5.4: Opportunities and Possibilities

Introduction

As contemporary Black Psychology concepts are further defined below, it is established from chapter 3 that “by ‘racism’ we mean the predication of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group.” Being that racism is a combination of the phrases race and “ism” it is important to note that “ism” refers to a system, a way that something operates or a group of principles to follow. Therefore, the term racism implies that there is a hierarchical system of written and unwritten social rules that are followed based on a person's race. There would be by default a race that historically benefited from these systems and races that were clearly subjugated by them. Consequently, the term “race” must be defined. Many debate what race is, historically stating that it was genetic, as in related to DNA, however race has always been a socially constructed idea used to divide people into groups based on physical appearances for the purpose of asserting power and control. Scientists have shown repeatedly that genetically there is only one human “race” known as Homosapien and all other attempts to genetically prove that humans belong to different scientific biological races have been proven incorrect and flawed. This becomes very problematic when historically those groups in power used physical categories such as skin color, hair color, and other physical features to validate their position of superiority and power, oppressively divide people, and attribute comparable values to these groups such as intelligent versus unintelligent etc. If science has shown that genetically we are biologically no different, then one must acknowledge that all efforts to separate humans in these racially stratified groups has purely been about maintaining physical or mental power and control via force or depravation. In the United States the group in power historically leading these narratives were White Americans. As the country established its policies, practices, procedures, laws and systemic norms, these entities fed into beliefs, cognitions, behaviors and perpetuated cultural expectations giving White Americans power and privilege over Black people that exist to present day. The consequences of such historical and contemporary oppression by deprivation and by force constitutes institutional/systemic, interpersonal and internalized oppression which can be seen in the racialized phenomena explained below. To be clear, racism is oppression and the various types of racism can be found in all three types of oppression previously stated.

Psychological Effects of Racism on the Black Community

Research shows that daily exposure to institutional, internalized and interpersonal racism can produce significant psychological effects. Many of the following phenomena could also be categorized as a result of Race-Based Traumatic Stress (RBTS) which is a term that describes the psychological and emotional distress that can result from exposure to racial discrimination, racism, and racial violence. ^_[25] It refers to the unique form of trauma experienced by individuals from racially marginalized groups as a direct result of racism and racial bias. Going through the process of Racial Socialization, Racial Battle Fatigue, Racial Gaslighting or Race Lighting, internalized racism and Cultural Mistrust Theory can all be triggering events due to a person of colors’ experience of race in a racially charged society. Sadly, many who experience these things are unaware not only of the fact that these phenomenon exist but also that they have an effect on their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual states. It is as if the fish in the fish bowl does not know that the water around it exists because as they were born into the environment, this is the only reality they know. Many times, taking a person out of their environment is one way that they realize the stress their racially charged environment portrays as normal. It is in fact, not.

Racial Socialization

According to Belgrave, Racial Socialization “involves messages and practices that provide information concerning one’s race as it relates to a) personal and group identity, (b) intergroup and inter individual relationships, and (c) position in the social hierarchy. Racial socialization is the process by which messages are communicated to children to bolster their sense of identity in light of the fact that their life experiences may include racially hostile encounters.” ^_[26] Parents tend to be the largest providers of racial socialization to their older children and between mother and fathers, Belgrave reports that mothers tend to communicate this more than fathers.

The reason that Black people need to prepare their children for what it is like to move through the world as a Black person is because they know that to withhold this formative racial education could very well cost their child their life. Unfortunately, this preparation could include anything from how to not be seen as a threat by your own school teachers, how to successfully survive interacting with the police or law enforcement, how to be seen as friendly and accommodating in professional settings, how to handle racist, prejudice or discriminatory remarks from people whether they be friend or foe, how to educate those who would make ignorant comments about Black people, the message that as a Black person one has to try twice as hard to get half as much as the next person, how to be a good representative of the Black community, and a whole host of other scenarios that Black people go through. This racial socialization process happens more in diverse communities rather than if a Black person is living in a homogenous community where they might be the majority. The psychological effect of racial socialization can be taxing on parents as they experience the stress of raising a Black child in the United States and the added fear they have knowing the structural systems of oppression that they will come into contact with. However, studies have shown that children who have been exposed to racial socialization fare better in the world, report a higher level of self confidence and are simply more prepared to handle racially charged situations. ^_[27] These racially socialized and prepared children also exude more adaptive cultural specific coping strategies like relying on their communities, churches, social organizations and families for support. Nevertheless, needing to racially socialize a child as a means of protection for the child in a racially charged society is an emotionally stressful process that many people of color must go through.

Racial Battle Fatigue

Professor and researcher Dr. William Smith conceptualized the term Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) which describes the cumulative and long-term psychological and emotional toll that people of color experience as a result of regularly facing racism, discrimination, and microaggressions._^[28] It primarily affects people of color who are subjected to systemic racism, vicarious experiences of racism, personal experiences of racism, bias, and prejudice in various aspects of their lives, including but not limited to education, employment, healthcare, and social interactions. Vicarious experiences of racism happen when a person might hear about other people of color who experience racism such as by speaking with family, friends or neighbors, watching the news or witnessing racism on social media.

There are emotional, physical and mental symptoms that can arise from experiencing RBF but sometimes the reaction to RBF does not always present clearly. For example, a person might experience a disconnect with fighting against discrimination due to RBF mental exhaustion which could look like a withdrawal from social activities and an avoidance regarding situations where racism or the subject of race is present. Examples of situations where racism is present are plenty. An example of a person choosing to retreat from a situation where the subject of race is present could be perhaps a person of color not wanting to engage in a forum at work on how to address and counter racism in the workplace. This person might legitimately be “tired of talking about race” due to RBF especially if they are the only person of color in their workspace. In a sense this person is simply tired of consciously or subconsciously dealing with racism in all its forms and constantly having to push back against microaggressions that they withdraw, isolate or avoid social situations.

