By A. Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez

作者：A。Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez

There were no words to describe how much I hurt the night I read of Elijah McClain for the first time. I unwillingly came across the story of this 23-year-old autistic Black man on my Instagram timeline. He died last year following a chokehold and a ketamine injection administered by police. Once I was made aware of what happened to him, I saw his story everywhere, including in the fears that I held for my family.

没有语言可以形容我第一次读伊莱贾·麦克莱恩的那天晚上我受了多少伤。 我不愿意在我的Instagram时间轴上遇到这个23岁的自闭症黑人的故事。 去年，他在警察控制下窒息并注射了氯胺酮后死亡。 当我意识到他的生活后，我到处都可以看到他的故事，包括我对家人的恐惧。

By then, I’d grown accustomed to the ritual of opening my apps to the news of the latest instance of race-related suffering and reflecting in silent despair for the rest of the day. As I scrolled through my feeds, each post — especially images and videos that show Black people dead and dying — seemed to contribute to a continuous stream of death. And the compounding knowledge was breaking me down.

到那时，我已经习惯了以下习惯：打开我的应用程序以了解与种族有关的痛苦的最新情况的消息，并在一天的剩余时间里表现出沉默的绝望。 当我滚动查看提要时，每个帖子(尤其是显示黑人已死和垂死的图像和视频)似乎都在不断造成死亡。 而且复合知识使我崩溃了。

There is nowhere to hide from trauma when you’re a Black person in 2020, and the more time online, the higher the risks.

2020年成为黑人时，无处可躲，而且上网的时间越长，风险就越高。

“People are exposed to these types of images quite often, and they need a space to talk about how these images make them feel as well as how they are coping,” says Brendesha Tynes, an associate professor of education and psychology at the USC Rossier School of Education whose research explores the impact of racist online harassment on youth of color.

USC Rossier教育与心理学副教授Brendesha Tynes说：“人们经常接触这类图像，他们需要一个空间来谈论这些图像如何使他们感觉以及如何应对。”教育学院，其研究探索了种族主义在线骚扰对有色人种年轻人的影响。

Tynes finds it plausible that the racist comments that often follow these images could also have an effect. “I imagine watching the video and then on top of the video seeing people repeatedly affirm the negative messaging in the video — a killing or beating of a person of color or a Black person specifically — just compounds the effects,” Tynes says.

泰恩斯(Tynes)认为，经常遵循这些图像的种族主义言论也可能产生影响。 泰恩斯说：“我想象着观看视频，然后在视频之上看到人们反复重申视频中的负面信息-杀死或殴打有色人种或专门针对黑人的行为-只会加剧这种影响。”

Too often, we discuss the happenings of the world — like the coronavirus pandemic and state-sanctioned violence — in a way that divorces them from the most longstanding, pervasive public health crisis in our country: racism. As I try to make sense of the world around me, it’s becoming increasingly clear that my time online is stressing me out and intensifying the way I experience the trauma around race.

我们经常讨论世界的事件-例如冠状病毒大流行和国家批准的暴力-以某种方式使他们脱离我国最长期，最普遍的公共卫生危机：种族主义。 当我试图了解周围的世界时，越来越清楚的是，我在网上的时间使我感到压力，并加深了我经历种族创伤的方式。

技术在种族创伤中的作用 (The Role of Technology in Racial Trauma)

A growing body of research is seeking to quantify the pervasive ways that racism shows up through the lifespan of Black folks and its harmful impact on our quality of life, whether on or offline.

越来越多的研究试图量化种族主义在黑人整个生命周期中的普遍表现方式及其对我们生活质量的有害影响，无论是在网上还是线下。

For the last few years, Tynes has worked with colleagues to study the ways that engaging with racism online increases one’s risk for trauma. Her work sheds light on how racism in multiple mediums — both in person and online — can lead to depressive symptoms. The most recent effort she participated in, which was led by assistant professor at Rutgers’s School of Public Health Devin English, found that on average, Black youth are exposed to five discriminatory messages per day — with many of them being online.

