Footage of violent racist incidents such as the murder of George Floyd is traumatising black children, according to the author Claudia Rankine, who believes it could be one of the factors contributing to a rise in child suicide among black communities in the US.
The poet, playwright, essayist and academic said the frequency and availability of such images has not led to black people being safer and instead is having a negative effect on the mental health of young people.
Rankine said there was now a “generation of kids” in the US who were “terrified” and “feel they don’t have options” in a world where they are criminalised “from the moment they are children”.
She added: “When you begin to take into account that the suicide rates around black children, especially black boys are going up, you understand they’re being traumatised by the information that’s coming towards them.”
A recent piece in the New Yorker cited research that found racial…
