Healing Black trauma necessitates universal health care

Discounting Medicare for all makes the US Congress complicit in Black child abuse.

I remember the sound of shattering glass breaking our complacency the day a family member pushed me through a window. As middle-graders, we were both accustomed to physical violence, fighting viciously, which often left me with bruises. The language of the #MeToo movement helped me understand that the sexual trauma I experienced in my childhood was another form of violence. An adult in my life did not force themselves upon me, but frequently masturbated in front of me. Given my limited understanding of abusers’ motivations and mental conditions, as an 11-year-old I could only deduce that I deserved what was happening to me. I imagined that if only I were stronger, I could have stopped it all. I could have won the physical fight against my physical abuser, and I could have told the sexual abuser in my life “no, this is wrong.” Yet, in the same way a disempowered child cannot be expected to win against a powerful abuser, Black parents in the United States cannot be expected to combat the overwhelming constraints limited access to mental healthcare services places on their home life. Lack of access to these services hampers their ability to protect their children from violence in the home and society without government intervention.