Recognizing Trauma in Black Community Organizations

Something has been on my mind for weeks, and I will TRY to say it nicely.

Many people find it very difficult to watch other people imitate their ideas. But the Unveiling Black Springfield (UBS) research project is not devised to hold on to or hoard ideas that build social support for economic, family, and emotional well-being. The idea is to collaborate to implement projects that others reject or don't think of, then watch those projects thrive, and support others with projects of their own, or continuations and off-shoots of the same idea.

Unveiling Black Springfield is dedicated to using educational/research resources, in collaboration with local Springfield organizations and coalitions, to alleviate the disenfranchisement and institutional discrimination that harms the safety, economic mobility, and life chances of marginalized groups in Springfield.

We at UBS actually want someone else to initiate another State of Black Springfield (SOBS). In the roughy 18 months since that project, several citizens have asked for a repeat. They can see that SOBS is different from a listening session. It was planned over months with a collaboration of organizations and university financial backing, so that many people in the community could be reached and so that Black citizens from various statuses and worldviews, could have open dialogue, starting THAT DAY to initiate change. We have not been protective or competitive with this project, and we deliberately kept several copies of the program, with notes, so that anyone could look at what we did and how we did it. However, we decided NOT to publish it as a research article, because we know that building the trust of the citizens means that we don't profit off of it through publications and name recognition.

We would also would love to implement the Community Healing Sessions again. But those who say they want the healing sessions need to collaborate with health and community organizations to PLAN and HOST the healing sessions. I am not the only Black PhD in this town. Nor am I the only Black PhD who focuses on intergenerational trauma or other mental health issues. I'm not sure why the most recent attempt at healing sessions did not have a great turnout, but we at UBS would be more than happy to sit down with anyone and help work it out for a more successful result.

These are only two examples of the projects that UBS has completed in Springfield through public sociology. We always collaborate. ALWAYS. As the principle investigator of the project, I always check white leaders who have great ideas but want to use Black people as tokens. ALWAYS. And I always tell white people about it before I work with them. I teach UBS research assistants and volunteers to create the same collaborative practices in hopes that they will initiate their own collaborative community-support organizations. But after reviewing some of the data, I think I need to start telling powerful Black people the same things about tokenism and usury. I thought they understood.

What I don't understand is:

• Why do citizens watch UBS collaborate with SEVERAL organizations at one time, but think they only have to collaborate with one or two people?

• Why do people, who obviously want to solve inequities, watch us reach out to people from several different income brackets, and then think that they only have to deal with middle- or high-income folks, or with only folks from the streets?

• And again, why do local citizens get mad at newcomers for coming up with SUCCESSFUL ideas that locals can't come up with, and then deliberately plot against the newcomers, as if succesful "transplants" are enemies? WE ARE NOT HERE TO HARM YOU! Geez.

  
  

  These are trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and the new one, flop). I'm sorry - I thought we wanted to HEAL our communities. So then, after attempting to work with and get to know several citizens from several different backgrounds, I have another question (a good researcher always does):

  
  

• Why do we all think collaboration is synonomous with control? We do we try to control people with ideas, dreams, and talent?

  
  

I will admit that much of my own trauma deals with people trying to contain and control me. So then, I can see (or think I see) manipulation and the enactment of "authority" coming from three miles and six conversations away. I continue to study it because I genuinely want to know how some people can believe that their manipulative tactics will work on traumatized individuals and communities. My PTSD is strong on this.

So I woke up this morning thinking about trauma responses, because I went to bed planning my social psychology course. Intra-group trauma is real in marginalized communities (trauma within groups, where group members fight each other). WE all get hurt, stigmatized, traumatized, by more powerful groups, for being cast out as single mothers on food stamps, Black, unhoused, uneducated, constantly stopped by police, or any number of things. And then as soon as WE get some power, we wanna fight EVERYBODY, especially those who have been through the exact same trauma as we have. We call it "holding people accountable." When we get insecure and protective, we call it "protecting the plan." When we suffer from being shut out of a powerful bureacracatic group, then we create our own harmful heirarchy and say that information is only provided on a "need to know basis." It's still a trauma response.

Don't we wanna get healed? That way, when we fight ('cause I really do love to fight), we are not just fighting ourselves over and over again, but we are fighting the ACTUAL ENEMY. Competition, individualism, bureacracy, and hierarchy breed silos, seperatism, and distrust. Building a collective means you have to trust. Don't we wanna build a community that INSPIRES trust instead of breaking trust down?

In a recent listening session, one local artist said that every Black organization has something to give, and she wants everybody to eat. In the many months of this research, I have talked to A LOT of people in this city. A LOT. I have heard, seen, or said exactly the opposite of what that artist said she wanted. For instance, many other organizers and citizens warned me about a few local organizers who they thought had various. But I insisted on finding out for myself. I have worked with every one of the organizers I was warned about. Some of the hearsay and warnings were correct. Of those, some have changed and grown even in only three years since I've been here. Some have not changed at all, even after I spoke directly with them about what I saw. In each of these individuals, I have seen how their histories affect the ways they move in community. And in some of their movements, I have noticed trauma responses. I've seen people hoarding power and control.

It's not just one person or group, although some people's moves are quite obvious to other Black people in Springfield. Surprisingly, the power hoarding is surprisingly over-the-heads of some white financial backers - unless of course, the white financial backers are using some Black leaders as tokens.

We've got to find a better way to relieve ourselves from this oppression - something better than planning and plotting against each other. And it doesn't matter if we look calm, speak sweetly, or write with perfect gramatical skill when we wreak havok on our own racial/ethnic group members. Secrets, shutting people out, and then devising our own narratives about why still looks like vengeance and trauma. We are all playing ourselves. Yes, WE. Because transplants are still a part of this city, too.

__________________________________________

For further reading:

Delamater, John, Jessica Collett, and Steven Hitlin. 2025. Social Pyschology. 10th Edition. New York, New York: Routledge. accessed 11/30/25 at chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cognella-titles-sneakpreviews.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/81994-2B-URT/81994-2B_SP.pdf

Jegede, Oluwatosin and Olowakayoda Akinboboye. 2022. Impact of Intra-group Conflict on Organizational Performance: Alientaing Role of Cross Culturalism. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.  

Senechal de la Roche, Roberta. 1990. In Lincoln's Shadow: The 1908 Race Riot in Springfield, Illinois. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Sikandar, Sonia, and Asma Bibi. 2024. "Intergenerational Trauma: Understanding its effects on Family Dynamics and Community Well-Being." Journal of Applied Linguistics and TESOL. Vol. 7 (4). 1461-1469.

NOTE: 12/2/25. The last two paragraphs of this post were changed on advice from members of the UIS Department of Sociology and Anthropology.