Emotional symptoms such as anger, sadness, guilt, shame, frustration, depression or anxiety could occur after prolonged exposure to RBF. It is important to note that these emotions might be perpetually on going, unconscious or conscious, unidentifiable and also the person feeling them might not be able to pinpoint why they feel these emotions. Exposure to RBF could also result in a level of hypervigilance regarding recognizing racially charged situations wherein a person of color might be able to easily identify that a situation has been influenced by microaggressions, bias or discrimination where other people might not. Other symptoms can include cognitive difficulties concentrating or feeling mentally cloudy, struggling to problem solve and or making decisions. Physical symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, restlessness, muscle tension, digestive problems or sleep issues can occur but it might be hard to identify why these phenomenons are occurring in the body. Many of these symptoms can be categorized in psychology as psychosomatic ailments which are effects that happen in the body due to mental strain therefore being appropriately referred to as “psycho,” in relation to the mind, and “somatic“ as being in relation to the body. ^_[29]

Racial Gaslighting or Racelighting

The term Racial Gaslighting has been used broadly for some time whereas more recently Dr. Luke Wood shortened the term to racelighting which specifically describes a form of psychological manipulation and emotional abuse in which individuals or institutions deny, trivialize, or distort the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities, making them question their own perceptions, experiences, and reality. This process also perpetuates the white experience as the normed experience and any other experience as less than valid. This practice is rooted in the concept of gaslighting, which originally comes from the title of a 1938 play and later two films called "Gas Light." In these works, a husband manipulates his wife into doubting her sanity by dimming the gas lights and then denying that they are dimmed. Racelighting can have deleterious effects on those subjected to it in the form of mental angst due to invalidating the victims experience thus leading them to question themselves and believe that they might be going crazy. Racelighting can also cause deep anger and resentment within the storyteller who knows they experienced the racist event yet it is not acknowledged by the listener who might genuinely believe that no racism occurred out of ignorance. ^_[30] This situation is compounded when the person who invalidates the experience is closely related to the victim such as a parent to a child. These instances can happen with anyone who is not aware of how the various types of racism can affect a person of color and their experience of an event.

There are a few ways in which this occurs which are denial of racism, minimizing, cultural stereotyping, blaming the victim, and selective amnesia. A person may deny the occurrence and say, “Oh that didn’t happen because you are Black, it happened because (fill in the blank).” Many times it is the cognitive dissonance playing out in the scenario. This would be the separation in the mind of the listener who does not want to believe that racism occurred, who might mean well but can’t acknowledge that the discrimination occurred because it would also mean that they would have to acknowledge the truth about the situation and that is that these racist things happen more often than they realize. The listener might want to hold onto their own belief or reality through rose colored glasses that racism happens less often than it actually does and might therefore minimize the occurrence by simply downplaying the impact of racism by suggesting that it's not a big deal or that the affected person is overly sensitive. This is the cognitive dissonance coming into play again when they hear something that does not fit their mental narrative so they in turn state that a person is overreacting. This practice is not usually meant to be nefarious however it still mentally wounds the victim telling their story and wanting to be heard and or understood. Saying that someone is overreacting is a form of culturally stereotyping which can also occur if the listener says, “You people are always so emotional.” Furthermore, a person can be blamed for telling their racist experience if the listener blames the victim which could look like the listener suggesting that they somehow caused the incident or misinterpreted it. Lastly, selective amnesia is self explanatory as the listener conveniently forgetting or ignoring past incidents of racism, making it difficult for individuals to address patterns of discrimination. Racelighting can have profound negative effects on individuals and communities. ^_[31] It can erode self-esteem, contribute to feelings of isolation and self-doubt, and deter people from speaking out against racism. Additionally, medical racelighting is another very real phenomenon where racism and prejudice negatively affect the experiences of people of color when they interact with the medical field which could have life threatening consequences. ^_[32]

Internalized Racism

Within this definition of racism, there are many different manifestations of racism defined by Belgrave such as internalized racism which is also known as internalized racial oppression. This refers to the conscious or unconscious acceptance and internalization of racial stereotypes, biases, and prejudices by individuals who belong to the racial or ethnic group that is being targeted or discriminated against. This means that people from marginalized racial or ethnic backgrounds may, to varying degrees, adopt and believe negative stereotypes and attitudes about their own racial or ethnic group, often as a result of living in a society where racism is pervasive. There could be a preference for the dominant culture wherein a person of color adopts the cultural norms, values, and preferences of the dominant or majority racial group in an attempt to gain social acceptance. On the surface this could look like trying to fit into the dominant Eurocentric society by wearing clothes and choosing hair styles that are more so a part of the majority culture which promote Eurocentric beauty standards. The idea is that they would have a negative self perception about their own ethnic group being inferior to the dominant majority thus resulting in conscious or subconscious self hatred. This person might even self segregate and distance themselves from their own racial or ethnic group as they might see them as undesirables. It could also be seen as a person of color believing the negative stereotypes about their own communities without being aware of it. It could look like a person of color being scared of another person of color walking down the street for no obvious reason. It could also look like a person of color not wanting to sound “too Black” because they don’t want to be perceived as ignorant or be judged as part of the Black community leading to feelings of internal shame about their identity. It might also look like a person of color self discriminating by perpetuating the same negative stereotypes by using negative descriptors to describe their own family or communities such as using the term ghetto to describe something Black. This person might go as far as to say that racism simply does not exist or may downplay its impact on their community and their own life. This is not to overgeneralize and say that these examples are indicative of internalized racism one hundred percent of the time but rather they are simply examples of what the manifestation of internalized racism could look like in a person of color.

