CUNY Academic Commons

Jhanaiya Smith-Butler
Prof. I. Bodre
ENG 1100/A
Into to Composition
December 14, 2018

Dear Iris Bodre,

English 110 was one of my favorite classes of the semester. Not only did I learn different writing techniques, I was able to explore my strengths and weaknesses within my own writing. Through peer reviewing and feedback from you, I was able to hone my skills and make improvements to my academic writing. While I still have a long way to go, my most reoccurring errors: repetition of words or phrases, use of grammatically incorrect terms, and lack of proofreading, were all addressed and put to rest. Slowly but surely I was able to not only utilize these improved skills, but also use my newfound knowledge of the rhetorical situation in order to better my writing.
It is important when writing to know your subject as well as your relationship to it. In my first paper, ‘The Time I Ran Away’, the subject was my own memories. I wrote about my personal experience, and had to use my communication skills to effectively place the reader into my memory alongside me. Through imagery, analogies, metaphors and similes, I learned how to appeal to an unknown audience, and allow them to relive my life with me. Whilst writing ‘The Time I Ran Away’ I was extremely excited to put my thoughts on paper. I love talking about myself and my life because I love sharing my experiences. However, when I actually picked up my pencil to actually begin writing, I was conflicted. I knew what I wanted to talk about from the start, but I had no idea which format to use when it came to organizing the paper. I decided to begin with writing out the key elements of my paper. Who I was before my experience, the actual event itself, followed by how it made me feel and how it changed the way I looked at certain things. Essentially, I made a story map, which was highly effective in keeping to the point of the paper as opposed to straying off track or repeating myself.
A critical part of every rhetorical situation is your stance. Before English 110, I was guilty of always stating my opinion directly in my work. One could tell my very stance just from the title of my piece. This class demonstrated how to get my point across, without me ever having to say it. Most importantly, how to not only indirectly convey my claim, but also how to remain neutral while using other creators work to state my claim for me. In “The Black Panther Paradox”, my analysis paper, I did just that, used external opinions to defend my thoughts on a subject. I love Black Panther- as comic book, as a movie, as a character- everything about it is amazing to me. Yet there are some who did not fully enjoy the 2018 blockbuster, which is a feeling that at first I could neither fathom nor understand. However, before one begins to write, research must be done. When I originally chose the subject of my favorite movie, I thought that I was going to use an extremely positive, irrefutable review by an acclaimed critic or a child inspired after the movie, but I felt that that course would be predictable and, dare I say, cliché. I decided to use a review of the movie by an African critic who disapproved of how the movie portrayed his people, providing an opinion that would have the average reader rethink the movie itself. This demonstrates my ability to draw on ideas that opposed my own to explore my topic, have them strengthen my conviction, or force me to reconsider my original thesis by providing me with a deeper understanding of the topic, and allow my reader to do the same.
An authors purpose, the reason they are writing to begin with, is fundamental when writing for the rhetorical situation. My purpose as a writer and as a creative is to bring light to issues, have my reader think differently about how they apply to society. Those issues are mainly ones surrounding minorities and permeating our communities. The issue of mental health is a serious one, therefore when I began to do my research to support my thesis for my paper, “A Trip into the Black Psyche”, I made the error of trying to include each and every piece of information I recorded, because I felt that the more research that I did the more effective my paper would be in communication my ideas and having the audience understand the magnitude of the issue. After receiving feedback, I realized that it didn’t matter how much supporting evidence I had, how credible the sources were, or how many number I used, if I could not interpret the information I recorded, or explain it to the reader, the audience would not care, nor would they fully comprehend my thesis. It is quality that strengthens a writer, not quantity, which is a concept that I learned how implement into my writing.
My goals for this class at the beginning to the semester, were simple: better my communication skills, learn how to write objectively about a subject while still indicating my opinion, and strengthen my confidence as a writer. The essays that you are about to read demonstrate that I not only achieved my goals, but possess the ability to go above and beyond and tackle large topics, while still maintaining proper rhetoric and appropriate vernacular to reach any audience.
Hope you enjoy,
Jhanaiya Smith-Butler
Artist, Activist, Visionary Extraordinaire

