Insane in the membrane
In contrast to blaming President Obama, Liberal politicians, civil right leaders, or the Chicago Police Department; I believe the answer is not something you can see with a microscope, or quantify- it’s invisible; Ghostly. I believe the answer lies in epigenetics, genetic memory, PTSD, and trans- generational DNA.
Neurobiologists Sandra Pena Ortiz suggests that somehow the brain must retain an archived blueprint. Pena believed that permanent memories are stored in altered genes. She believes our DNA creates memory molecules. If her theory is true it means that in the past 40 years in Chicago gang violence has left a permanent mark on the genome of residents of crime-ridden neighborhoods.
We not only pass unto our children hair color, skin color, height, intelligence but other traits possibly ‘self-hatred’ and a propensity for violent behavior. I am raising issues that are never discussed; they are quietly swept under the rug, but I ask you do you think there is a connection between epigenetics, ancestral memory, PTSD and the rampant senseless violence in South side neighborhoods and across urban America?
Dr. Bygren became fascinated with research showing that conditions in the womb could affect your health not only when you were a fetus but well into adulthood. For instance in 1986, a paper was published that if a pregnant woman ate poorly {used crack, cocaine or meth} her child would be at significantly higher risk than average. Not only is there a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, but also a host of other diseases as an adult. This raises the central theme of this essay: that parents that experience institutional racism, violence, fear, poverty, the fundamental causes of health disparities; along with the stress of living amid random violence makes blacks more subject to consume inferior foods, smoking, alcoholism and drugs. You mix all the aforementioned together and toss in cancer, heart disease, environmental racism {lead paint, lead pipes}, toxins in foods and you have a lethal stew. But keep in mind this Chicago stew recipe was not created by blacks and has been brewing for a long time. This stew was created with the first Great Black Migration from the South to the urban industrial Midwest for jobs in the stock yards and meat-packing plants in 1912 and 100 hundred years later, the consequences of that Jim Crow era: genetic memories, PTSD, epigenetic and invisible DNA scars are still clinging to blacks.