在过去的几年中，泰恩斯(Tynes)与同事一起研究了在线参与种族主义增加人身遭受伤害的风险的方式。 她的工作揭示了种族主义如何通过多种媒介(无论是面对面的还是在线的)导致抑郁症。 她参加的最新工作是由罗格斯大学公共卫生学院德文英语学院的助理教授领导的。她发现，黑人青年平均每天会收到五条歧视性信息，其中许多是在线的。

Beyond Tynes’s work, many of these studies describe the concept of “weathering”: how acute and chronic racism can accelerate aging and worsen a person’s overall health. Mothers like me who fear for their loved ones’ risk of exposure to racism are at risk for complications as well.

除泰恩斯的著作外，许多研究还描述了“风化”的概念：急性和慢性种族主义如何加速衰老并恶化人的整体健康。 像我这样的母亲也担心自己的亲人有遭受种族歧视的危险，也有患并发症的风险 。

While weathering has been a pervasive health problem for decades, the pandemic seems to have exacerbated the ways that technology is contributing to Black individuals’ trauma. But it’s much more than scrolling past heartbreaking videos of violence and death. It also the memes that mock our death, the insensitive media campaigns — think Snapchat’s recent “smile and break the chains” filter — and the Zoombombing efforts of white supremacists to disrupt social, educational, and professional meeting environments. While technology has brought people together during the pandemic, it has also made it easier for racists to infiltrate these efforts and torment individuals without ever having to leave home.

尽管数十年来风化一直是普遍存在的健康问题，但这种流行病似乎加剧了技术对黑人个体造成伤害的方式。 但这不仅仅是滚动令人心碎的暴力和死亡视频。 这也是嘲笑我们死亡的模因 ，不敏感的媒体宣传(例如Snapchat最近的“ 微笑并打破连锁 ”过滤器)以及白人至上主义者的Zoombombing努力破坏社交，教育和专业会议环境 。 尽管技术在大流行期间将人们召集在一起，但它也使种族主义者更容易渗透这些努力并折磨个人，而不必离开家。

The Anti-Defamation League is keeping track of instances where Zoom is weaponized to display anti-Semitism, graphic sexual and violent videos, and racial slurs. Not surprisingly, Zoom — like many platforms before it — has failed to acknowledge the white supremacy at the core of these efforts. Millions of BIPOC and marginalized individuals anxiously go online, fearful that their virtual safe spaces, like community meetings, religious gatherings, and business meetings, will become sites of ridicule and harassment.

反诽谤联盟会跟踪Zoom武器化以显示反犹太主义，图形化的性暴力视频以及种族诽谤的实例 。 毫不奇怪，与以前的许多平台一样，Zoom 未能承认这些努力的核心是白人至上 。 数以百万计的BIPOC和边缘化人群急于上网，他们担心他们的虚拟安全空间(例如社区会议，宗教聚会和商务会议)将成为嘲笑和骚扰的场所。

And while Black folks as a whole are at risk, even more marginalized Black people — like Black women, Black trans and gender nonconforming individuals, and Black folks with disabilities — are at greater peril for being harassed and ignored in their struggles.

尽管整个黑人都处于危险之中，但更加边缘化的黑人(如黑人妇女，黑人跨性别者和性别不符合规范的人以及残障的黑人)因在斗争中受到骚扰和忽视而承受更大的危险。

I remember watching in (not quite) disbelief as racist tolls attacked Beatrice Dixon’s Honey Pot brand by posting fake reviews that relied on stereotypes after her Target commercial made its debut in March 2020. The attacks that she faced, simply for mentioning how being a Black woman shaped her journey into business, were telling. Being Black and successful — or even just publicly acknowledging race as a Black person — puts you at risk for harassment.

我记得当时(不是很)怀疑种族主义的袭击袭击了Beatrice Dixon的Honey Pot品牌 ，她发布了虚假评论，这些评论依赖于刻板印象，在她的Target广告于2020年3月首次亮相之后。女人在讲述她的经商之道。 成为黑人并取得成功-甚至只是公开承认种族为黑人-都会使您有遭受骚扰的危险。

隐藏的心理健康危机 (A Hidden Mental Health Crisis)

As more of our world shifts to a virtual format, it’s becoming increasingly important that we’re prepared to address the impact of virtual racism — whether vicariously or directly — and its accompanying risks. Awareness of these risks has multiplied the necessity of understanding race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) — a condition similar to PTSD that manifests through depression, anger, and hypervigilance — a state of constantly being on high alert.

