Root Shock 20

Twenty years ago, in her book Root Shock, Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove prophesied that displacement would be the problem the 21st century must solve. Because of the situation we’re in now – with complex intersecting problems, such as conflict, climate change, financialization of housing, post-pandemic adjustment, and migration crises – we are, indeed, seeing displacement all around us. As Dr. Fullilove showed in her book, displacement leaves people stressed, angry, depressed, frightened, confused, and concerned. This is what she called “root shock,” the traumatic stress reaction to the loss of all or part of one’s emotional ecosystem. We believe that, because of the scale of the intersecting problems, massive upheaval is causing WORLDWIDE root shock. On the 20th anniversary of its publication, we want to revisit the book and the story it tells of 1950s urban renewal that bulldozed African American neighborhoods in hundreds of US cities. It’s a poorly understood story, but Fullilove’s analysis holds lessons for this precarious moment in world history.