SPONSORED: This article is part of a series that seeks to elevate and define a progressive vision of “the good life,” developed by the Roosevelt Institute in collaboration with The American Prospect. You can read the whole series here.
I’m a clinical psychologist. I’ve been trained to think about how an equation can be used to predict a psychological outcome. Take happiness, for example. At least under its neoliberal conception, you start with a dash of occupational success, sprinkle in some exercise and good nutrition, throw in a decent amount of cash, and voilà—you’ve got a pretty good foundation for a happy life.
The equations I spend the most time on involve how racism negatively predicts psychological well-being for all, but particularly people of color. From depression to anxiety to trauma, racism (from a structural lens) and racial discrimination (how it manifests between and within individuals) equates to a lived experience riddled with challenge and strife, and acts as a significant hurdle to the good life.
Both despite and because of this, Black Americans have long desired a life of equality, fairness, and justice. To ensure that they remain mentally healthy in a society that frequently causes racial injury, Black Americans have emphasized community and belonging, self-determination and liberation, and the expression of joy, despite racism’s pangs. Yet this striving is often something that Black individuals must do on their own.
Racial neoliberalism has put the onus of well-being—economic, mental, emotional, and otherwise—on individuals. It ignores the role of white supremacy in our systems, institutions, and culture. But if America is responsible for a landscape that leads to mental illness, emotional distress, and psychic suffering for Black Americans, why should the burden of employing coping strategies to deal with these hardships fall on them? What might it look like if we felt a collective responsibility, as a country, to repair the psychological harms racism has inflicted on all people, but particularly Black Americans?
Psychological reparations, or multitiered social solutions that mend mental health problems from racial injury, are a key strategy for addressing these harms, and an essential element of any progressive vision of a good life. Whether stemming from enslavement or sustained racism in its wake, healing from an intergenerational injury of this magnitude requires deep emotional work. And while Black Americans are and should be the focal point of any psychological reparations, we all stand to benefit from this kind of repair. In different ways and to different degrees, white supremacy hurts people of all races.
The field of psychology is fundamentally concerned with repairing injury and harm, a necessary salve in the fight for reparations, since slavery was about not just capital, but also power and control. Psychological principles should be at the core of the reparations movement, complementing the cash proposals progressive economists argue for and helping to advance social strategies that improve the mental health and well-being of all Americans, particularly Black Americans.
Psychological reparations, or multitiered social solutions that mend mental health problems from racial injury, are a key strategy.
In its essence, psychological reparations can help tackle some of the longings that have developed in response to the cultural wreckage of neoliberalism, and, more specifically, racial neoliberalism. Black Americans’ desires for agency and control, safety, and a clear understanding of how the world works can be achieved by internal, interpersonal, and institutional strategies to combat racism. In this way, psychological reparations are an important attribute of any just and complete vision of a good society and a good life for the individuals in it.
In my support of the transformative reparations movement, I aspire to bring psychology not just to the table of reparations thought, but squarely to the head of it, so that we are always mindful of the humans who are being impacted by these initiatives. The number of Black Americans in need of reparations is essential to provide adequate resources, but numbers can also de-emphasize who these individuals are. Black American people—descendants of the enslaved, recipients of current discrimination, harbingers of a brighter day for all Americans—are deserving of person-centered approaches that account for their whole selves.
With a psychology-forward model, we can devise tools of repair to deal with racialized trauma. How does repairing and redressing this harm help foster a culture of belonging, connection, and mutual recognition and respect for all? What would it be like for Black Americans to look inward at our own pain, and for white Americans to acknowledge the pain they have caused and continue to inflict? What sets of skills does our nation need for true transformation? As educator Jemadari Kamara notes, “There must be another way that we in our society, in our communities … can begin to engage in a process that is different from the way that we are doing this now; that we will not reproduce.” Psychological reparations provide some of those avenues.
To be sure, programs, policies, and investments are also necessary in the fight for reparations, and state and federal bodies must consider and account for their role in creating and addressing harm. Without systemic changes to complement the individual and interpersonal work needed to advance psychological reparations, the vast majority of Black Americans simply won’t have the space, time, and resources to ensure that our mental health needs are being sustainably met. The last thing we want is to fall prey to the same racial neoliberal thinking that blames individuals for the challenges they face, while ignoring the various systems that actively work against their success.
And yet there are psychological interventions that individuals and communities can employ right now. First, whether for Black individuals or within the whole of the Black community, healing from within is a primary goal of psychological practice. Psychological reparations at this level can look like therapy, identity exploration, racial literacy and psychoeducation, intentional discussions with friends and family, or broader community conversations. Appropriate financial resources, particularly for experienced Black therapists specializing in this work, will be a key element.
From there, we can think about psychological reparations at the interpersonal level, particularly between Black and white Americans. Given that there was never any intentional effort put into mending the relationship between Americans after the Emancipation Proclamation was finally enacted, it should come as no surprise that stigma, distrust, bias, and fear continue to linger within communities. Facing those challenges head-on is crucial; psychological reparations at this level could look like investing in psychoeducation, hyperlocal initiatives, narrative change, and the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.
This necessary work must happen while we continue pushing for psychological reparations at the institutional level, through things like universal health care, education, and child care, as well as solutions targeting institutions, including national organizations (like the American Psychological Association) and the federal government (such as the Department of Health and Human Services).
So will we as Americans, and Black Americans in particular, ever get to the good life? I wish that all of my fancy calculus could guarantee a more perfect nation full of engaged, connected, and concerned Americans. We can make the best equation; we can try to come up with predictions using all of our software. But it’s up to each of us as humans, neighbors, and freedom fighters to ensure that we make progress toward a life full of good, joy, and peace. Let’s get to work.