Daring to Dismantle: Audaciously Addressing Race and Caste in Betrayal Trauma

Table of Contents

 

Prelude: Grounding Inheritance as a Container for Healing

Introduction: Daring to Dismantle 

Chapter One: IST of an ISM Paradigm

 Chapter Two: Social Justice Lens in Addressing Betrayal Trauma

Chapter Three: Systemic Trauma | Societal Betrayal

Chapter Four:  Racialized Trauma and Minoritization Theory

Chapter Five: Historical Racialized Trauma and Minoritization Betrayal: Lived Experiences

Chapter Six: Developmental, Interpersonal, and Intergenerational Trauma and Betrayal: Early Childhood/Elementary

Chapter Seven: Developmental, Interpersonal, and Intergenerational Trauma and Betrayal: Middle Childhood/Adolescence

Chapter Eight: Developmental, Interpersonal, and Intergenerational Trauma and Betrayal: Young Adulthood/Middle Adulthood

Chapter Nine: Institutional Trauma | Medical Betrayal

Chapter Ten: Institutional Persistent | Workplace Betrayal

Chapter Eleven: Committed Relationship|Sexual Betrayal

Chapter Twelve: Faith-based Betrayal Trauma

Chapter Thirteen: Epilogue

 See what is being said about Daring to Dismantle: Audaciously Addressing Race and Caste in Betrayal Trauma?"

Dante D. King

Author of The 400 Year Holocaust

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical Education

The process of connecting rac-ISM to rac-IST(S) is very important. In Daring to Dismantle, Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins helps us understand how tens of millions of white people have upheld and continue to operationalize perpetual whiteness, white supremacy, anti-non-whiteness, and anti-Blackness in the United States of America and worldwide. As students, scholars, lifetime learners, and academics, we must continue grappling with whiteness and white racism as psychopathologies by considering the traumas that affect white and non-white people because of racism. Moreover, the book sheds light on white peoples' investments in racism and the daily accommodations they receive in American daily life, as this book requires. Understanding this critical reality enables us to observe the ongoing dehumanization that Black people mostly experience through the lack of daily accommodations and privileges. There are both moral and economic costs to racism in white America. To understand whiteness, anti-non-whiteness, and anti-Blackness is to understand that white people have maintained obsessive perversions about themselves, and others based upon skin color alone. In other words, white people are obsessed with whiteness and the processes and mechanisms that they utilize to superiorize themselves and inferiorize others. Daring to Dismantle provides us a framework, language, and strategies to challenge America’s racial color-caste system and continue addressing long overdue trauma and mass psychosis. This book is pure brilliance!

Molly Kennedy, M.Ed., MSW

Social Worker and Social Justice Researcher

Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins’ IST of an ISM work is incredible and has resonated so much with the Black, Brown, Indigenous and other systemically non-dominant (Jenkins, 1995-present) folx we train. The IST of an ISM paradigm challenges white supremacy and reframes critical conversations. This work has been an essential part of my journey as a white person and remains at the root of the social justice lens and work I do today. Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins is brilliant! She and this book are such gifts to me and our world!

Xyan Neider, MA, ED

Antiracism Author, Activist, Abolitionist, Educator

Hurt people, hurt people. I often say this and believe it to be true. When humans have been ground down by the systems of colonialism and white supremacy in the workplace, we would do well to understand that they are experiencing institutional trauma. Operating within the workplace, this type of trauma is commonplace for People of Color all the more so for dark skinned Black women and people with intersectional identities that are systemically non-dominant) causing what Dr. William Smith called, racial battle fatigue (RBF). As a result, RBF results in myriad negative health outcomes at the individual level and greater attrition of People of Color at the institutional level. Not only do institutions and organizations lose incredible talent when they fail to address the racialized abuse of their staff, not addressing race and caste as institutional trauma costs the organization monetarily because they have to search to fill the position, rehire someone for that role, and train the new hire. By fostering an organization focused on the wellness of the community - both employees and those they serve, the organization retains talent and can better serve the needs of the community they serve. I hope leaders across industry will pick up this book and explore ways they can promote a culture of wellness for their employees and community.

Dr. Sharon Cronin

Author-Educator

Lead Researcher Teaching Umoja

Early childhood educators are morally obligated to interrupt, undo, and address racism and its intersections with other forms of oppression in the lives of young children and their families. The Teaching Umoja Co-Researchers (2020) of which Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins is a co-researcher, determined that “racial discrimination can be addressed, its potential scars prevented by caring adults providing children of color with the opportunity and guidance to develop skills or strategies for survival, and resisting efforts to separate them from their cultural, linguistic, and familial backgrounds.” We further concluded, “Adults working with young children may have to process issues regarding their own internalized oppression, feelings of being unqualified, and lack of awareness of the most appropriate educational context for children of color. These issues require critical analysis and self-reflection, guidance, and modeling, and theoretical and professional development.” Dr. Jenkins’ work on race and caste as developmental betrayal trauma is a must read for those working with young children. She provides tools and insight desperately needed for unpacking and supporting the processing and healing of betrayal trauma.