Jhanaiya Smith-Butler
Prof. I. Bodre
ENG 1100/A
Introduction to Composition
October 1st, 2018
The Time I ran Away
The world is an amazing place. Filled with wonder, corruption, kindness and hate. It’s a beautiful oxymoron, this devilish sanctuary, that provides unimaginable outcomes. I love being alive. I love learning new things, having an endless sense of fascination, being able to grow. However, there is always a negative side to things all this beauty and wonder. There is sadness, anger, fear, loss, and so much more. I have always been scared to lose the ones I love. Whether I lose them to trauma, to death, to depression, anything that would take them away from themselves, from me. I have lost myself many more times than I care to share, transforming into a completely different person at certain points, which is something I wish to never see anyone experience. As a result, I have always wanted to be some kind of hero. Not a spandex and cape heroine, a realistic one. I wanted to be a criminologist, a person who caught the bad guy, saved the day, and prevented them from ever hurting anyone else. I was ready to put myself on the line if it meant helping someone else, or at least that’s what I thought.
As a child, the world always determined my actions. More specifically, the people in MY world determined my life to the tee, especially my sister. While we are very, very similar, there is one major difference between her and I, she needs solidarity and consistency. Bonnie simply cannot handle change. It slips through her fumbling fingertips and stains whatever makes her feel grounded. While I have always been the one to be able to recover from situations and overcome fear, my sister completely shuts down and ignore issues. Yet, my sister has always been the person that was there for me when I needed her, guiding me in the right direction and helping with my problems which in turn inspired me to go out and do my part for the world. To have the person you depend on, make you question who you are, it does something remarkable to you.
I must have been, at most, 10 years old, with my sister being around 12. We were walking home alone, so we probably weren’t far from our destination. I can’t remember much of it, I can’t remember most of it, actually. But I do remember the look in that woman’s eyes. The look that said, “I need love, and will take it from whomever can give it to me, no matter what it takes.” I remember him. I remember how he tossed her like an abandoned toy he had never wanted, but kept because he had nothing else to break. I remember him slamming her against the tree, slamming her against the fence, slamming her face against his fists. Over and over. I remember her looking up at me as I took a step in her direction. I still see her tears chasing the desperation down her face, intermingling with her own blood.
I wanted to fight. I barely came up to his navel but I was ready to do what needed to be done. I didn’t think a stranger could haunt my nightmares, but her screams did. They slept in my bed every night, and woke me up every morning for months. I had always thought of myself as someone who goes out of their way for someone. On that day? I faltered. I took a half second too long, one breath too many. My sister, on the other hand, was already fully analyzing the situation. She was already rerouting our path to avoid confrontation. Bonnie, in her terrified condition of organized panic, grabbed me by my elbow and slowly walked around the couple. It hurt. I must have watched that scene at least a million times over in the span it took me to pass them by.
I’ll never forget that day. When we reached home I cried tears for a woman I never even knew. For the common person, walking away and keeping your loved one safe is a natural reaction. For the common person, the idea of just putting your life on the line for a stranger is a concept that people tend to over look, as if it isn’t the right thing to do. Not for me. After that day? I was determined. I never wanted to see that again. That was a black woman, no older than 25. The woman looked just like me. She was me. She was my sister, my mother, my aunts, she was everyone I loved. If I can’t lose them, why was it okay to walk away from her?
I know it won’t be easy. I am not perfect and I am only one person. There are still some days where I want to back down. I want to turn a blind eye because I like to pretend that it’s easier, when it’s not, but I can’t. Just this summer, I was faced with a similar situation, in a library of all places. Another face of a sister, being tossed like an unwanted toy. It was a peculiar setting, and one of my favorite places. I was sure I would get kicked out but that didn’t matter.
So I stepped in, pushed the guy back. I screamed for help. I stood over her. And what happened?
He ran. Away from me! I’m only 18 and this, late twenties, man ran away from me like I was the scariest thing he’d ever seen. It was a game changer. This small stone, is going to create the biggest ripples you’ve ever seen. Do I still want to be criminologist? No. Do I still want to change the world? Heck yeah! I no longer wish to catch the bad guy. I want to help the “bad guys”, save anyone who would want to hurt someone else. I want to inspire others who have been hurt before and learn to love being alive, the same way I do. Yes, it’s a big dream, but it’s my dream. And fear won’t get in the way this time.

