1. Why Current Approaches Are Failing
The speaker introduces his perspective and argues that current work with young people is not working well enough. He expresses urgency about losing a generation and calls for a rethink of existing practices.
I I wanted to share with you from the outset some assumptions that I make about the work uh just given from my own experiences and and I'd like to say just to sort of warn you this this isthe world according to Ken Hardy Kenneth Hardy professor at Drexler University in the department of couple and family therapy.I feel this from the pits of my core like we're at risk of losing a whole generation of young people.And when look at uh the those who kill and those who are are killed, it it deeply concerns me that that we're losing a whole generation.Uh and it seems to be happening rather rapidly in front of our eyes.And so that it says to me that maybe some of what we have been doing is simply not working very well.And so there's a way in which we really need to rethink how we work uh with this population of young people.
There seems to be something broken with the way we're doing things.And yet we seem wedded to continuing to do the things that we do.
2. Trauma as Violence's Common Thread
He explains that while he cannot fully define the causes of violence, trauma is a consistent underlying factor. He expands this to include the added burden of racial oppression for youth of color.
I don't I I don't know what causes violence.I spent the early part of my career uh in these headscratching moments trying to figure out what causes violence.But what I do know, what I do know is that trauma is a common denominator underpinning violence.That's a common It's a common denominator underpinninging violence.And that youth of color have to deal with uh all the classical manifestations of trauma that any other child does.I don't think it's enough anymore to just focus on a um person's psychology, if you will, if you if I use that sort of metaphor for their what's going on inside their head, but also paying some attention toone's ecology.So whether that be being exposed to uh an alcoholic parent and having one's family disrupted because of alcoholism or drug or substance abuse, uh being exposed to domestic violence, um that separation, divorce, all all those kinds of experience
that have uh a tremendous impact on on children's on young people's lives that that youth of color have those issues like any other child does.where where the line gets drawn is I I I believe that youth of color in addition to dealing with those manifestations of trauma also have to deal with the trauma that's associated with uh racial oppression.
3. Seeing People Beyond Their Problems
The speaker shifts to a broader view of identity, emphasizing family, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and sexuality. He criticizes approaches that focus only on what's wrong instead of understanding what happened to a person.
Uh one of the shifts I've made in my own work is to think more about how um someone's family experiences help shape them.Um, but not only that, but but experiences with race and ethnicity and culture and gender and sexual orientation, all those issues that all of those things come together to uh help make us who we are and have alittle piece to do with our the complexity of the human spirit.And so I think that the work we do has to pay attention to that as well.We look for what's wrong with you.We're less concerned about what happened to you.We're we we're concerned about who you are, not who were you before you became who you are.Who were you before the circumstances of your life situated you to be who you are now.
4. Invisible Wounds and Devaluation
He describes trauma as invisible wounds that are easy to miss unless practitioners actively look for them. He identifies devaluation as a central wound for youth of color and argues for work that directly counters it.
I think about the wounds as being very much invisible wounds.They're wounds that that those who carry the wounds, who sustain them, can't see them, and those of us who often work with them can't see them because the work we do is predicated on us seeing what we lookfor.And so unless we're looking for the wounds, we don't see the wounds.The most debilitating wound of all for youth of color and by extension for people of color is a wound of devaluation.It's a wound of devaluation.And so I do think that the core of the work that we do with young people has to there's a piece of it that has to be specifically directed toward um counteracting devaluation.Counteracting devaluation.
5. Human Worth and Validation
The closing thought emphasizes a shared human need for validation and respect across all social positions. He concludes that finding worth in even the most difficult circumstances is meaningful work.
I like I think the one thing that there's one thing that sort of unites us in our humanity and I think that um will be true for myself as a Drexel full tenure professor and the homeless person onsitting on Chestnut Street that that he like I have a need to be validated and respected.And so uh I do think uh having the ability to look at the most egregious expression of the human condition and find something worthy and valuable within the context of that I think is uh time well spent.
