A new article in Antipode, co-authored by SIS Professor Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, builds on social psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove’s idea of “root shock,” which describes the deep harm people experience when their neighborhoods are destroyed and residents are forced to scatter elsewhere. Graddy-Lovelace and her co-authors examine how land loss and forced displacement have affected Black farming communities and their health since colonial times.

Focusing especially on overlooked Black communities in the US Midwest, the authors show how racial capitalism has driven this disruption through land grabs, labor exploitation, and violent efforts to suppress resistance, often justified by stories of white progress and redemption. But this pattern has never gone unchallenged. Black communities have repeatedly organized, resisted, and created alternative ways of living that restore local control and strengthen community health. The authors argue that these Black-led efforts to repair rural root shock don’t just benefit Black farmers—they offer lessons for everyone. At a time when people around the world face growing environmental and social upheaval, these examples show how reconnecting people to land and place can support collective well-being.

Read the full article here.