ABSTRACT
At an individual/couple level, and relational/cultural level, the descendants of the African Holocaust survivors may be at risk for retraumatization and retransmission of sexual trauma effects to present and future offspring. However, recent epigenetic studies have shed light on the key role Black couples hold in American history and human evolution within the complex human systems of interactions and integration between genes and environments, past with present, sex and migration, and trauma with resilience. This chapter describes the broader American contexts within which Black relationships evolve, starting with cultural racism, the history of sexual racism, the consequences of racism for Black couples, the sex ratio imbalance, the scientific focus on problem identification over strength recognition in Black relationships. The author considers that social scientists have the responsibility to investigate the strengths and qualities of Black relationships within the American cultural landscape of racism. Choosing resilience over pathology, the author shifts the paradigm from the history of the African Holocaust survivors within American history to world history. With careful considerations for human interconnectedness, the author invites researchers to do their own integration on the current patterns of the perpetuation of mass rape and the disconnection of our spirit of intimacy across generations and cultures.
