Alisha Moreland-capuia - Exploring the Systems and People Fear Built

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2020 has been uniquely challenging with the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened racial tension in the context of a tumultuous geopolitical environment. Within a year, a multicultural, multigenerational coalition came together to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic with the construction of a vaccine and a commitment to continued learning and adjustment to prevent needless death from the disease. Meanwhile, the persistent pandemic of racism, which is preventable, rages and ravages whole communities, systems, and societies. Because racism is systemic and structural, the approach to dismantling must also be systemic and structural. Racism is a form of trauma. Because trauma is perpetuated systemically and structurally, healing must be facilitated systemically and structurally. This book explores the intersection of history, philosophy, politics, psychology, neurobiology, and the role of fear in influencing traumatic structural-systemic racism. This book respectfully challenges the reader to identify individual, systemic, and societal fear, fear-on-fear interactions and their relationship to the trauma of racism. Finally, Chapter 10, the last chapter of this book, highlights three African countries, Angola, Kenya, and South Africa, and the deleterious and traumatic impact of colonialism, civil war, European supremacy, and each countrys respective path toward truth, reconciliation, and healing. This book is for any person, system, or society that is ready to identify fear and temper it; acknowledge, contain, and treat the persistent pandemic of racism; and poised to make a commitment to continued learning and adjustment to prevent needless death from racism and steadfast in a desire to facilitate healing.

I am so incredibly grateful to my husband Daniel Capuia for his unwavering support of me in writing this book. His global perspective, value of global community, and his unwavering commitment to help his native country of Angola, Africa, have been and continue to be a rich source of motivation and inspiration for me and my work. Thank you to my children who challenge, teach, and love me deeply, and I am so blessed to be their mother and hope that I can continue to make them proud. To my family, friends, community, and mentors, thank you so much for your continued belief in me. From my King Elementary School days in NE Portland, I hold fast and live out this part of the schools daily pledge that read: If it is to be, it is up to me. To whom much is given, much is expected, a responsibility I take seriously.

Special thank you to Jaime Vilasanta and Daniel Capuia for helping me to think thoughtfully through the chapter in this book on Angola, Africa. Thank you to my mentor Dr. Kerry J. Ressler, M.D., Ph.D., at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School for his boundless wisdom and support of my scholarship and humanity.

I am so grateful to be working with the bold and brilliant illustrator Audrey A. Tran once more. Audrey, you are amazing. Your illustrations tell stories through art and articulate so clearly and profoundly that which cannot be adequately articulated verbally. Thank you.

Audrey A. Tran received her B.A. at Wellesley College, magna cum laude, in biochemistry with a minor in music. She then worked as a research assistant in Boston, MA, and became enamored with stem cell and CRISPR genome editing technology. She matriculated into medical school in 2017 and completed her masters degree in clinical research in 2020.

Her passion for science is coupled with a drive to share what she has learned through creative approaches. This led her to develop a style of tutoring that incorporates intuitive, illustrative, and color-coded study guides, which are now permanently housed in the OHSU Library Archives. She has been recognized by her peers and faculty for her illustrations and is now working with OHSU faculty to develop illustrative videos for patient education.

She is committed to advancing racial justice and believes that education is the first step to empowerment, self-actualization, and effective advocacy. To stay creative, she writes music, and is working on producing an album chronicling her experiences in medical school. She can likely be found harmonizing to your favorite song.