The reason that Black people experience this is because they are surrounded by a society that reinforces negative stereotypes of the Black community and if they don’t have a strong mentor or person in their life who communicates the positive aspects of being a Black person then these negative messages might be the only messages received and over time due to exposure, a person begins to believe them. Azibo would state that a Black person who doesn’t have a strong sense of self would succumb to absorbing society's definition of Blackness and thus would be subject to internalized racism. The psychological effects of internalized racism are associated with psychological distress, low self esteem, depressive and anxiety symptoms over time, internalized racism and racial identity beliefs which can combine to influence the psychological well-being of African American emerging adults. ^_[33] Having a strong sense of self and racial identity has been shown to be inversely related to the phenomenon of internalized racism. That is, those who hold a high sense of self and view of their ethnic group identity also have a tendency to not be affected so much by internalized racism. It's important to understand that internalized racism is a product of systemic racism and societal structures that perpetuate racial inequalities. It does not absolve individuals of personal responsibility, but it highlights the complexity of racial identity and the need to address both external and internal sources of racism. ^_[34]

Black Psychological Phenomena

Other psychological concepts that have been defined which affect the Black community include intersectionality, micro and macro aggressions, stereotype threat, the imposter syndrome, unconscious bias and cultural mistrust theory.

Intersectionality

An analytical framework known as intersectionality helps people comprehend how different types of prejudice, such as racism, classism, sexism, genderism, ageism, and heterosexism etc can overlap and interact to produce individual experiences of privilege and oppression. It was first used to characterize the particular difficulties faced by Black women in the judicial system by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1980s. ^_[35] The video below explains the concept in the authors own words.

The reason why it is important to recognize the existence of intersectionality is because to only look at one injustice leads to a myopic premature understanding of the experienced oppression of the marginalized group. The complexity of how one type of discrimination compounds with another can provide a more holistic view of how multiple issues interact to form a nuanced web of social injustice and disadvantage for various groups of people. These compound barriers are not present to the same degree with dominant groups in an oppressive society and therefore the dominant groups experience advantage and privilege based on their status of being a member of the dominant group whether they are aware of their position or not. This brings light to the fact that an older woman could be overlooked because of her age at work for a promotion but might also experience discrimination because she was exposed to sexual harassment by a superior on the job and reported it to Human Resources. In this example, the woman is experiencing agism, which is discrimination based on age, as well as sexism which is discrimination based on the fact that she is a woman. To simply overlook one factor over the other would be to miss the entire scope of discrimination and injustice that is happening in the example. Also, race has been purposefully left out of the example but one could imagine how if this woman was from the dominant group of society, how that might be perceived in one light as compared to if she was in a minority group and reported the same experiences. The intersectionality must be considered to understand how all injustices relate to one another and contribute to the overall compounding effect of each situation. ^_[36]

Racialized Aggressions

The two categories of racialized aggressions include macroaggressions and microaggressions. The first person to coin the term racial microaggressions was none other than Harvard University graduate, professor, psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Chester Pierce in the 1970s. Dr. Pierce defined microaggressions as seemingly harmless subtle or slight insults (verbal, nonverbal, and/or visual) specifically aimed at people of color, usually automatically or unconsciously. According to Sue et al, racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group, and are expressed in three forms: microassaults, microinsults and microinvalidations. ^_[37] Conversely, a macroaggression would be an overt, obvious and blatant incident or episode of discrimination, prejudice or bias against a person. ^_[38] These are rather easy to identify as they are obvious. The harder types of aggressions to identify are microaggression because they tend to be small instances that happen to a person that might seem insignificant but over time add up to a pattern of discrimination. These aggressions could be instigated by an individual or by a system or entity which is oppressive such as the criminal justice system, the medical health care system, the educational system, the voting system or the banking system etc. ^_[39]

Spotlight: Components of Microagressions

Microaggressions support and reinforce the following beliefs:

• The position of the dominant culture as normal and all else as aberrant or pathological,
• The expression of disapproval of or discomfort with the marginalized group,
• The assumption that all marginalized group members are the same, curtailing the existence of discrimination against the minority group,
• The denial of the perpetrator’s own bias, or the minimalizing of real conflict between the minority group and the dominant culture ^_[40]

Sue et al. explains that there are five domains in which these microaggressions occur for African Americans which are the Incident, Perception, Reaction, Interpretation and Consequence and they do not necessarily happen in any particular order. ^_[41] Incident refers to a microaggressive event which could be verbal, nonverbal/behavioral or environmental. Perception refers to a belief about how the incident is understood. Reaction refers to the person's immediate response which could include a sense of valid healthy paranoia, a sanity check and perhaps rescuing the offender in certain circumstances. Interpretation refers to the message that the individual receives from the experience of the microaggression which could be that they do not belong, that they are abnormal, that they are intellectually inferior, that they are not trustworthy or that the person is the same as every other person in their minority group. Lastly, Consequence refers to the mental result of the incident which might result in feelings of powerlessness or anger, invisibility, forced compliance or loss of integrity and the pressure to represent one’s group. These all happen very quickly after the microaggression occurs but can also happen later if the person ponders and relives the event at a later time. Sue et al. identifies 9 categories of racial microaggressions, described as:

