  bodies being burned. -Geto Boyz, " Mind Playing Tricks on Me" 

• LOSS OF INTEREST: "My attitude is fuck it and motherfuckers love it." 2Pac "Ambitions of a  Ridah" 

• FEELING EMOTIONALLY CUT OFF FROM OTHERS: "This heart probably can't be fixed no  way, real talk, it been broken like that/ Too many died, unexpected times, it was stolen like  that." -Boosie Badazz "Heartless Hearts" 

• ALWAYS BEING ON GUARD: "Loaded like I'm ready for Armageddon boy I come too far/ To  let a njgga tak em out this shit now he a star." -G Herbo "Some Nights" 

• HAVING TROUBLE CONCENTRATING: "Nerves bad baby, I can barely roll." -Mozzy "Afraid" 

• BEING EASILY STARTLED: "Still circling the block before I'm parking/ Not bitching I'm just  still cautious." -Beanie Sigel "Feel it in the Air" 

• ANGER OR IRRITABILITY: "Aw man, goddamn, all hell broke loose/ You killed my cousin  back in 94'—fuck your truce." -Kendrick Lamar "M.A.A.D. City" 

We all know the symptoms, we all know someone who is going through it, throwed off, shot out, or slightly touched. The reality is that we have lived in war zones where random gunfire  is  normal  to  kids  who  are  expected  to  fill  penitentiaries  and  early  graves.  Being  shot  is  traumatic. Being shot at is traumatic.

Many of the tragedies we see daily, affect our mental  health, no matter how much you normalize or suppress these traumas they will eventually  manifest  the  slaves in  some  form  of  violence  or  abuse  (i.e.  alcohol  abuse,  drug  abuse,  or  domestic abuse).

We know We Got Issues, however, we are not offered grief counselors, so  we must have the fought conversations about what we experience in order to get on the oath  to  healing.  Remember,  the  courts  do  not  give  our  children  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  that  accompanies living with these traumas. As a Black man in America, I've found this to be true:  It's normal to be crazy and its crazy to be normal.