随着越来越多的世界转向虚拟形式，我们准备应对虚拟种族主义的影响(无论是直接还是间接)及其随之而来的风险变得越来越重要。 对这些风险的意识使了解基于种族的创伤压力(RBTS)的必要性成倍增加。RBTS是一种与PTSD类似的症状，通过抑郁，愤怒和过度警惕而表现出来，这种状态一直处于高度戒备状态。

These symptoms can be made worse by social media’s dopamine-stimulating and addictive notification systems and infinite scrolls, which are designed to keep you hooked. Some studies have shown that frequent use can increase one’s risk for anxiety and depression.

社交媒体的多巴胺刺激和令人上瘾的通知系统以及旨在让您着迷的无限滚动功能，可使这些症状变得更糟。 一些研究表明，经常使用会增加焦虑和抑郁的风险 。

Tynes says it’s essential to have a dialogue about how exposure to images of Black people being attacked and murdered impact people of color, particularly Black people, of all ages. But the stigma attached to mental health can make having those conversations challenging.

泰恩斯说，就被袭击和被谋杀的黑人的暴露如何影响有色人种，尤其是各个年龄段的黑人，进行对话至关重要。 但是，精神健康受到的污名可能会使谈话变得充满挑战。

“I think that’s all the more reason to have an open dialogue about what it means to see police racial violence repeatedly or even just general forms of online racial discrimination where you’re seeing negative images of your group,” she says.

她说：“我认为，就反复看到警察的种族暴力，甚至只是一般形式的在线种族歧视的含义进行公开对话的更多理由，”她说。

As I struggled to process the tragedy of McCain’s story — and the bizarre contradiction of having to read his painful last words on a cutesy Canva Instagram template — I was afraid to talk with my usual support system. My friends and I try to protect each from these stories because their influx can make functioning, and therefore parenting our children, difficult. I thought it was noble to hold the pain of his death alone. But the fact that his story happened nearby — he was murdered less than two hours from our home — intensified my bottomless sorrow. The “what if’s” — What if it had been my husband? What if one day it’s my son? — left me cycling through silent frustration and sadness. Still, my decision to disengage felt like a betrayal. Who was I to step away from the phone if he’d never move again?

当我努力处理麦凯恩的悲剧时，以及不得不在可爱的Canva Instagram模板上阅读他痛苦的遗言的怪异矛盾时，我害怕与我通常的支持系统交谈。 我和我的朋友们试图保护每个人免受这些故事的影响，因为他们的涌入会使他们无法正常工作，从而使我们的孩子难以为人父母。 我以为独自一人死去的痛苦是高尚的。 但是，他的故事发生在附近的事实-他离我们家不到两个小时被谋杀-加剧了我的无底悲伤。 “如果”是什么- 如果是我丈夫怎么办？ 如果有一天是我儿子怎么办？ -让我在寂静的沮丧和悲伤中骑行。 不过，我脱离接触的决定仍然让人感到背叛。 如果他再也不会动弹了，我该离开电话谁呢？

连接的双刃剑 (The Double-Edged Sword of Connection)

As the recent swell of protests has shown, cellphones, social media, and meeting platforms like Zoom can be instrumental in planning activism, bringing communities together, and fomenting other efforts to create an anti-racist society. Technology makes it possible for people all over the world to attend virtual events regardless of where one lives, such as lectures about technology’s impact on racial issues and conversations with more experienced civil rights leaders.

正如最近抗议浪潮所表明的那样，手机，社交媒体以及诸如Zoom之类的会议平台可以在计划行动主义，将社区聚集在一起并煽动其他努力以创建反种族主义社会方面发挥作用。 技术使世界各地的人们无论身在何处都能参加虚拟活动，例如关于技术对种族问题的影响的演讲以及与经验更丰富的民权领袖的对话。

In addition, Allissa V. Richardson, an assistant professor of journalism at USC Annenberg, says technology and social media enable us to get a “bird’s-eye view” of anti-Black racism — insight that’s invaluable.