1. assumptions that a person of color is not a true American;
2. assumptions of lesser intelligence;
3. statements that convey colorblindness or denial of the importance of race;
4. assumptions of criminality or dangerousness;
5. denials of individual racism;
6. promotion of the myth of meritocracy;
7. assumptions that one’s cultural background and communication styles are pathological;
8. being treated as a second-class citizen; and
9. having to endure environmental messages of being unwelcome or devalued. ^_[42]

Williams reports that “Studies of college students have demonstrated a significant relationship between racial discrimination and increased substance use _{[4, 34]}, delinquency _[6], decreased academic outcomes _[20] and self-esteem _[54]. Depression symptoms have been found to mediate a relationship between racial microaggressions and suicidality in students _[32], raising grave concerns about the consequences of daily microaggression-related stress on young people.” _^[43] Additionally, Williams et al. built upon these categories adding a most salient category known as reverse-racism hostility to shed light on the circumstance of a minority experiencing a microaggression only to be told by the aggressor that the act of calling out the racist event is reverse-racism. _^[44]

Stereotype Threat

The phenomenon known as stereotype threat was coined by professor and researcher Claude Steele of Stanford University. According to Steele, “Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, a self-characteristic, [and/or] a negative stereotype about one's group.” This could look like a Black student underperforming on an exam if the student believes that Black people do not do well on these types of exams although the student may actually know the information on the exam. This essentially means that the Black student could fear confirming these negative stereotypes which could mentally distract them from the task at hand which then leads to fulfilling the negative psychological expectations that he or she has observed in society. This matters because it leads to one factor contributing to an explanation for the statistically significant achievement gaps of Black students in the United States educational system. Also, this phenomenon could be present in the workplace in terms of a Black person who believes that a Black person shouldn’t or couldn’t be in a particular position and therefore performs poorly during the interview for that position. This implies again that the Black person was qualified for the position but the cognitive dissonance between them believing in themselves throughout the interview and the fact that they may be aware of a negative social stereotype that says Black people can’t succeed in this particular job may have caused the person to under perform in the job interview. ^_[45]

Unconscious or Implicit Bias

The attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and prejudices that people hold instinctively or without awareness are referred to as unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias. ^_[46] These biases can have a subtle and automatic impact on decisions, actions, and behavior even though they are unintended. Based on their ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, ability, or other traits, individuals or groups may be perceived and interacted with differently as a result of unconscious bias. It is a natural outcome of the brain's propensity to organize and streamline information. Unconscious bias has a variety of noticed and unnoticed effects on behaviors, beliefs, and feelings. The concept of implicit bias has been around since 1995 when psychologist Mahzarin Banaji coined the term. Since then, there have been several researchers who have studied the concept and concluded that humans do indeed possess unconscious biases and the consequences can be extremely detrimental and at times life threatening. _^[47] Although everyone has unconscious biases because we are all human, the intersectionality of the unconscious bias fueled by stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, combined with oppressive systems negatively affects oppressed social groups. The presence of unconscious bias exists in many fields but two obvious industries that have been studied and found to have negative effects of unconscious bias against marginalized populations are the medical field and the criminal justice system.

Imposter Syndrome

Although not a concept created by Black Psychologists, when former First Lady Michelle Obama finished writing her book titled Becoming, she mentioned that she still suffers from the concept called imposter syndrome where she feels like she is not enough and second guesses herself. This led to a resurfacing of the concept of the imposter syndrome, originally defined in the 1970s by Clance and Imes, which is when a person feels that they are incompetent, insecure, experience self doubt and fear being exposed as a fraud. _^[48] Even the APA acknowledges the experiences of the field of psychology as contributing to imposter syndrome as they stated “Due to the lack of attention to indigenous cultural ways of being, students are vulnerable to adopting a deficit image of themselves or their culture or developing an imposter syndrome.” ^_[49]

This is crucial to understand because these thoughts manifest themselves into situations such as a person thinking that they are not enough, thinking that they need more credentials to apply for a position that does not require such credentials, not being able to see that they are well qualified to do their job, second guessing themselves on the job, being unable to attribute their success to their own abilities, neglecting to apply for a job or raise because they don’t have all of the bulleted points on the job description, not advocating for themselves when it comes time for a raise because they don’t believe they are worthy, overachievement, burnout due to taking on too much to prove your worth, comparing oneself to others, self-sabotage by perfectionism, procrastination, negative self-talk or overall thinking that they might be found out at any time.

In an educational setting this could look like a well qualified student believing that they were only given a place at the institution due to affirmative action and not feeling like they belong in their racial identity group. This mentality can also trickle into the workplace and this affirmative action belief can be held by employees and supervisors. This could happen if a person is the only minority in a company in a management position and therefore they are always trying to prove oneself on the job. It could be perpetuated if a person experiences microaggressions that promote the stereotype that a person is not capable of doing their job. This could look like a supervisor from another culture, stating to a minority that they were surprised as to how well this person performed on a task. ^_[50] These anxious, stressful and detrimental thoughts are of course unfounded but because the individual believes them, they could become a self fulfilling prophecy. ^_[51] Studies have shown a connection between those experiencing race related discrimination to have a higher level of racial imposter syndrome, increased levels of psychological distress and a higher likelihood of being vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes.

In the above work example, the supervisor's surprise is indicative of a conscious or unconscious bias of the supervisor that they felt the anticipated level of performance would be much lower than what was observed. Secondly, the communication of such surprise is a blatant microaggression such as “oh I didn’t know you could write that well.” Thirdly, the minority experiencing this would have cognitive dissonance regarding how to respond if they believe the negative stereotype which would be an example of internalized racism. Subsequently, the minority may start to decline in performance which is indicative of stereotype threat. Lastly, the racial imposter syndrome would be reinforced by the overall event which could strengthen the mental self fulfilling prophecy of underperforming in the future by not applying for a promotion when one becomes available. The self doubt and anxiety about being overlooked at work could lead to mental stressors such as depression and further anxiety which could also hinder the progress of the minority on the job. This train of events would clearly have socioeconomic consequences if this person never applies for a higher position or advocates for their own raise. Furthermore, incidents in the workplace that contribute to cultural mistrust speaks to the validity of Cultural Mistrust Theory.

