Georgia mental health experts say Tyre Nichols video can trigger racial trauma

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The video footage of Tyre Nichols being beaten by Memphis Police can trigger racial trauma according to a Georgia mental health expert.

“How we are interpreting the people that we task to protect us, once again we’re looking at that and that’s also what’s affecting our mental health outcomes.”

Tyre Nichols was a Black father who never made it home after being beaten by Memphis police on Jan. 7.

This sparked civil unrest across the country after footage was released but Licensed Professional Counselor Clayton Andrews says when Black people watch that video it creates a racial trauma.

“And that trauma is not similar to your typical post traumatic stress. This is an ongoing trauma. These are historical intergenerational traumas.”

As a Black man himself, he says he it’s easy for Black People to see the video and put themselves in Nichols’ shoes. He says many of his patients across Georgia, including in Savannah have come to him with concerns after seeing the grueling incident.

“There have been conversations to the numbness that one might feel, to that rope of here we go again, that anger, that depression, that feeling of hopelessness. All those feelings coming together because this pattern. This re experience of that racial trauma,” Clayton Andrews said.

When experiencing this kind of trauma, mental health experts encourage talking to people who can relate and seeking help from professionals.

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