Dear all,

As a field, psychology is uniquely situated to use our expertise to address social, economic, and political inequalities. We in the Department of Psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland wish to express solidarity with those around the country protesting oppression, stigmatization, and violence against Black individuals. We mourn the murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee, and countless other Black people. Black Lives Matter. We know you are frustrated, scared, and anxious. We are too. We see you, hear you, and we value you as humans and members of the psychological community. We demand long overdue accountability and change. We support the American Psychological Association’s efforts to communicate more broadly on racism, to use science-based recommendations to reduce police violence against African Americans, and to address systemic and institutional racism (see their plan below). As a department, we commit to listening, learning, reflecting on our own practices, and doing our part to affirm Black lives and better understand, teach about, and work to change racist systems and structures.  In addition to addressing topics of oppression and discrimination in our curriculum, the topic of this coming year’s Psychology Lecture Series will be “Intervention Science: Harnessing Psychology to Address Oppressive Systems” in which we hope our community can learn about and further discuss steps we can take toward change.

Sincerely,

The SMCM Department of Psychology

Here are a few resources from the psychological community that we wanted to share:

APA’s action plan for addressing inequality.  A message from APA President Sandy Shullman, PhD, and APA CEO Arthur Evans, PhD.

https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/06/action-addressing-inequality

Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 13-105.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006292033

Daumeyer, N. M., Onyeador, I.N., Brown, X. & Richeson, J.A. (2019). Consequences of attributing discrimination to implicit vs. explicit bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 84, 103812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.04.010

Hargons, C., Mosley, D., Falconer, J., Faloughi, R., Singh, A., Stevens-Watkins, D., & Cokley, K. (2017). Black Lives Matter: A call to action for Counseling Psychology leaders. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(6), 873–901. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017733048

Pieterse, A. L., Todd, N. R., Neville, H. a., & Carter, R. T. (2012). Perceived racism and mental health among Black American adults: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026208

Salter, P. S., Adams, G. & Perez, M. J. (2017). Racism in the structure of everyday worlds: A cultural-psychological perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27, 150-155.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417724239

Schmitt, M. T., Branscombe, N. R., Postmes, T., & Garcia, A. (2014). The consequences of perceived discrimination for psychological well-being: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 921–948. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035754

Richeson, J. A., & Sommers, S. R. (2016). Toward a social psychology of race and race relations for the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 439-463.  https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115115

Velez, B. L., Polihronakis, C. J., Watson, L. B., & Cox, R. (2019). Heterosexism, racism, and the mental health of sexual minority people of color. Counseling Psychologist, 47(1), 129–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019828309