Black Squares and Black Minds

The Psychological Effects of Misguided Activism in the BLM Era

Kidist Taye

In May 2020, the hashtag #blacklivesmatter became more than just 17 characters on Twitter. Amidst global events, the summer of 2020 was historicized by the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement after the unjust murder of George Floyd. Deaths at the hands of the American police system sparked a civil rights movement unlike any other in the 21st century. While people universally gathered to march for fallen Black lives and express anger towards racism through protests with anti-racist chants that echoed throughout the city, the age of social media also created a new outlet for promoting social activism. Twitter, a prominent user-driven app often amplifying discussion of social issues, experienced a significant surge in app interaction in the summer of 2020 as more users shared personal experiences, Black squares in solidarity of the movement, Black organizations to support, and an ultimate desire to progress beyond racism.

Amidst the global outcry, users also utilized platforms like Twitter to post photos and videos of racial violence and homicide. While not ill-intentioned, such graphic content infiltrated the Internet and, in turn, provoked fears and racial trauma in Black minds. Racial trauma is ongoing and has been a persistent issue, and so this paper will examine Tweets on social media platforms like Twitter that cover trauma responses to race-related posts. While this examination showcases the modern-day and overlooked impact of posts on Black minds, qualitative evidence from academic research can prompt conversation on how racism as a whole is mentally stressful and help reveal how mainstream “activism” is tied with the generational effects of racism and discrimination. I will closely analyze social media platforms, with an emphasis on Twitter, and scholarly sources to see how misguided activism perpetuates traumatic responses to racism and psychologically affects the Black community.

In the summer of 2020, when exposure to Black casualties and racism surged, many Tweets covered racial trauma. One Tweet in particular offered coverage of an interview at C2 Montreal, a business event that interrelates commerce and creativity, where Jessica Prudencio stated, “June 2020 was a lot, you are always exposed to Black trauma, but people tend to forget [that] I am a person first.”

Prudencio, a Black voice, emphasized the exposure of Black trauma in the media. The first part of the Tweet, “June 2020 was a lot,” particularly stands out because it highlights the timestamp at which the novel Black Lives Matter uprising occurred. While vague, the term “a lot” largely encapsulates the prominent view of casualties at the hands of racist endeavors and also the baggage that came with being a second-hand witness to the issue. She then continues to speak towards “Black trauma,” a term which many Tweets reference, to place severity on how hyper-visible these abnormal issues are. While Black trauma is generational in the broader context of racism, Prudencio’s use of the term strongly showcases how Black minds were exposed to and impacted by racism during the movement. In “Impact of Racism on Ethnic Minority Mental Health,” author Sumie Okazaki from New York University writes about the heavy impact and rather overlooked exposure affects psychological responses, stating that “some racial minority individuals may sustain a lasting psychological injury from a traumatic racial victimization, which results in hypervigilance and hypersensitivity toward potential racial re-victimization in ambiguous social situations” (104).

Prudencio supports the idea that Black minds are mainly affected by such posts because the posts remain more personal, stating, “people tend to forget [that] I am a person first,” which indicates that, in the face of social media, an era like BLM heightens hypersensitivity. The use of “forget” in the Tweet amplifies how the “activism” of people sharing photographs and videos of Black bodies is misguided, to which “activists” are unaware of the harm they are presenting. Prudencio stating that she is a “person first” highlights the difficulty of mental sustenance when the issue is not only horrifying in regards to humanity, but also a personal issue. Considering the issues are not merely new but also constant and promoting lasting hypersensitivity, racial minorities encounter additional mental stress when witnessing such media coverage. This Tweet circles around the fact that Black minds are harmed by the dumping of traumatic coverage on racism. As Black minds remain vigilant to racism because of generations of racial trauma, from the Selma march to Trayvon Martin, it is evident that Prudencio’s response to misguided activism is not only justified by qualitative evidence, but also an issue that needs to be further looked at.

The long-term impact remained relevant in Black social media user responses, including tweets like those of Chris (@chrislaawrence) and Quressa Robinson (@qnrisawesome). The viewing of Black bodies lying on Minnesota grounds under the knee of police and hearing their last words lacks humanity and is, in turn, traumatizing. Chris especially uses the word “disturbing” to indicate that the photos and videos that surfaced on the Internet were indeed more impactful than thought to be. He also mentions that he “fumbled some bags,” in that the trauma was more than just an emotional response; it was debilitating and sparked more overt psychological responses to viewing such posts. In “Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-Related Stressors,” David R. Williams alludes to the reasons behind Chris’s “fumble,” writing, “Discrimination, like other stressors, can affect health through both actual exposure and the threat of exposure.” Williams continues, referencing research by LaVeist et al., “Vigilance also matters for mental health. A study of Baltimore adults found that blacks have higher levels of heightened vigilance than whites, and vigilance was positively associated with depressive symptoms and contributed to the black-white disparity in depression” (470). While Williams refers to vigilance and the threat of exposure, Chris encapsulates what exactly Williams portrays in how there are attempts to protect oneself, and how that eventually leads to mental depression. Vigilance is correlated with mental health, something seen through Chris’s avoidance of opportunities that could possibly present stressful encounters. The conversation prompted by Tweets highlights that there is reason behind such avoidances and other mental stressors, making it evident that racial issues are directly related to psychological responses.

