WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Position Paper (Argumentative)
In Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,
Dr. Joy DeGruy argues that a system of racial oppression, conditioning
through enslavement and consistent terror contributes to the actions and
repeated behavior due to trauma. Dr. DeGruy writes, “one traumatic
experience can result in distorted attitudes, dysfunctional behaviors,
and unwanted consequences, this pattern is magnified exponentially when a
person repeatedly experiences severe trauma, and it is much worse when
the traumas are caused by human beings” (9).
Show through quotes, analysis, and the use of other sources how
epigenetics has revealed through DNA testing that trauma can be passed
along genetically to future generations. In your essay discuss how a few
of these systemic issues, such as, Jim Crow, Convict Leasing,
Sharecropping, and the Tuskegee Experiments (as examples) have
contributed to the present trauma of the African American lived
experience in the USA. Draw upon historic and current evidence to
support your claims. By the same token, provide an analysis of what
kinds of treatments are being used to employ the healing from the legacy
of injury as caused by the trauma.
Carefully consider Dr. DeGruy’s premise and critically analyze her
position while paying attention to the “historical lens of slavery and
its aftermath”. In your essay of 5 pages, discuss whether or not you
support Dr. DeGruy’s position and her insights regarding her “purpose of
encouraging African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and
behaviors through the lens of history to gain a greater understanding
of the impact that centuries of slavery and oppression have had on our
[African] lives” (10).
[I attach 2 sources. For “Then They Came For Mine,” I don’t have a book to upload, so here I have a direct quote line with page number. Please at least use 1 or 2 line, to make it count. You can choose other 3 sources as you think it’s the best.