Cultural Mistrust Theory

Cultural Mistrust Theory is a theory derived from the concept that marginalized members of racial groups tend to perceive a level of distrust regarding figures of authority and institutions such as healthcare, education, and government because of historical discrimination, bias, racism, oppression and social injustice. ^_[52] These deeply held beliefs may very well influence the interactions of these groups with these institutions resulting in a decrease of access to health care, proper education, opportunities for employment and interaction with government agencies. This could ultimately be detrimental to the marginalized groups who need the services of these institutions. For example this has been reported as one of the reasons why those in the Black community are statistically less likely to seek out mental health services because of the mistrust in the healthcare system. Unsurprisingly, Terrell and Terrell studied a group of participants where it was discovered that those who had a higher score of exposure to racial discrimination also had a higher score of cultural mistrust. Furthermore, Whaley stated that “clinicians' misinterpretation of cultural mistrust as clinical paranoia contributes to the misdiagnosis of African Americans as schizophrenic.” ^_[53] Whaley also concludes that therapists need to acknowledge the presence of racism and its health consequences on Black people in the United States. However, when according to the APA, 86% of the U.S. psychology workforce identify as white, 5% Asian, 4% Black, and 5% Hispanic, it would not be a stretch to imagine that a person of color might have a more difficult time locating a therapist who they could identify and feel comfortable with. _^[54] These are only a few illustrations of how Cultural Mistrust Theory has negative mental health effects on marginalized populations. ^_[55]

Extreme Stress, Trauma, PTSS and Models Health

Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress, Multigenerational Trauma, The Minority Stress Model of Mental Health and the Social Determinants of Mental Health speak to the ever present physical and mental health effects that Black people can experience due to the long term exposure to multiple types of racism in society that exponentially affect their allostatic load. This refers to the collective persistent physiological load, psychological load and emotional load of constant stress and daily life events such as environmental stressors, physiological stressors and traumatic experiences. Some would debate the validity of connecting living in a racist society with physical, psychological and spiritual ailments but that is exactly what the research supports.

Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress (MEES)

Educator Grace Carroll conducted a study in 1998 involving African American students in her classes where she asked them three questions. ^_[56]

1. Have you ever been the only African American person in a class or meeting and a so-called Black issue comes up and suddenly you feel all eyes are on you that you are supposed to have the "appropriate response"-that you speak for all African Americans? A microaggression known as racial spotlighting.) _^[57]
2. Have you ever watched the news and a particularly violent crime is described and your first reaction: "God, I hope the perpetrator is not Black?”
3. Have you ever been in a store, bar, or restaurant and felt you were next in line for service only to see that a white patron got served instead?"

Carroll found that the participants generally answered "yes" to these questions, leading her to believe that the presence of "mundane extreme environmental stress” existed in their lives.

​​The word mundane is used to connote the everyday ubiquitous exposure which leads to a type of unconscious “taking it for granted” and accepting that living under a racist society is normal. This is often a difficult concept to convey unless a person has left the country and experienced life without mundane racism present. One of the first recognitions of Black people who travel to countries where Black people are a majority is that they are less on edge, more relaxed, feel as if they are able to be themselves without fear of being perceived as a criminal in public spaces and have a calm sense of peace. By default, when Black people return to racist societies, the opposite is true. They experience hypersensitivity to the environment and their energy-consuming, protective and heightened mental alertness returns. In a sense, it could also be described as what I like to call the “Head on a Swivel” Phenomenon. This hyper-alertness to the environment does take a toll on the body both mentally and physically and is in fact an extreme environment. Therefore, the title “Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress” is appropriate. Naturally, one might inquire as to what would be the physical consequences of living under such extreme stress? Research has shown a clear correlation between the people in the Black community connected to experiencing psychosocial race related stress accompanied by cardiovascular health, heart disease and hypertension. ^_[58][59]

Intergenerational Cultural Trauma Theory

There is extensive research on what trauma is and how to treat it in a clinical therapy setting but there is less research on applying these theories and conceptual frameworks to the history of African Americans in the United States. One could speculate that this is due to the fact that in the United States mainstream society seems to wish that this country lived in a post racial society meaning that race and racism is no longer a problem. However, that is far from the present reality. To acknowledge that the history of slavery affected African Americans brings up many feelings of guilt or shame for the dominant culture and therefore would not be an initial topic of choice to research hence why Black researchers have taken up the charge to connect the dots. Also, some Black scholars might want to subconsciously distance themselves from the effects of slavery and therefore might be apprehensive to acknowledge its residue. In order to explain these theories, the basic concept of trauma must first be explained and then the connection to multigenerational trauma or Intergenerational Cultural Trauma Theory, and then to Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome can be made.