In a similar essence to Chris, Quressa finds herself long-lastingly impacted by the trauma that was perpetuated by unnecessary mass coverage. Through her phrasing “still recovering” and “not immune,” it can be seen that she is speaking for not just her own experiences, but a general Black experience as she speaks for Black people and artists. Considering the time frame in which both Tweets were published, they were expressed at least six months after the initial mid-2020 era that bolstered uninhibited and distressing content. Seemingly, the effects remained as time continued. This can be furthered with evidence from researchers Tina Chou et al., who delved into psychopathy among racial minority groups. While this study reports a 9% PTSD prevalence rate among African Americans, it recognizes the same sentiments and long-term responses shared by Chris and Quressa as the effects of racism are stiffened. PTSD rings through time, and social media’s role in contributing towards race-based trauma, then, remains high.

Beyond the Twitter world, the psychological effects imposed upon Black minds as a result of “misguided activism” trickle down to the very smallest interactions within the Black community. I conducted a survey attempting to understand diverse responses toward a rather overlooked social issue within the Black community, yet my findings revealed that Black experiences are strikingly similar. A total of 16 anonymous individuals were respondents to this informal and universally open survey that had an array of open-ended questions. In addition, I gathered quantitative data on the correlation between trauma response and race. I asked two open questions, both allowing the respondent to share personal thoughts and feelings on the issue (as shown in Figure 1).

A multitude of key words interrelated with negative psychological attributes. Terms like “disturbing,” “desensitized,” and “negative emotions” imply attributes of a trauma response. The responses present the idea that minds exposed to graphic coverage, in turn, produce mental distress from such rates of disturbance. This understanding grew more as I then asked questions of reflection. Respondents, alike to the first question, raised similar mindsets that showed evidence of growing fear, anger, and other feelings in response a stimulus that is unhealthy and overlooked because of desensitizing mass coverage. Individuals, when discussing how graphic images make them feel, used words and phrases like “physically sick,” “changes my mood easily,” and “horrific and distressing.” According to researchers Stephanie Williams and Annette Clark, this evidence is furthered since “the frequent exposure to the shootings of Black people can cause trauma. This trauma has been coined ‘race-based trauma’ and it argues that people of color experience mental distress similar to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when viewing police violence against Black communities” (63). Williams and Clarke also reference research indicating “that people of color report high rates of stress, frustration, anger, and anxiety in response to mass media coverage of police violence” (63). The words used by the respondents reveal the symptoms of trauma as they encompass such experiences of “intrusion” and “numbness.”

Quantitatively, I was then able to make conclusions based upon the psychological responses and race. I started by generally asking if graphic images are psychologically impactful, to which 75.1% of the respondents said they both agree and strongly agree with the statement, leaving just above 6% to strongly disagree (Fig. 2). The next aspect of the survey drew on race correlation, as 75% of people that voted towards graphic images being mentally stressful were Black and/or African American as seen in Figure 3 below.

Most significantly, 84.6% of Black and/or African American respondents indicated that they do, in fact, experience trauma responses to racist events while a minority of 15.4% said they have not (Fig. 4).

In context of these responses to the overlooked trauma from mass coverage, my evidence from the survey confirms the fact that graphic images pertaining to racist encounters and black victimization result in a large-scale community issue: Black minds are traumatized by such social media infiltration.

Social media is a powerful tool; however, its shareability has abused this power, resulting in harm. The Black mind and future will not benefit from Twitter’s infiltration of their brother’s crimson blood on cold gray sidewalks. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that the opposite of negative mass media will indeed play a beneficial part in the progress of civil rights: positive uplift and support of creative Black endeavors. Black success and flourishing make up the epitome of “good” coverage and not only contribute toward efforts of self-care and happiness but also magnitude of activism. One statement from the conducted survey reigns true: “we should be showing the flourishing of black bodies as an act towards liberation.” True liberation comes from the recognition that harmful activism is misguided and that uplift is indeed a step towards both mental and emotional betterment.

Works Cited

Chou, Tina, et al. “Perception of Racial Discrimination and Psychopathology Across Three U.S. Ethnic Minority Groups.” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, vol. 18, no. 1, 2012, pp. 74–81.

Lawrence, Chris (@chrislaawrence). “2020 has been a very disturbing year for black people, and I can honestly say that I know I had some bags that I probably fumbled just from trauma. That June/July/August Black Lives Matter was not easy.” 10 Dec. 2020, Tweet.

Okazaki, Sumie. “Impact of Racism on Ethnic Minority Mental Health.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 4, no. 1, 2009, pp. 103–07.

Olney, Charles (@olneyce). “White folks find Black trauma far more consumable than Black creativity or Black joy. If we really believe that Black lives matter, we can’t just share the trauma. We need to support the creativity and the joy even more.” 27 June 2020, Tweet.

Robinson, Quressa (@qnrisawesome). “I am still recovering from June 2020 through the end of the year. June just brought a whole bunch of extra pain and trauma for Black people, and Black pub professionals and authors certainly weren’t immune.” 1 July 2021, Tweet.

Savic, Lela (@lelasavic). “June 2020 was a lot, you are always exposed to Black trauma, but people tend to forget that I am a person first.” Jessica Prudencio at @C2Montreal.” 20 Oct. 2021, Tweet.

Williams, Stephanie M. and Annette V. Clarke. “How the Desensitization of Police Violence, Stereotyped Language, and Racial Bias Impact Black Communities.” Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Open Journal, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, pp. 62-67.

Williams, David R. “Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-Related Stressors.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 59, no. 4, 2018, pp. 466–85.

Kidist Taye is from Phoenix, AZ and studies in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.