Expanded ACEs: A Culturally Grounded View of Trauma
Inspired by the work of Dr. Mariel Buqué
Black and Brown communities are not “more traumatized” because of culture. They are more exposed to trauma because of systems.
Traditional ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, focus primarily on household level adversity. They fail to fully capture the structural, racialized, and historical stressors that shape the lived realities of many Black and Brown children. Dr. Mariel Buqué and other trauma scholars emphasize the need to expand how we define adversity, not to pathologize communities, but to tell the truth about where harm originates.
What follows is a culturally expanded view of ACEs that reflects that reality.
1. Racism and Discrimination
• Experiencing racial slurs, harassment, or bullying
• Witnessing racism toward parents or caregivers
• Anticipatory stress, learning early how to “stay safe” in racist systems
• Discrimination in schools, healthcare, housing, or policing
Impact
Chronic stress, anxiety, hypervigilance, internalized racism, and lower trust in institutions.
Racism operates as a chronic stressor that continuously activates the body’s stress response. This is not about individual sensitivity. It is about repeated exposure over time.
2. Community Violence
• Exposure to neighborhood violence including gun violence, assaults, and gang activity
• Witnessing injury or death of others
• Over policing or aggressive police encounters
Impact
Post traumatic stress symptoms, sleep disruption, fear based coping, and survival mode development.
For many children, danger is environmental rather than episodic. Safety becomes conditional and the nervous system adapts accordingly.
3. Poverty and Economic Hardship
• Housing instability or homelessness
• Food insecurity
• Utility shutoffs
• Parents working multiple jobs or long hours, resulting in limited supervision
Impact
Toxic stress, developmental delays, and early responsibility often referred to as adultification.
Poverty is not a personal failure. It is a chronic stress exposure that shapes development, decision making, and long term health.
4. Incarceration as a Normative Experience
• A high likelihood of having a parent, sibling, or close family member incarcerated
• Frequent jail or prison visits during childhood
• Family disruption due to mass incarceration
Impact
Attachment disruptions, shame, grief, and normalized loss.
Mass incarceration does not only punish individuals. It destabilizes families and communities across generations.
5. Immigration Related Trauma
For many Black and Brown communities
• Family separation
• Fear of deportation
• Detention experiences
• Language barriers impacting access to education and healthcare
Impact
Chronic anxiety, silence, and identity fragmentation.
Trauma is often carried quietly, shaped by fear and the need to remain unseen in order to survive.
6. Intergenerational and Historical Trauma
• Descendants of slavery, colonization, genocide, or forced migration
• Cultural erasure, loss of language, and disrupted kinship systems
Impact
Trauma responses passed through behaviors, beliefs, and stress physiology, not weakness.
This is not about blame. It is about understanding how unresolved trauma echoes forward through families and communities.
7. Educational Trauma
• Biased discipline practices often referred to as the school to prison pipeline
• Low expectations from teachers
• Being disciplined or under supported
• Curriculum erasure including not seeing oneself reflected
Impact
Academic disengagement, low self worth, and early mistrust of systems.
Schools are often the first institutions where children learn whether they are protected or punished.
8. Healthcare and Medical Trauma
• Medical neglect or dismissal of pain
• Racist treatment in healthcare settings
• Lack of culturally competent care
Impact
Avoidance of care, untreated conditions, and generational mistrust of healthcare systems.
When pain is minimized or ignored, disengagement often becomes a survival strategy.
9. Parentification and Adultification
• Children taking on caregiving roles early
• Being expected to be strong, mature, or resilient beyond developmental age
• Emotional suppression for family survival
Impact
Burnout, difficulty receiving help, and boundary challenges in adulthood.
Strength learned too early often comes at a cost later in life.
10. Cultural Silencing
• The belief that what happens in the house stays in the house
• Discouragement from discussing mental health, abuse, or pain
• Survival based silence
Impact
Delayed healing, somatic symptoms, and internalized shame.
Silence may protect families in the short term, but it often delays healing in the long term.
Reframing the Narrative
Black and Brown communities are not more traumatized because of culture.
They are more exposed to trauma because of systems.
This distinction matters. Naming systems rather than culture shifts responsibility away from individuals and toward accountability, policy, and structural change.
Protective Factors Common in Black and Brown Communities
• Strong extended family networks
• Cultural pride and identity
• Faith and spirituality
• Storytelling, music, art, and communal healing practices
• Collective caregiving often described as “it takes a village”
These protective experiences are sometimes referred to as buffer ACEs. They are frequently missing from deficit based narratives, yet they play a critical role in regulating stress, fostering belonging, and supporting resilience across generations.
Healing is not only about naming harm. It is also about honoring what has helped communities survive.
References
Buqué, M. (2023). Break the cycle: A guide to healing intergenerational trauma. Penguin Life.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Preventing adverse childhood experiences.
Gee, G. C., & Ford, C. L. (2011). Structural racism and health inequities: Old issues, new directions. Du Bois Review, 8(1), 115–132.
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., et al. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), e232–e246.
Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A., & Davis, B. A. (2019). Racism and health: Evidence and needed research. Annual Review of Public Health, 40, 105–125.