Extreme stress, also known as trauma, a traumatic event or a group of traumatic events which can be experienced by an individual person, within a collective group, within a larger community, in mass and vicariously by witnessing or reliving a traumatic event of another. Building upon that definition, a cultural trauma “is a condition or syndrome that occurs when a collective has been subject to an unbearable event or experience that undermines their sense of group identity, values, meaning and purpose, or their cultural worldview.” ^_[60] Thus, a historical, generational, mass cultural trauma would be a type of community trauma such as the historic enslavement, torture, and lynchings of Africans brought to the America’s through the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. One can easily see how these types of trauma would have overlapped as an African person who was forced to become enslaved would have experienced individual, psychological, emotional and physical trauma. Furthermore, they would have collectively experienced these types of traumas as a small familial collective group, a larger community in a neighborhood or town, vicariously by witnessing others’ trauma and in mass meaning all enslaved African people. _^[61]

In many ways, Black people experienced system-oriented re-traumatization after slavery was abolished by systems such as reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Black Codes, the great migration out of the south to redlined segregated neighborhoods that are being gentrified, violent protests during the Civil Rights movement, medical apartheid on Black bodies, Eugenics forced sterilizations, IQ testing within the educational system, the new Jim Crow known as the school to prison pipeline and mass incarceration, through racist laws such as stop and frisk, the three strikes law, and institutional racism via criminal justice practices like receiving longer harsher sentencing for lesser crimes as compared to those of other races. These modern day re-traumatizations from systemic racism are traumas that are experienced on an ongoing basis in the lives of the Black community across generations.

Being exposed to extended periods of trauma has been shown to have long term negative psychological and emotional effects on a person and their community such as changing or altering a persons’ worldview, especially one’s beliefs about the world being a safe place. ^_[62] Consequently, the result of experiencing intergenerational cultural trauma is a lack of trust in others, anger, irritability and fearfulness which all exist in the Black community to some extent. For example there is a righteous distrust in social systems that the community interacts with, anger towards the history of slavery in the United States and the lack of acknowledgement of the effects of slavery on the entire country, as well as the heightened hypervigilance that the Black community lives with on a daily basis which has its roots in fear. Furthermore, studies have examined intergenerational transmission of depression and other mental health manifestations. Simply put, there is a definitive connection between the experiences, environment and challenges of one generation being passed onto the next generation presenting in the same or varied manifestation of issues. ^_[63]

Many studies have given credit to these arguments under the category of epigenetics which, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is the scientific study of how behaviors and environmental factors cause alterations in gene expression. ^[_64] In studies of mice, trauma has been observed to be transferred to offspring for several generations. ^_[65] Applying this same theory to humans, it is plausible that the effects of cumulative trauma occurring over many generations have then been passed onto future generations, altering how they experience and operate in the world. Considering that physical slavery lasted for over 400 years in the U.S. and mental enslavement some would argue is still present, if the theory of epigenetics is applied to the Black community, then one could easily make the connection that slavery still influences the lives of African Americans to this day. As one scholar put it, "Trauma experienced over generations can look like culture." That is precisely the premise that scholars such as Na’im Akbar and Dr. Joy DeGruy examined.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Researcher Dr. Joy DeGruy postulated a theory known as the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) where she describes the cause or etiology of psychological adaptive behaviors and emotional characteristics in the Black community that she believes could have been passed down from generations of Black people in the United States and the Diaspora who are descendants of enslaved Africans having experienced extreme trauma. Akbar previously termed this phenomenon the Residual Effects of Slavery. ^_[66] Dr. DeGruy explains that Black people experience multigenerational trauma and continued oppression, they don’t have an opportunity to process and heal from the trauma or access societal benefits, which then contributes to them developing PTSS.

Over her 12 years of research in the U.S. and Africa, Dr. DeGruy observed the following predictable behavior leading her to acknowledge the characteristics of vacant esteem, marked propensity for anger and violence and racist socialization/internalized racism as PTSS. Vacant esteem refers to the idea that there is a lack of development of a strong sense of self resulting in a person feeling hopeless, depressed and possibly even exhibiting self destructive behaviors. Next she categorized a marked propensity for anger and violence as extreme reactions and emotions related to being suspicious about the motivations of others. Also, self violence and violence against others or belongings and possessions would fall under this category. Lastly, she stated that racist socialization/internalized racism in those suffering from PTSS presented as an obvious learned helplessness, deprived literacy skills, a skewed self concept, disliking one’s own racial/ethnic group, disliking or disassociating with the common cultural practices of one’s own heritage, and distancing oneself from physical characteristics of one's own cultural group. Previous scholars have called these phenomena Black self-hatred and internalized racism. _^[67] To be clear, Dr. DeGruy is not stating that all Black people in the U.S. or in the diaspora suffer from this phenomena but rather that those who exhibit these particular traits could be suffering from PTSS. These symptoms when examined individually may not seem to be indicative of a mental pathology to the untrained eye. On the other hand, when examining a population and grouping observed characteristics together to codify findings, these symptoms point to a larger issue which is that there are consequences still existing in the present day from the effects of chattel slavery on African people brought against their will to the U.S..

This is not to say that Black people have not developed positive coping skills such as resiliency and leaning on those in Black communities for support. In actuality, the fact that Black people have become so successful in spite of this tragically traumatized past speaks to the strengths within the Black community. It also debunks those who might say that Black people will never amount to anything. Dr. DeGruy calls out the importance of healing from trauma and acknowledging the past to move into the future in a healthy way. She includes a guide on how to utilize tools and develop skills to counter past traumas by developing positive coping skills, attitudes and behaviors that support the healthy development and processing of emotions for the Black community. This involves reevaluating habitual adaptive coping and survival behaviors, acknowledging the collective trauma of the past and stepping forward in strength as a community to support one another.

Models of Health

There are several factors that play into the access and effectiveness of the medical system within the Black community. Two frameworks that are used to understand the intricacies of the effectiveness of these systems and how they intersect with the Black community are the Minority Stress Model of Health and the Social Determinants of Mental Health. These models describe the health disparities present among marginalized populations while recognizing the social factors that also influence health outcomes. The attitudes of the Black community surrounding mental health are compounded by the fact that mental health is a part of the medical system and there are still many who are hesitant to put their trust in a system that has been shown to historically have prejudice beliefs, discriminatory racist practices, experimenting on Black bodies without consent under medical apartheid and substandard negligent care.