 Alessia Fontenette Madkins, MAMFT, LPC, CCPS

Counseling Professional and Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialist

 As a Black Clinician I am aware that infidelity is destructive to the lives of anyone who has lived through the trauma of betrayal, and will forever deeply impact their emotions, trust, loyalty, and self-worth. But to Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins’ point in this book, what’s equally devastating is being retraumatized by a therapist, a coach, or a mental health center or organization that are unaware or not trained to meet the needs of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. Culturally responsive resources are still emerging and lacking in the efforts of helping individuals reach the stage of posttraumatic growth. There continues to be a pattern of limited resources and underrepresentation. Similar cultural roots are not always a guarantee for a better bond, but, if a therapist, coach, or mental health center or organization is not culturally competent and do not vow to the ethical duty of every client’s best welfare, refer the client to a competent partner trained therapist and or coach who is Black, Brown, or Indigenous. The dilemma today still falls on deaf ears, culturally responsive therapists, coaches, and mental health centers and organizations must develop cultural authenticity. When culturally responsive resources are provided with intention which is the work of “dismantling” advocated for in this book, it will make all the difference as it relates to Black, Brown, and Indigenous partners experiencing betrayal within committed relationships.

Rev. Dr. W. Tali Hairston, PhD

 The consistent commodification of faith in the post-colonial marketplace of ideas emphatically calls for a hermeneutic capable of navigating the streets of faith, nationalism, and social identity. What is needed is a framework for interrogating white nationalism and faith-based fascism for what it is, a trauma-genic system. Daring to Dismantle, is a concise examination that sets forth a faithful sociogenic aesthetic that is thoroughly responsive to the sense of loss, hurt, dysregulation, and dislocation many in the Black Church are experiencing, some for the first time in their faith journey. Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins baptizes us into the troubling waters of current political discourse and lifts us by systematically guiding us along the healing journey. 

Nycole Beard

Trauma Informed Life Coach

ACSW, MSW, TICC, MPC, TIRC

 Coaches who understand race and caste within the system of barriers can empower clients by helping them discover their ‘eye-dentity’; By recognizing and addressing these barriers, coaches can help clients navigate and dismantle them, creating a more equitable and inclusive path to healing and resiliency. Barriers, such as institutional disparities, discriminatory behaviors, and deeply ingrained biases, disproportionately affect minority communities. Effective coaches can help clients better understand themselves and their surroundings, enabling them to progress towards their goals. I highly recommend Dr. Debra Jenkins' book, "Daring to Dismantle: Audaciously Addressing Race and Caste in Betrayal Trauma," which offers a comprehensive guide to understanding the complex relationships and barriers arising from betrayal trauma and societal deficits.

Yvonne L. Terrell-Powell PhD

Counseling Psychology M. ED Psychological Counseling, LMC

Vice President of Equity and Inclusion

 In acknowledging and healing racial trauma, we must expand upon how the intersection of race within a caste system negatively impacts BIPOC communities. This intersection promotes systemic oppression, violence, and racial trauma. As a Black woman, I recognize the importance of calling out and addressing the dehumanization and stigma experienced by BIPOC communities. These actions allow us to empower ourselves, build healthy relationships and community, and find a safe space to heal. Daring to Dismantle can guide us in that direction!

Vanessa R. Gaston

Community Services Director

 If you’re truly going to address inequities and disproportionality, you must examine the intersection between race and class. The mere thought that someone’s status and value is a scribed at birth based on his/her/their social and economic standing is the definition of a caste system. Now consider the social and legal construct of a racial hierarchy that’s designed to have one race more superior than another simply based on skin color with those having darker skin at the bottom. You can look at any set of data and it will show that black and brown people living in poverty have the poorest outcomes across all health indicators. These outcomes can be predicted based on institutional structures and policies put in place to ensure certain populations remain poor and oppressed. This is why it’s imperative that social change is needed to address these disparities and injustices. This work can be done in many forms, but the best strategy has always been through strategic community organizing. Yet, many efforts today leave out the very communities they are trying to assist. When strategies and outcomes are developed and driven by the community impacted, the buy-in to work towards those outcomes is better and the results are better. This can only be done through effective community organizing that includes people with lived experience and trusted advocates. We need to trust that communities of color living in poverty know what they need to thrive and improve the quality of life for them and their families. I appreciate Dr. Debra (Debi) Jenkins for delving into this topic and creating courageous space for much needed dialogue on the issue.

Adrienne Livingston

Humanitarian and Global Catalyst

Isaiah 1:17 and Psalm 147:3

 I have appreciated the concern and care that Dr. Debra Debi Jenkins has for people and specifically calling out and addressing how race, racism and how this “sweet land of liberty” has been a “land of betrayal, dishonesty and downright poison” for people of color. From the pillaging, manipulation, betrayal and lies to Indigenous Americans, the enslavement and inhumane treatment of African Americans, the taking of land from the Latino community to the throwing Japanese people into internment camps…This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the point I hope of the human greed and betrayal that has caused so much brokenness, hurt and trauma. Not just any trauma but complex trauma. Where we should be and feel safe in this land, we do not. Unfortunately, we are still having to fight for what should be given to us all and that is to be treated humanely, and justly, and to truly be equal. Dr. Jenkins’ book is so timely. Many people need healing and to know how to practice self-care even amongst being the recipient of betrayal, whether that is from our country, work, family member or friend. This is a must- read book which is really a resource for personal healing and care.