“Root Shock” is the mind and life work of Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove as she commits pen to paper in determining the processes that America has taken in it’s blows of constant threats waged against the ‘African Born in America’ communities… throughout this nation’s history. She likens it to the “physiological shock experienced by a person who, because of injury, suddenly looses massive amounts of fluids. Such a blow threatens the whole body’s ability to function. Like the aftermath of a severe burn ROOT SHOCK does not end with the emergency treatment but will stay with the individual for a lifetime. In fact, the injury from ‘Root Shock’ may even be more enduring than a burn, as it can affect generations and generations of people.”
When it come to the multifaceted life directed course that Black women have taken in order to mark her historical presence upon this society, it is not simply the demands made of her, but her tenacity and fortitude at pressing towards the relevance that often she alone must figure out.
Mindy Thompson Fullilove was born October 15, 1950 in Irvington, NJ. Her father, Ernie Thompson, was the first black field organizer for the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Union. The product of an interracial marriage, her mother, Maggie, a white woman from Chippewa Lake, Ohio, worked as a union hall secretary. Together, her parents launched the campaign in Orange, NJ to desegregate the school system.
In 1971 Fullilove graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College having earned the BA in History. In 1974 she received the MS in Nutrition from Columbia University. By 1976 she co-authored with her father, “Homebody Came to Orange: A Story of People’s Power”, Bridgebuilder Press (Newark, NJ); and continued her studies at Columbia to earn the MD in Medicine in 1978. She received Board Certificationin Psychiatry in 1984. Her work as an American social psychiatrist focuses on the ways social and environmental factors affect the mental health of communities. She is currently a professor of Urban Policy and Health at The New School in New York City. Fullilove’s research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities examines the mental health effects of environmental processes such as violence, segregation, and urban renewal.
In 2016, Mindy Thompson Fullilove published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, And What We Can Do About It. Her work speaks to the Tennessee State University Community in a most prolific way. For the somewhat 2,300 students who were unable to return to school this past Fall 2024, consider: “when the maze way is destroyed the external system of moving is destroyed, the individual will go into root shock. Root shock, at the level of the individual, is a profound emotional upheaval that destroys the working model of the world that had existed in the individual’s head. Root shock undermines trust; destabilizes relationships, destroys social, emotional and financial resources and increases the risk for every kind of stress related disease from depression to heart attack.”
Fullilove is credited as being the first to explore in depth the racial equity concerns and opportunities raised by modern highway redevelopment; which too become a factor of what she identifies as ‘Policy destruction’ of the racial and ethnic groups with a view towards Racial equity impact in reforming ‘racialized institutions’ and structures. “Urban renewal programs fell disproportionately on African American communities, leading to the slogan “Urban renewal is Negro renewal.” Community may or may not recover from Root Shock as she raises the question: “What do we have to do to reassemble community?”
Her narrative on “Four principles to collective recovery” brings awareness to the fact the We have to stop the breaking of community. It sets us back. To places where we so often have not returned from. Particularly when we understand that it is not “Tribe” but, ALL OF US. The injury is not solely to the self… The injury is to the collective. Shout out to Roland Martin and William Barber who left their ‘solely self’ to be in Nashville for the “2024 Town Meeting on TSU” at Pleasant Green Church to commit to America that The injury is to the collective!
The “physiological shock” experienced by Tennessee State University who, because of injury, (the removal of The President and the Entire Board of Trustees —ALL AT THE SAME TIME IS) the SUDDEN LOSS of massive amounts of fluids. Such a blow (from the hand of the lifelong Aggressive Oppressor) threatens the whole body’s ability to function. Like the aftermath of a severe burn “ROOT SHOCK” (this replacement of the entire administrative entity, to include a very ill prepared delivered EXTERNAL AGENDA… void of it’s own time taken assessment… but an ‘Agenda In Hand’ to remove more than 100+ Faculty and Staff as traumatic loss of massive amounts of it’s fluids) —does not end with the emergency treatment but will stay… for a lifetime! In fact, the injury from ‘Root Shock’ (in all of it’s historical blows… HAS BEEN even more enduring than a burn, as it DOES affect generations and generations of people.
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