Minority Stress Model of Health

The Minority Stress Model of Health was researched by Dr. Ilan Meyers who postulated that there were multiple economic, societal and environmental stressors placed on minority populations that were affecting their overall mental health outcomes. His focus was that minorities experience distal and proximal stress stemming from societal stigma, prejudice, discrimination, racism, and chosen identity. Distal stressors refers to distant stress coming from the outside such as racism, prejudice and social messages. Proximal stressors refers to stress that comes from within such as expectations of rejection, concealment of socially unwelcome identities and internalized social messages. Dr. Meyer’s research largely focused on those who identified with the LGBTQIA+ communities while also including those with various racial identities, gender identities, sexualities and varying disabilities. His interventions focused on reducing discrimination, promoting social supports, creating inclusive environments to mitigate minority stress at the individual and community level and leaning on the resilience of the populations under stress. When examining the Black community through this lens, the connection can be made that experiencing these stressors can cause mental disorders and physical distress. ^_[68]

Social Determinants of Mental Health

The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) theory explains that outside of simply having access to medical care, larger systemic issues such as economic circumstances and social conditions have lasting effects on a person's overall health outcome. Most importantly, the unequal distribution of income, wealth, influence and power and their connection to poor public policies on a macro level leads to overt health inequalities across populations. Therefore, the Social Determinants of Mental Health (SDOMH) specifically focuses on the same factors and how they affect the mental health of a population. _^[69] The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life." The general categories of influence include access to quality education, access to reliable transportation, access to safe housing, sufficient employment opportunities, distribution of income and wealth, access to living in a safe neighborhood, access to a clean nontoxic physical environment, supportive social environment or community, access to resources such as healthy food, and of course proper access to health care systems. These are the major categories studied, however, there is no agreed upon list of social determinants and the theory has been used to examine and assess many populations. Thus, to apply the SDOMH theory to the Black community, one would have to examine how each of these categories intersect and affect the mental health of the Black community.

Addressing social determinants of health is crucial for achieving health equity and improving overall population health. Policies and interventions aimed at reducing health disparities often target these determinants to create conditions that promote better health and well-being for all individuals and communities. The compounding nature of the effect of systemic racism within the medical system has led to a valid deep sense of suspicion and mistrust of the medical system in the Black community. This stems from conscious or unconscious bias in the medical field leading to gross negligence, maltreatment, missing diagnoses that lead to death, doctors simply choosing not to believe patient reports of pain or discomfort, Blacks being wrongly accused of drug seeking behavior in the emergency room, disproportionally high Black infant mortality rates,^_[70] the astronomical numerous deaths of pregnant Black mothers, medical apartheid via eugenics sterilization, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, gynecology experiments on Black women and medical racelighting. These are just a few of the examples of how the medical field has failed the Black community. It is not much of a stretch to think that Black people who experience the medical system in this way would transfer that distrust and suspicion to a psychologist or a psychiatrist regarding seeking mental health services. They might see the two fields as one and the same because the problem is systemic and also because statistically a major portion of psychologists identify as white. Thus, if a person believes that the problems they are having stem from systemic historical issues in a racist society, the last thing they would think to do is to go speak to a white therapist about their issues. This is not to say that all white therapists are incapable of providing a therapeutic environment for a person of color but there is a valid concern that a person of color could be triggered by experiencing therapeutic racelighting and unconscious bias. The safe space of therapy for so long has been promoted to be a sacred white space and that narrative needs to change for the betterment of all oppressed social groups who would like to seek out mental health services and not see doing so as a stigma.

Understanding the Black experience from a psychological standpoint requires delving into the manifestations of the above-mentioned phenomena which have negative effects on the mental health of the Black community. This is unfortunately compounded by the fact that the Black community tends to forgo seeking out mental health support from an inherently racist and historically prejudiced medical system. The cultural tendency in the Black community is to take your mental health problems to church and pray them away while keeping family business inside the family. However, there has been more interest in utilizing culturally relevant psychological resources in the Black community as members of the community continue to pursue becoming psychologists as clinicians and researchers, earn various specializations in fields such as Trauma-Informed Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy, open up community mental health resource centers and author material specifically to serve the people and them.

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Endnotes

[25] Author, Mantracare. “Racialized Trauma: Signs, Effects, Examples & Healing.” Mantra Care, January 31, 2023. https://mantracare.org/therapy/ptsd-...ic_Stress_RBTS.

[26] Ibid 2

[27] Ibid 2

[28] Smith, W. A., Allen, W. R., & Danley, L. L., ““Assume the Position . . . You Fit the Description”: Psychosocial Experiences and Racial Battle Fatigue Among African American Male College Students,” American Behavioral Scientist 51 no. 4 (2007): 551–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742 Smith, W. A., Allen, W. R., & Danley, L. L., ““Assume the Position . . . You Fit the Description”: Psychosocial Experiences and Racial Battle Fatigue Among African American Male College Students,” American Behavioral Scientist 51 no. 4 (2007): 551–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742

[29] Ibid 28

[30] Wood, J. L., “What is racelighting? How gaslighting affects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.” Psychology Today. October, 7 2021. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...s-racelighting

[31] Angelique M. Davis & Rose Ernst, “Racial Gaslighting,” Politics, Groups, and Identities 7, no. 4 (2019): 761-774, DOI: 10.1080/21565503.2017.1403934

[32] Watson-Creed G. “Gaslighting in academic medicine: where anti-Black racism lives” Canadian Medical Association Journal 194 no. 42 (2022): E1451-E1454. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.212145. PMID: 36316019; PMCID: PMC9828884.

