This message was originially posted on June 4, 2020. It was written by Shannon Snapp, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology.

Dear CSUMB Psychology community,

On behalf of your faculty and staff, I write to you today to let you know that we stand with you and we stand against all violence that is directed towards the Black community, including state-sanctioned violence in the form of police brutality and murder.

We want to first alert you to a “CSUMB Community Conversation” on the Killing of George Floyd that will be hosted by the Building Community Through Dialogue Co-Op on Friday June 5, 12-1:30pm. You must register on Zoom in advance.

There is a lot to say here, and yet much of it has been said before and more eloquently by Black writers, activists, artists, scholars, filmmakers, entertainers, athletes, and people. We strongly encourage you to read, watch, and listen to what Black people themselves have to say about what is happening. But please don’t ask Black people to educate you or to recommend books for you to read. I will offer some of that in our resources on racism and action (much of which has already been compiled by Black activists), but a quick google search will get you started.

We want to take this time to remind you that so much of what we are experiencing is directly related to psychology, and in that case our field has a very important role to play in creating change. This letter is meant not just to let you know that we stand for Black lives, but may it be a resource for your further learning.

While there are psychological concepts that underlie racism, I want to remind you of the psychology of rhetoric. If you’ve taken my Social Psychology and Social Justice (SPSJ) class, you’ll hopefully remember how language can be used as a strategic weapon to make a point. It is our job to use our education to recognize this and see through it. While the POTUS claimed to be on the side of peaceful protestors, he said “I am your president of law and order,” and he will take measures to end “riots and lawlessness” to “dominate the streets” and stop the “thugs.”

This language is strategic, particularly when used to place blame back on the people. If you watch the news and listen carefully to conversations about “looters” and “riots” many will say this is not the answer and goes against a peaceful protest against police violence.

Even in these remarks, we lose focus and we start the process of cognitive dissonance. The psychological concept of cognitive dissonance is “a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way” (Psychology Today, n.d.).

In the SPSJ class, we read Dr. Joy DeGruy’s book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, in which she claims that cognitive dissonance is one of the primary reasons racism exists in its many forms today. She notes that while White people during slavery and thereafter enacted violence upon enslaved Africans and subsequent free African Americans, they didn’t view themselves as violent and believed violence to be wrong. Thus the belief “I’m not violent” or “violence is wrong” contradicted the violence that Whites inflicted upon Black people or condoned through non-action.

DeGruy (2005) writes:

To me, therein lies the root of this issue. As many have said, slavery is the “original sin” of our country that has created wounds, or what psychologists would call multigenerational trauma, and instead of owning it and resolving it, racism and violence have continued and taken many forms both overt and covert.

In order to deal with the cognitive dissonance, White people could either stop being violent and/or allow violence to continue, or they could make Black people the problem (i.e., “they deserved it”) or dehumanize them (e.g., the 3/5 compromise, claiming Black people have higher pain tolerances, etc.). We see this blame game continue to this day in all forms of police brutality and violence against Black people. For example, in the case of George Floyd, many people asked about George’s actions (in the form of resistance) prior to him being held down with a knee on his neck. In the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the men who murdered him said they thought he was stealing from a construction site.

We try and justify the murders of these men by looking for a reason they deserved to die. Clearly this tactic is not working well, and international outcry through daily protests illustrate that perhaps this time, we (as a society) and they (the police) will not be able to wiggle out of this clear injustice.

There are other psychological concepts at play such as: a) implicit (unconscious) biases that position outgroups as the “other” and are based off of stereotypes or learned associations about groups of people, and b) the bystander effect, which results in inaction to an event due to the high number of people witnessing the event. While we can also imagine that these psychological issues brought us to this place, it is hopeful to me that the protests and international attention to this issue forces us to examine our biases and holds us accountable as bystanders (a position that most will experience as uncomfortable).

So for those of us who are White and for all allies who want to be anti-racist, we have an opportunity here to utilize our knowledge and undeserved advantages (a.k.a., privilege) to create social change. This is how we put our learning into action.

Please do your part to support Black Lives. Whether or not you choose to protest, there’s a lot of things you can do to expand your learning and engage in anti-racists efforts. If you will be a student at CSUMB in the next academic year, Ibram Kendi’s book How to Be an Antiracist will be used for university-wide discussion and dialogue. We encourage you to read this book and seek out additional resources to deepen your learning. We’ve created a list here to help you get started. This is an entry point. Use your research skills to keep digging, and don’t be afraid to go deep!

Also, it is important that when you engage in any form of activism that you continue to take care of yourself. If you need support, we encourage you to reach out to our Personal Growth and Counseling Center: 831-582-3969

Last, I want to share a brief perspective on healing that I recently posted on IG which is really about how we as humans reconcile.

Any act of healing between individuals is greatly aided by these basic steps:

As far as I can see, as a country we have made one formal apology for slavery, but we never did any of these others steps. Clearly, we kept harming. For 400+ years we have been terrorizing the Black community and we never made any concerted effort to heal. This country was built on racism and dysfunction, and it cannot sustain. Like any dysfunctional family or relationship, someone stops the cycle and either the relationship ends or it begins a long journey of repair. White people, we have yet another opportunity to heal. I hope we take it.

Thank you for your efforts CSUMB Psychology family. We are here with you to serve as guides, supports, and co-conspirators of the “change we want to see” and so desperately need.

In solidarity,

Dr. Shannon Snapp on behalf of The Department of Psychology

PS* I recognize that I call out White people, but I want to acknowledge that many other communities of color stand in solidarity with Black people. This is not to excuse or dismiss the work of other people of color, but to highlight the need for White people especially to move out of bystander roles into anti-racist allies. I leave you with a quote by the one and only Toni Morrison.