Day 9: Racism & Mental Health
People of color suffer worse health outcomes than white people, even when controlling for income and other factors. Learn why these disparities aren’t about race, but racism. Today we are talking about the impact of toxic stress caused by daily exposure to discrimination on the health of people of color. Research has linked racism to psychological distress, physical health problems, depression, anxiety, and trauma. The internalization of bias and oppression can cause great distress to minds, bodies, and spirits.
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
CHALLENGES
OPTION 1: Listen to Code Switch: Race and Identity, Remixed: Coping While Black: A Season of Traumatic News Takes a Psychological Toll.
OPTION 2: Listen to this podcast about the effect of chronic stress from frequent racist encounters on the health outcomes of people of color. The article also features a case study on how a large-scale ICE raid in Iowa impacted the health of pregnant Latinx women across the state.
OPTION 3: Read this article about how the mental burdens of bias, trauma, and family hardship lead to unequal life outcomes for girls and women and girls and women of color in particular.
OTHER RESOURCES
Mental Health & Racism. Read this list of 8 ways to practice self-care to support you and your loved ones when you are personally affected by racism
Epidemiologist Sherman James explores the startling effects of discrimination on the wellbeing of African Americans in: Sherman James and the John Henryism Hypothesis
Watch this 2015 Ted Talk on Childhood Trauma by Nadine Burke Harris, California’s current Surgeon General (16 min)