For many people across the country, not just in Memphis, Tennessee, the video of the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols is hard to watch. A professor at Eastern Michigan University is helping students and faculty learn to cope with traumatic news events.
When the city of Memphis released the video this past weekend, it quickly spread across television and social media. For many, especially among people of color, seeing these violent videos replayed everywhere can be traumatic.
Dr. Doris Fieldsis EMU’s interim chief diversity officer. She says getting a chance to talk about the emotions these videos produce is important.
“I think that whenever these events come, they’re triggering to people. And it takes people back to an unhappy place in their experiences themselves. And they start to remember the things that happened to them and then the trauma, racial trauma, starts all over again.”
Dr. Fields will be hosting a pair of discussion groups to address this issue. Community wellness and self-care when dealing with traumatic news events will be the topic on February 6th (2 p.m. - 4 p.m.) and February 8th (3 p.m. - 5 p.m.) in the Intersection room, across from Service EMU in the Student Center.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU todayto keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Contact WEMU News at734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