Jhanaiya Smith-Butler
Prof. I. Bodre
ENG 1100/A
Intro to Composition
November 17, 2018
The Black Panther Paradox
Halloween of 2018 was an interesting one. All kinds of costumes were worn for every age range, from default Fortnite skins, to gruesome Freddy Krueger’s to adorable little ducklings. One of the most reoccurring costumes were in the theme of Black Panther, a major motion picture based on the comic book character created in 1966 by the late Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Whether it was the king T’Challa himself, or one of his Dora Mijale, fearsome female warriors brandishing spears and grace, or the main villain, Killmonger, a military man in search of the throne for his personal vendetta, everyone found a character they could relate to within the film. The impact that Black Panther had in America was immense, but there are some who feel the opposite, that Black Panther set the people back in an age of progression.
Grossing at $631 million, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther was met with mixed feelings. While argued as one of the best movies of 2018 by the media, there are a few intellectuals who disagree with the messages shown within the film. The Washington Post’s award winning Kenyan cartoonist and strategic communications consultant, Patrick Gathara, is one of the many individuals who feel that the Black Panther negatively portrayed Africa through its fictional nation of Wakanda, the set of the black panther universe. In his article, “ ‘Black Panther’ Offers a Regressive, Neocolonial Version of Africa”, Gathara argues,
At heart, it is a movie about a divided, tribalized continent, discovered by a white man who wants nothing more than to take its mineral resource, a continent run by a wealthy, power-hungry feuding and feudalist elite, where a nation with the most advanced tech and weapons in the world nonetheless has no thinkers to develop systems of transitioning ruler ship that do not involve lethal combat or coup d’état. (Gathara)

Gathara also explains how Wakanda is portrayed as a stereotype of Africa. The tribes, the culture, the poorly made accents that are all over the place. Other movies that are Marvel made contain a large array of different kinds of citizens, without any cliché character tropes and given immense amounts of individuality. Black Panther missed an amazing opportunity to finally change the way that the world sees Africa, because as a native, he feels misrepresented and disappointed in the execution of portraying the beauty of Africa. But what about those of African descent who don’t live in Africa or who have never been at all?
During an age of police brutality, more systematic hatred and blunt racism, and, of course, Trump, many argue that Coogler’s movie was needed now more than ever. Gathara fails to take into account the millions of African-Americans who have not witnessed Africa’s beauty, nor have seen it in a constructive environment of appreciation. Being Kenyan born, and a current resident, Coogler can not relate to the average black person who does not live in Africa, who has not seen anything more than the negative stereotypes of their home continent, much like Killmonger the main villain. Killmonger is the radical anti-hero who’s disdain for the protagonist originates from never coming home to Wakanda, thus having to deal with the racism and hatred thrown onto him in America. Killmonger never understood why his Wakanda family never rescued him from oppression and why, if they were so advanced, they never came to the aid of black people around the world. These feelings are shared by Karen Attiah, a global opinions editor who understands the animosity from Killmonger. “In some twisted ways, I identified with
Killmonger. Growing up, a part of my exploration into where my parents came from, I felt a sort of anger towards Africa. Like, how did you let colonialization happen to you? And the poverty? How are these leaders not doing more?”(Attiah, Meadow). In her interview with Larry Meadow, another Kenyan writer, Attiah indicates that 2018 is a crucial year for the black identity, that African-Americans needed this movie more than they even knew, expressing that most blacks rarely see themselves represented accurately, as well as positively. With the making of Black Panther, the stigma of Africa was attacked, showcasing beauty and togetherness between the people. As a result, Black Panther debut was met with a ‘pop out’ of African garbs, natural hair, and love that was shown at the premiere of Black Panther further supported the need of a movie for the culture.
Gathara’s mainly disagreed with Coogler’s choice to portray the highly advanced people of Wakanda as a nation driven by tradition and tribes, as if that is all there is to modern Africa. Choosing to have Wakandans strictly wear tribal clothing, when currently most African fashion is inspired by American fashion and pop culture, having a metropolitan system of transporting goods, but still having the residents reside in huts and in the side of a mountain. However, this was an element of the movie, the positive images of a history that most African-Americans were not able to enjoy for decades that had fans in love. Take Tenaja Smith-Butler, a Zoology and
Psychology major at SUNY Oswego. Before Black Panther, the idea of wearing a dashiki, or an African necklace was terrifying to her, she felt as if it was a form of cultural appropriation. Even though she is African-American, Smith-Butler felt that she only wanted to sport these items because they were pretty, and not for the sentimental and racial connection she has to them. After Black Panther? Smith-Butler felt differently, feeling a deeper connection than she ever had in her life to the continent in her blood, but not within her heart. “Black Panther was an eye opening experience, it helped me develop a deeper love and appreciation for everything that my culture entails,” eventually leading her to become the president of the Black Student Union in her school, an organization that “embodies the love the Black Panther gave us.”(Smith-Butler)
In Tenaja’s case, the same stereotypes that Gathara was displeased with enabled her to recreate her personal identification. While Gathara feels there’s more to Africa than traditions and tribes, to most African-Americans, when they think of Africa, they don’t think of the beauty that can come with those tribes and traditions. Black Panther not only touched AfricanAmericans, but it showed a side of Africa never before seen in Hollywood. It is the first step in representing ethnic groups that have only ever been negatively portrayed.
Works Cited

