It’s Black History Month and we are going to finish out the month by talking about racial trauma.
Racism doesn’t just impact your mental health, it can have serious physical effects, too. Dr. Monica Johnson explores some of the ways racial trauma impacts our health.
Savvy Psychologist is hosted by Dr. Monica Johnson. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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It’s Black History Month and we are going to finish out the month by talking about racial trauma. If you’ve ever wondered if racism has an impact on overall health, I have some answers for you.
Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist. I'm your host, Dr. Monica Johnson. Every week on this show, I'll help you face life's challenges with evidence-based approaches, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.
So, why are we talking about this? Racism is real and its effects can be deadly at worst and decrease the overall quality of our lives and mental health at best. Encounters with racism and discrimination are significantly associated with higher rates of depression and stress-related trauma symptoms. Perceived discrimination is associated with over 5 times higher odds of a suicide attempt. Depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between discrimination and suicidality, ultimately increasing the risk of suicide ideation and attempts.
In order to understand racial trauma, you have to understand how racism shows up in our society. Now, I could do entire episodes on this topic, but here are three big categories of how racism impacts our lives.
You might be familiar with systemic or structural racism, which is the development of policies, procedures, laws, and practices to benefit and maintain White people in power. A good example of this is redlining. The term originates from the 1930s, when the New Deal introduced government programs offering low-interest home loans to people. The issue is that these loans were overwhelmingly only given to White people and excluded BIPOC individuals. They used color-coded maps and drew red lines around the undesirable or risky areas to give loans. These were almost exclusively Black neighborhoods. There are cases of redlining still happening today and it’s one issue that has inhibited the ability of Black people to accrue generational wealth in this country.
Institutional racism is differential access to goods, services, and opportunities based on perceived racial identity. For instance, in my healthcare field, we have what is known as healthcare disparities. Research shows that BIPOC individuals have less access to healthcare and when they are able to obtain it, the quality of that healthcare is less than that of a White person. This is one of the reasons I created my practice Kind Mind Psychology.
Another type of racism is environmental racism. Environmental racism refers to disproportionate placement of hazardous material near BIPOC communities while protecting White communities. An example of this is rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
There is also individual racism, which includes the daily experiences that a person may encounter such as microaggressions. We can also have vicarious traumatic racism experiences like seeing video or images of the murders of Black Americans like George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery.
All of this can lead to racial trauma. Racial trauma is a psychological injury caused by hate or fear of a person due to their race, ethnicity, or skin color. It is cumulative in nature, which means that both small and big experiences can add up to eventually overwhelm an individual's ability to cope effectively. Some experiences of racial trauma would meet the DSM 5’s definition of a trauma and lead to a PTSD diagnosis. Other manifestations may not match the aforementioned description, despite being experienced as traumatic and having an effect on the person’s mental and/or physical health. Some examples of racial trauma include: workplace discrimination, incarceration, immigration difficulties, traumatic medical experiences, police harassment, deportation, and overt slurs and threats.
Those who experience racial trauma have similar reactions to people who are survivors of other types of trauma. More frequent experiences of racism can intensify symptoms of trauma, such as fear, hypervigilance, headaches, insomnia, body aches, problems with memory, anger, confusion, depression, a feeling of loneliness, feeling hopeless, decreased self-esteem, and thoughts of harming oneself or others.
Trauma can also cause serious physical issues, like a dysregulation in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that can damage bodily systems and lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and obesity. Studies show that Black people have higher rates of high blood pressure on average than Whites, and the effects of racism can contribute to this issue. Trauma can also cause a dysregulation of cognitive-affective regions such as the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and thalamus leading to anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Neurobiological changes may also be precursors to racism-related vigilance and rumination which are emerging as health risk factors in their own right.
Experiences of racism never exist in isolation. History plays a significant role in shaping our views and reactions to racism. For many people of color in the US, there is a documented and oral history of being hated. This is typically an essential part of educating and socializing the younger generation about race and racism, and the transmission of racial trauma is often carried across multiple generations as a result. Not just the retelling of events like Bloody Sunday or the murder of Emit Till, the Tuskegee experiments, or the beating of Fannie Lou Hamer, but the passing on of correct behaviors. BIPOC folks may have grown up with elders who reminded them how to talk to police officers, to never wear a hoodie, and to always get a bag and a receipt and this advice lives with you. I recently was a guest at an event hosted by Thorgy Thor, a popular drag queen, so I went to Sephora to get my makeup done beforehand. I purchased lashes with the service and she put them on for me and gave me the empty box to put in my purse and emailed a receipt. I remember walking out of the store and feeling like “oh, I hope no one stops me” because I didn’t have a bag and paper receipt. While it was mild, I felt tension in my body until I fully walked out of the store. You may think this is an overreaction, but I have been stopped and followed in stores. I’ve had my Pretty Woman moment and for me, it was a fleeting moment of vindication and lingering moments of sadness.
If you're a marginalized person in this country, please know that your experiences and the impacts of those experiences are real. Racial trauma and minority stress are valid reasons to attend therapy. While you may prefer to have someone who matches your demographics in some way, like someone who is also BIPOC or queer, don’t delay your therapeutic journey if someone that matches these preferences isn’t available immediately. There are not enough providers that represent these groups, which is a reason why I've been actively involved in the training and supervision of future therapists. There are many cisgendered, heterosexual, white therapists who are antiracist and allies and advocates for those who are historically marginalized in this country. For example, all the therapists at my practice are trained to treat racial trauma and minority stress and are committed to practicing from an anti-oppressive lens.
What is a way that racial trauma has impacted you or someone that you know? Let me know on Instagram @kindmindpsych. You can also reach out to me via my email at psychologist@quickanddirtytips.com, or leave a voicemail at (929) 256-2191.