Trauma is no joke! Will Smith & Chris Rock.

Sticks and Stones may Break my Bones, but Words will Never Hurt Me.

This is not an article about celebrating nor condemning Will Smith or Chris Rock. This is a highlight of truth that applies to us all.

1. Trauma is real and can manifest itself in an audible and physical form.
2. Protection is ambiguous. The word and action is informed by the individual, their socialization and identity in race, religion and gender spectrum. Be it in the form of contraception choice or in a believed assignment and responsibility to one’s family, loved one, or social identity group.
3. Bullying is, in its many forms, an example that hurt people, hurt people. The evidence of the experience and impact of bullying has left a trail of pain, loss and in some cases, launched the careers of many standup comedians.
4. Workplace harassment, intimidation and injury can occur in public or private and requires policy and protection for the injured and/or reporting parties.
5. Public violence has been interwoven into many national and international origin stories and acts of punishment. Acceptable and often encouraged acts such as capital punishment fire squads, electric chair, the guillotine, slave whipping, hanginging and police brutality and excessive force, come each with their own public opinions and rationale.
6. Women have a history of being a target for abuse, mockery or hypervisualization and sexualized with no form of protection under law or land.
7. Triggers don’t always come with a warning. Reliving post-trauma can be expressed in anxiety, fear, and anger. It’s difficult to predict when or how a body and mind will become triggered by an environment, a memory, or a person. There is self work that can be done to better understand what is happening within and why and further, the most effective communication of the trigger.
8. Anti-Blackness is a thing. Will and Chris both identify as Black men, and under our Country’s garment of racism, will pay a higher penalty under social measures for this act in a PWI (Predominantly White Institution)such as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Oscar event. There is no benefit of anti-blackness to any racial identity.
9. Health and Wellness can be invisible. Many varying abilities are not physical, while some may take a temporary or permanent external form such as hair loss. Assumptions about a person’s health and their comfort and acceptance of their condition(s) should never be made or exposed.

To end, I offer simple advice: Be careful with one another, maintain your awareness of self and others, be thoughtful and think through, and understand that ambiguity is not void of accountability.