[33] Willis, H. A., Sosoo, E. E., Bernard, D. L., Neal, A., & Neblett, E. W., “The Associations Between Internalized Racism, Racial Identity, and Psychological Distress,” Emerging Adulthood, 9 no. 4 (2021): 384–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211005598

[34] Ibid 34

[35] Crenshaw, Kimberle´ Williams, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989): 139–67.

[36] Ibid 36

[37] Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., & Holder, A. M., “Racial microaggressions in the Life Experience of Black Americans,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 39, no. 3 (2008): 329-336.

[38] Alves, J. “Setting the Tone: Micro/Macro Racial Aggression, Antiblackness and the Outlining of a Trans-National Research Agenda on Community Responses to State Terror,” Currents 1, no. 1 (2019): 79-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/currents.17387731.0001.107

[39] Pierce, C. Psychiatric problems of the Black minority: American handbook of psychiatry. In S. Arieti (Ed.), New York: Basic Books, 2015.

[40] Ibid 38

[41] Ibid 38

[42] Ibid 38

[43] Williams, M.T., Skinta, M.D., Kanter, J.W. et al., “A qualitative study of microaggressions against African Americans on predominantly White campuses,” BMC Psychology 8, no. 111 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-00472-8

[44] Williams MT, Skinta MD, Martin-Willett R. After Pierce and Sue, “A Revised Racial Microaggressions Taxonomy,” Perspect Psychol Sci. 16, no. 5 (2021): 991-1007. doi: 10.1177/1745691621994247. PMID: 34498518. (Reverse racism)

[45] Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. “Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69 no. 5 (1995) : 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797

[46] Suveren, Yaşar.  “Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar,” Adana 14 no. 3 (2022): 414-426. DOI:10.18863/pgy.1026607

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[48] Montagne, Renee. “How the Concept of Implicit Bias Came into Being.” NPR, October 17, 2016. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/498219482.

[49] American Psychological Association, APA Indigenous Apology Work Group. Report on an Offer of Apology, on behalf of the American Psychological Association, to First Peoples in the United States. (2023) Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/indigenous-apology.pdf

[50] Bernard, D. L., Lige, Q. M., Willis, H. A., Sosoo, E. E., & Neblett, E. W., “Impostor phenomenon and mental health: The influence of racial discrimination and gender.” Journal of Counseling Psychology 64, no. 2 (2017): 155–166. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000197

[51] Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A., “The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention,” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice 15, no. 3 (1978): 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006

[52] Whaley, A. L., “Cultural mistrust: An important psychological construct for diagnosis and treatment of African Americans,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 32, no. 6 (2001): 555-562. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.32.6.555

[53] Ibid 53

[54] Lin, Luona, Karen Stamm, and Peggy Christidis. “How Diverse Is the Psychology Workforce?” Monitor on Psychology, February 2018. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/datapoint.

[55] Terrell, F., & Terrell, S. L. “An inventory to measure cultural mistrust among Blacks” The Western Journal of Black Studies 5, no. 3 (1981): 180–184.

[56] Carroll, Grace. Environmental stress and African Americans: The other side of the moon. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

[57] Andrews, D. J. C. “Black Achievers’ Experiences with Racial Spotlighting and Ignoring in a Pred

[58] Carroll, Grace. “Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress and African American Families: A Case for Recognizing Different Realities.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 29, no. 2 (1998): 271–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41603564.

[59] Lin, Luona, Karen Stamm, and Peggy Christidis. “How Diverse Is the Psychology Workforce?” Monitor on Psychology, February 2018. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/datapoint.

[60] Halloran, Michael, “African American Health and Posttraumatic Slave Syndrome: A Terror Management Theory Account'' Journal of Black Studies 50, no. 1 (2018): 45-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718803737

[61] Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US). Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2014. (Treatment Improvement Pr

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[63] Hankerson, Sidney H., Nathalie Moise, Diane Wilson, Bernadine Y. Waller, Kimberly T. Arnold, Cristiane Duarte, et al. “The Intergenerational Impact of Structural Racism and Cumulative Trauma on Depression.” American Journal of Psychiatry, May 23, 2022. https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi...i.ajp.21101000.

[64] “What Is Epigenetics?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 15, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease...tics.htm#print. Retrieved on October 13, 2023

[65] Blewitt M, Whitelaw E., “The use of mouse models to study epigenetics” Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 5 no. 11 (2013): a017939. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a017939. PMID: 24186070; PMCID: PMC3809579.

[66] Akbar Naim. Breaking the chains of psychological slavery. Tallahassee, FL: Mind Productions & Associate, 1996.

[67] Baldwin, James, “Theory and Research Concerning the Notion of Black Self-hatred: A Review and Reinterpretation,” Journal of Black Psychology 5 no.2 (1979):51-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/009579847900500201

[68] Meyer, I. H., & Frost, D. M., “Minority stress and the health of sexual minorities.) In C. J. Patterson & A. R. D'Augelli (Eds.), Handbook of psychology and sexual orientation. Oxford University Press, 2013.

[69] D. J. Jester et al. “Differences in Social Determinants of Health Underlie Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Psychological Health and Well-Being: Study of 11,143 Older Adults American,” Journal of Psychiatry 180, no. 7 (2023): 483–494.

[70] Owens DC, Fett SM., “Black Maternal and Infant Health: Historical Legacies of Slavery.” Am J Public Health 109, no. 10 (2019):1342-1345. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305243. Epub 2019 Aug 15. PMID: 31415204; PMCID: PMC6727302.