此外，南加州大学安纳伯格分校新闻学助理教授艾丽莎·理查森 ( Allissa V. Richardson)说，技术和社交媒体使我们对反黑种族主义有“鸟瞰”，这是无价之宝。

She notes that activists’ use of technology as a tool to document Black dehumanization and show the barbaric nature of white supremacy fits neatly into a continuum of Black resistance, which includes the efforts of Fredrick Douglas, Ida B. Wells, and Mamie Till-Mobley.

她指出，维权人士将技术用作记录黑人非人性化和显示白人至上的野蛮性质的工具，正好适合黑人抵抗运动的延续，其中包括弗雷德里克·道格拉斯，艾达·B·威尔斯和玛米·蒂尔·莫布里的努力。

Her book, Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism, explores how smartphones, social media, and social justice have enabled Black Americans to establish counter-narratives around racism and brutality. Richardson calls this “defiant, investigative gaze” Black witnessing.

她的著作《 黑人时的见证：非洲裔美国人，智能手机和新抗议＃新闻主义 》探讨了智能手机，社交媒体和社会正义如何使黑人能够围绕种族主义和野蛮行为建立反叙事。 理查森称这为“ 黑人目击者” 。

“This is the first time we can be present. We can hit record, stay with that victim, and say, ‘I’m not going to let you go through this by yourself. I won’t allow them to say they don’t know who did this to you,’” she says. “‘I’m going to make sure that I have a strong counter-narrative to the official report that they will surely craft that says that you deserve this, and I’m going to say your name.’”

“这是我们第一次来。 我们可以创造记录，与那个受害者在一起，然后说：“我不会让你自己经历这个。 我不允许他们说他们不知道是谁对您这样做的，”她说。 “'我要确保我对官方报告有强烈的反叙述，他们肯定会提出说你应得的，我要说出你的名字。'”

However, the intentions of the individual behind the camera can change the lens of this witnessing.

但是，摄像机后面的人的意图会改变此见证人的视野。

Richardson notes the critical differences between folks like Darnella Frazier, the 17-year-old who bravely captured George Floyd’s murder, and William Bryan, who filmed Armaud Arbery’s murder to send a message.

理查森(Richardson)指出，像17岁的达纳拉·弗雷泽 ( Darnella Frazier )这样勇敢地捕捉到乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)的谋杀案的人与威廉·布莱恩 ( William Bryan )的人之间存在着重大差异， 威廉·布莱恩 ( William Bryan )拍摄了阿莫德·阿伯里的谋杀案以传达信息。

According to Richardson, individuals like Bryan film events to preserve a white supremacist hierarchy, similar to the lynching photographers who would develop celebratory postcards after a lynching. “It’s boastful, like look at what we did to this person,” she says. “[It] may serve as a warning to anybody else who steps outside of the boundaries of this white supremacist hierarchy that we’re trying to enforce.”

理查森认为，像布莱恩(Bryan)的电影活动这样的人喜欢保持白人至上主义的等级制度，类似于私刑的摄影师，他们在私刑后会制作庆祝明信片。 她说：“这很夸张，就像看看我们对这个人做了什么。” “ [它]可能会向任何其他超出我们试图执行的白人至上主义等级制度界限的人发出警告。”

如何在见证黑人的同时尽量减少创伤 (How to Minimize Trauma ­While Black Witnessing)

Though my time spent online often brings me anguish, I know the world won’t change until everyone can admit that America was founded on Black dehumanization and that racism is alive and well today on top of the legacies we study from the past. And the painful stories of Tony McDade, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and Rayshard Brooks are the fuel for change.

