Lee Hawkins: The Ripple Effect of Racial Trauma

Our family’s genealogy affects us psychologically and emotionally.

Lee Hawkins, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, cites a gruesome heritage in his forthcoming family history, Nobody’s Slave: “In every generation since the 1830s, a member in my family has been killed, mostly in racist attacks.” In the book and in his reporting, Hawkins addresses the implications — and devastation — of intergenerational trauma for both individual families and the country.

At “How Business Must Be Part of the Solution,” the third installment in the Next Wave virtual event series hosted by The Wall Street Journal | Barron’s Group and Betaworks Studios, Hawkins shared his perspective on the Black Lives Matter movement, how it fits into America’s centuries-old struggle against racial inequality and what businesses today can enact to bring about substantive change.

What the movement is about.

“I feel that this movement is more about white consciousness or a white movement than it is about us. Because we’ve been in this movement. We’ve lived the pain. We’ve been to the funerals.”

What drives this crisis.

“A lot of our crisis is due to a lack of empathy and understanding and sensitivity to the humanity and dignity of Black people.”

Intergenerational trauma in America.

“The role of racial violence has devastated families through generations.”

“For most of its existence, for all but 56 years, America has been a legal white supremacy country.”

The importance of faith.

“The faith element is what got our family through all of this. There is an emotional aspect of hope that continued to be instilled in African Americans and passed through the generations.”

The way forward for businesses.

“The way you make progress is substantive benchmarks — not racial quotas — but asking where are we on retention: What percentage of our black and brown workforce is staying at the company, and why are they leaving?”

“We need to see really strong benchmarks. Put money behind it. Put it in people’s bonus plans, so they can understand this is just as important as their sales targets.”

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