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Dr . Shervington Shares Insight with LA Times
Dr . Denese Shervington , CDU ’ s chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine , joined a chorus of experts for
an impactful story on the effect of images in movements to heighten awareness of violence and injustice , that ran in the Los Angeles Times .
The story is centered around the murder of Emmett Till , a 14 year-old boy who was kidnapped , tortured , lynched , and dumped in a river while visiting family in Mississippi during the summer of 1955 , after being accused of whistling at a White woman . Mamie Till Mobley , Emmett ’ s mother , allowed Jet magazine to photograph her child ’ s mutilated face during an open casket funeral so that all could see the outcome of violence against Black people . The image shocked the nation and further fueled the civil rights movement .
The LA Times article was prompted by the recent spate of mass shootings including the one in Uvalde , Texas , where 19 children and two teachers were killed , and 17 others were wounded at Robb Elementary School . The LA Times story poses the question of whether illustrating the bloody and deadly impact of firearms could change the course of the country ’ s gun control debate .
“ There ’ s a lot of avoidance of feelings in this culture ; we just move on , we don ’ t hang in our pain , we take drugs to relieve it , we never really sit with suffering ,” Shervington said in the story which featured several of her quotes . “ Maybe this is a time for us , collectively , to see this as a collective trauma in our culture , and to sit with the pain of it , and then let that pain work through us and move us into action .”
This isn ’ t Dr . Shervington ’ s first time as a go-to expert for the Los Angeles Times . She was also featured
in a recent story on the toll the recent run of racially motivated violence has on communities of color across society .