尽管我在网上度过的时光常常使我感到痛苦，但我知道世界不会改变，直到每个人都可以承认美国是建立在黑人非人类化基础之上的，而种族主义在我们过去研究的遗产的基础上依然活跃并且今天很好。 Tony McDade ， Aiyana Stanley-Jones和Rayshard Brooks的痛苦故事是推动变革的动力 。

Every day, I challenge myself to be authentic in how I confront this pain. I’ve committed myself to a movement I dubbed #FreeBlackmotherhood, which encourages Black women to embracing their feelings of both joy and sadness. That means crying when I’m sad and getting comfortable with the justified rage that accompanies being a Black woman and mother in America. Now, I step away when I need a moment to cry or seek clarity. And I’ve found tools like text threads, site blockers, and WhatsApp — a suggestion from Richardson — useful for staying connected with less of the noise.

每天，我都会挑战自己，以真实的态度挑战自己。 我致力于一项名为#FreeBlackmotherhood的运动，该运动鼓励黑人女性拥抱喜悦和悲伤的感觉。 这意味着我伤心时要哭泣，对在美国成为黑人妇女和母亲所带来的合理愤怒感到满意。 现在，当我需要哭泣或寻求澄清时，我走开了。 而且我发现诸如文本线程，站点阻止程序和WhatsApp之类的工具(来自Richardson的建议)对于保持联系减少噪音非常有用。

But change can also happen on a larger structural level to protect Black people from traumatizing images. Simply put, it’s too easy to witness Black death on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram.

但是，在更大的结构层面上也可能发生变化，以保护黑人免受伤害性图像。 简而言之，在Google，Facebook和Instagram等平台上目睹Black Death太容易了。

“White people do not have to see themselves die over and over and over again on prime-time television, let alone online. It’s very difficult to find images of white death in that way because it’s heavily moderated and constantly scrubbed. I’m calling for us to do the same thing for people of color,” Richardson says.

“白人不必在黄金时段电视上看到自己一遍又一遍地死去，更不用说在网上了。 以这种方式很难找到白色死亡的图像，因为它经过严格控制并不断擦洗。 我呼吁我们为有色人种做同样的事情，”理查森说。

However, she notes these images are too powerful to ban completely. Instead, she suggests that we revive the “shadow archive,” a practice that involved removing traumatic images, most notably images of lynchings, from public view following peak circulation and storing them in a newsroom, library, or museum. Richardson hopes to find a way to “make [these images] as helpful as possible without traumatizing Black people,” she says.

但是，她指出这些图像太强大而无法完全禁止。 相反， 她建议我们恢复“ 影子档案 ”，这种做法涉及在高峰流通后从公众视野中删除创伤性图像，尤其是私刑图像，并将其存储在新闻编辑室，图书馆或博物馆中。 她说，理查森(Richardson)希望找到一种方法，以“使[这些图像]尽可能有用，而不会伤害黑人”。

Tynes is working on another solution. She recently won a nearly $1 million grant to develop an app that can help reduce racial trauma online. While the project is still in the research stages, she thinks that increasing digital literacy can help prepare young people for the racism they will experience in digital spaces.

Tynes正在研究另一种解决方案。 她最近获得了将近100万美元的赠款，用于开发可帮助在线减少种族创伤的应用。 尽管该项目仍处于研究阶段，但她认为提高数字素养可以帮助年轻人为他们在数字空间中会遇到的种族主义做准备。

“Critical digital literacy skills, specifically critical race digital literacy skills, will buffer the association between seeing traumatic videos, traumatic events online, and depressive or PTSD symptoms,” she says.

她说：“重要的数字素养技能，特别是重要的种族数字素养技能，将缓冲观看创伤性录像，在线创伤事件和抑郁或PTSD症状之间的联系。”

Despite their traumatizing impact, Tynes believes these images are the only path to change.

泰恩斯(Tynes)相信，尽管它们产生了令人痛苦的影响，但它们是改变的唯一途径。

“I don’t yet have the answers to how to balance needing the world to see what’s actually happening and protecting Black kids,” she says. “I just know that I’m working on creating tools that will help them to protect themselves if they see these videos.”

她说：“对于如何平衡需要全世界了解实际情况和保护黑人孩子的问题，我还没有答案。” “我只知道我正在创建工具，以帮助他们在看到这些视频时保护自己。”