In a few weeks, our annual convention will take place in Minneapolis. The meeting will be significant for several reasons, including its location in the city at the heart of a renewed focus on civil rights following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It will also be the first convention since APA’s Council of Representatives passed a trio of resolutions aimed at eradicating racism, including one apologizing for the role of APA in racism against people of color. At the convention this August, council is expected to vote on strategies related to racial redress—currently in development—in relation to the apology.
In April, the task force working on the apology presented a series of actions APA can begin immediately in support of the apology. These actions include featuring one of the ethnic psychological associations in a high-profile session at the convention each year and sponsoring at least one difficult dialogue on race and racism.
These actions are reasons for optimism and hope, but those feelings are tempered by the ongoing promotion of hate in our country. On May 14, an 18-year-old White male allegedly shot 13 individuals, 11 of whom were Black, inspired by a discredited theory on racial replacement. What happened there recalls song lyrics from the 1949 musical South Pacific that confronted the way hate and racism are taught to children: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear. You’ve got to be taught from year to year.” Incidents like what happened in Buffalo, New York highlight the outcome of such harmful teaching.
In my March column, I used a Langston Hughes line, “America never was America to me,” to highlight the need for liberty and justice for all. My April column spoke to a hope for a more utopian version of society like the one featured in a Star Trek episode set in 2364. More than 200 mass shootings have already occurred in 2022, several of which were based on racial animus, making the policies that council will pass even more urgent. That urgency brings me back to the theme of my first column: The world needs what psychology can provide more than ever.