Attiah, Karen. Interview. “‘Black Panther’: Why the relationship between Africans and Black
Americans is so messed up” The Washington Post. 16 Feb. 2018. Accessed 20 Nov. 2018

Gathara, Patrick. “‘Black Panther’ offers a regressive, neocolonial vision of Africa”. The Washington Post, Fred Ryan. 26 Feb. 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/26/black-pantheroffers-a-regressive-neocolonial-vision-ofafrica/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.57e43020c609 Accessed 20 Nov. 2018

Smith-Butler, Tenaja. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2018

Jhanaiya Smith-Butler
Prof. I Bodre
ENG 1100/A
Intro to Composition
November 17, 2018
A Trip into the Black Psyche
In 2018, during the first semester of my first year of college, I came to terms with having Attention Deficit Disorder. All my life I had a feeling that there was something festering inside of me; that I was wrong, that my way of thinking was abnormal, as well as my actions. That my inability to pay attention made me unintelligent, so I worked harder in all my classes. Not being able to stay still was just because I was bored and needed something to do, and the headaches I got from focusing on miniscule tasks were due to lack of nutrition, or I was just tired. However, after receiving confirmation about my disorder I, of course told my mother, asking if I could get medical help and just to be able to talk to a professional about this. She laughed and said, “We don’t get sh*t like that.” “We” as in black people, and “sh*t” as in any disease, disorder, or abnormality. As if by being African-Americans, we aren’t allowed to have mental issues, nor
receive help for those or any other issues.
Sigmund Freud, world renown as one of the fathers of psychology, says that when we are in stressful situations or are dealing with anxiety, our brain protects our mental stability by using
‘defense mechanisms’. There are seven of these defense mechanisms: Repression, Denial, Projection, Reaction Formation, Displacement, Rationalization, and Sublimation. While psychologists believe that these are temporary mechanisms, and all may not be active at once, I propose with the way that society is structured, African-Americans are almost forced to live with defense mechanisms turned on, permanently, which they then not only internalize, but to the detriment of the psyche. Due to this issue, there are several disorders that manifest, or AfricanAmericans are born with, that are ignored because of the stigma that our own community has placed on needing help, being hurt, or even being different.
The ignominy of mental health did not come as a result of more recent events in America. Slavery has been a major factor in how Black Americans view themselves. Whilst everyone acknowledges the damage inflicted while wearing chains, the conversation of the aftermath is one done in whisper. However, Dr. Joyce DeGruy, an international researcher, advocator, presenter, and author, characterizes the effects on the psyche after slavery as ‘Post Traumatic
Slave Syndrome’:

