Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

By Joy Degruy,

Book cover of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing

Book description

In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, isn't it…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book explains a lot of my automatic behaviors—things I knew were a thing but didn’t know why they were there. For example, I change the way I speak around white people or step onto the shoulder when a white person is walking toward me on the sidewalk.

Since reading about the origins of these ingrained behaviors, I practice not doing them. It’s crazy how hard they are to overcome. 

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