P.T.S.S. is a theory that explains the etiology of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African American communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. It is a condition that exists as a consequence of multigenerational oppression of Africans and their descendants resulting from centuries of chattel slavery. A form of slavery which was predicated on the belief that African Americans were inherently/genetically inferior to whites. (DeGruy, 2005)
Dr. DeGruy theorized slavery was engrained into how we acted, portrayed, felt, and thought about ourselves. We began to keep our feelings in more, act in relationships as if we were still in bondage, think and operate as if anything we did would put us in a worse condition then we were already in. It is during those 400 years that our defensive mechanisms kicked in, and were present over the course of history, even until now. (DeGruy, 2005)
The general masses are not going to outright say that they feel inferior. Freud calls this
‘regression’, pushing unconscious thoughts and feelings out of awareness. In the infamous
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case, a test was done to show the supreme court that segregation affects children and the way they look and view themselves and the world. Identical dolls were given to the children, the only difference being that one was black, and one was white.
When asked to identify which doll was the ‘nice doll’, 59 percent of the children chose the white doll. When asked which one ‘looks bad’, another 59 percent chose the black doll, with 60 percent identifying the white doll as having a ‘nice color’, and 67 percent requesting to play with the white doll as well. (Clark & Clark, 109) Several children didn’t know what to say or how to respond. Some of these kids even made excuses, depicting they were brown because they got a tan, or that they burned their face. When it came to racism, it is something you are taught, not born with. It was after this experiment that people began to realize that children, who “do not see color” were being taught involuntary racism from younger ages than people thought. Children who can barely write their names, can already pick and choose beauty based off the color of skin.
While some will say that evidence procured from the Clark experiment is in a completely different time period and have no effect on today’s standards, the experiment was redone nearly
50 years later, yielding the same results. In 2005, the award-winning documentary “A Girl Like
Me” was made in Harlem, New York by Kiri Davis, a sixteen-year-old student at Urban
Academy. Davis would ask children from Harlem’s Day Care Center a series of questions. “Can you show me the doll that looks bad?” Without a doubt, the children would choose the black doll, their explanation of the white doll being good, “Because she’s white.”. The last question was for the child to identify the doll that looks like them. With hesitation, the children would choose the black doll, no doubt thinking about the description they just gave to it. Fifteen of those 21 children preferred the white doll. Those kids who have barely experienced the world, in a time period completely different than the initial experiment. Young children still view being black as bad, white as good, and have clear internal conflicts dealing with those two statements.
(Davis, 2005)
Now we fall on the subject of perception of self. There African-American children, feeling that being themselves is bad, and they want to be someone else. Yet, they are at the age where the world is still defining who they are. This sense of inferiority then turns into low selfesteem, depression, anxiety, and a constant search for a sense of belonging. Last year, 2017, a study was done by the American Psychiatric Association on mental health in different racial groups in America. Even though 13.3% of the population (about 24,490,164) in America are black, there is 16.8% of the black population (about 1,457,788) suffer from mental illness. Yet,
“only one-in-three African-Americans who need mental health care receives it,” (American Psychiatric Association, 2017) revealing that 971,858 African-Americans do not receive the help that they need. African-Americans are less likely to even participate in surveys and studies in the first place, due to many African-Americans living in ‘denial’, the refusal to acknowledge an unacceptable thoughts or feelings (such as having personal issues and requesting help) or admitting that they need it. The African-Americans that do receive help, still do not go to actual psychologists or physician according to the study, they are “more likely to use emergency rooms or primary care (rather than mental health specialists)”, because they feel that it is not that big of an issue, to consult a specialist. (American Psychiatric Association, 2017)
So, what happens to those individuals who are suffering from serious cases of depression, anxiety and self-hatred? Black Americans who don’t receive the help they need? The most common way to cope with personal ailments in the black community, an aggressive way, is to take it out on others, mainly children. During adulthood, African-Americans tend to place the blame on others for their own personal problems. This is known as projection, which is attributing one’s issues onto another person. For instance, a mother with chronic anger issues, yelling and blaming her kids for being the cause of her stress. A father who has a hard day dealing with his depression, who comes home and beats his children. Projection is a continuous cycle; the lashings are, again, internalized by the children. Not only do they have to deal with the stress of fitting in, loving themselves and finding a purpose, now the biggest influence in their lives are abusing them, whether it is emotionally or physically.
Children’s internalization of events leads to rationalization, making excuses for events and experiences. A child won’t know why their mother yells at her all the time, so she will involuntarily think of reasons why she is angry. The little girl may come up with several reasons, but when the issue persists, she will start to think irrationally, and think that she is the causation of her mother’s stress. The ‘Journal of Pediatric Psychology’ writes,

Some studies have found that children from low-income families have more behavioral and mental health problems (Davis & Proctor, 1989; Gortmaker, Walker, Weitzman, & Sobol, 1990; Lurie, 1974; Murphy & Jellenick, 1988; Swanson, Holzer, Canavan, &
Adams, 1989; Touliatos & Lindholm, 1981)… Frequently the behavior problems worsen and lead to mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981).

In addition to long-term concerns, disruptive behaviors affect several facets of the young child’s life in the short term. Among them are disturbances in family functioning such as negative parent-child interactions (Campbell, 1990) and increased parental stress
(Weinberg & Richardson, 1981).

When these same kids grow older, they will be faced with figuring out how to cope with these mental illnesses that came into fruition as a result of negative parent-child reaction.
Channeling your psychological issues into something socially acceptable in order to receives some sort of catharsis, is sublimation. There are common ways that youth get rid of all those negative thoughts or emotions that build up inside, such as men turning to rapping or sports, pastimes that they can pour their anger and aggression into (it is not to say that these are the only professions pursued by African American men). I, personally, took a look through all my friends on Facebook to test out my hypothesis. Of 60 of the males in my age group (17-25) friends, 23 of them wanted to be a rapper, 17 wanted to be basketball players, 8 of them wanted to be professional gamers, 6 of them had their lives planned out, and the rest simply did not know what they were going to do for the rest of their life, or they just did not care. All this information I gathered from just looking at their profile for 30 seconds. Gaming, another aggressive past time, basketball, and rapping are common dreams, I feel, because Black men do not have to fret about their underlying issues, they use their stress and anger in order to succeed in the pastime of their choosing.
African-American women are a bit different though. To become an entrepreneur is the newest phenomenon, with thousands of women looking to start their own business and fund themselves. There are 666,975 women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017) in management positions in the United States. However, I have seen hundreds of women emotionally killing themselves to succeed. Depression, lack of confidence, help, and support, women push these feelings aside, or use them as motivation, saying that these feelings stem from them not being where they want to be in life (collected through personal accounts with Beauty by Jackie, Ajoy Management
Enterprise, and The Lit.Bar [Jeffers]). Yet when asked if they had experienced or felt these same feelings before their journey to be entrepreneurs, they all said yes. I chalked this up to be displacement, redirecting unacceptable thoughts or urges into somethings more psychologically acceptable, such as ‘grinding’ ( a word used to describe those working non-stop, despite their personal life or any ailments, in order to keep the money rolling in),to start their own business or pushing themselves a little too hard in order to succeed.
Growing up, my mother would douse my hair with perms and straighteners in order to make my hair “good.” This is a common occurrence, for Black girls all over America who had used chemicals in their hair to straighten it and remove their natural curls. Now, in the 2010’s, more and more women are trying to break this cycle, and are going natural. Taking care of their hair and the way it naturally grows out of their head. Nonetheless, there has still been accounts of women only going natural, in order to grow it out just to straighten it, in order to make their hair “look good”. This form of self-hatred is a large issue in the black community. Many women alter their bodies in order to appear less Black and, more often than not, more White. From skin bleaching to constantly perming their hair, these women demonstrate reaction formation, converting an unacceptable thought into its opposite. African-Americans cannot just outright say they hate their hair, so they go natural and exclaim that it is because they just want healthy hair. NYU graduate Chanel Donaldson, a researcher and programs manager for Newark City of
Learning Collaborative, observes that “In other words, Black women alter their naturally ‘kinky’ or ‘nappy’ hair because they want to distance themselves from an African heritage to appear White.” These feelings, stem from low self-esteem and a disdain for the way they are perceived in society.
Not only has slavery altered how African-Americans act as a people, it has reshaped their psychology, how they view their race as a whole, along with how they feel about themselves.
Slavery changed their definition of beauty, broken their sense of community, and forced them to process the world through their defense mechanisms. The children endure the harshness of the world and their parents and grow into individuals who do not love themselves and repress all the mental issues that affect them in everyday life. As a result, the Black community is still a struggling one, but the first step in this process is to get the younger generation the help they need, in order start anew.

Work Cited

American Psychiatric Association, Mental Health Disparities: Diverse Populations, Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities, 2017

Clark, Kenny B., Mamie Clark, Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children, 1954 Accessed 6 November 2018

Davis, Kiri, A Girl Like Me. Youtube, 2006, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg , Accessed 7 November 2018

DeGruy, Joy, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, HarperCollins, 2017, Accessed 17 November 2018

Donaldson, Chanel “Hair Alteration Practices Amongst Black Women and The Assumption of SelfHatred” NYU, Applied Psychology Opus, 2018, https://wp.nyu.edu/steinhardtappsych_opus/hair-alteration-practices-amongst-black-women-and-the-assumption-of-selfhatred/ Accessed 16 November 2018

Jeffers, Karrena. Personal Interview. 13 Nov 2018

McNeil, Cheryl B., Cultural Issues in the Treatment of Young African American Children Diagnosed
With Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Volume 27, Issue 4, ,
Pages 339–350, https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/27.4.339 Accessed 13 November 2018