What is Racial Trauma?
How does racism show up in our body, thoughts, and emotions?
People who are familiar with racism may know that it is acknowledged as a public health crisis by the American Public Health Association. But how do daily experiences of racism, discrimination, and microaggressions affect us psychologically and in our trauma symptoms? How does it show up in our bodies, thoughts, and emotions?
First, it’s important to understand the definition of racism. The American Psychological Association defines racism as “a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on phenotypic properties… which ranges from daily interpersonal interactions shaped by race to racialized opportunities for good education, housing, employment, etc.” This definition of racism acknowledges that it damages the mental health of those belonging to marginalized racial groups and damages the full potential of the entire society. APA also recognizes four levels of racism: structural, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized. Here is an overview of these four levels:
The Four Levels of Racism:
Structural: This level refers to the laws, policies, and practices that compound to create race-based inequalities. These laws, policies, and practices systematically and pervasively put BIPOC people at a disadvantage in society.
Institutional: This level refers to the policies, practices, and procedures of institutions. An example may be a patient being denied effective medicine in a medical setting due to race, or a student being denied quality education by an educational institution due to race.
Interpersonal: This level refers to specific behaviors by socially and politically dominant racial groups that diminish and harm people who belong to other racial groups. Racial slurs, hateful or violent interpersonal behaviors, and microaggressions fall under this category.
Internalized: Finally, internalized racism refers to the acceptance by diverse racial populations of the negative societal beliefs and stereotypes about themselves. This level can be particularly insidious because internalized racism refers to unconscious or conscious racist biases against oneself or one’s own racial group.
Now that we understand racism, it is important to understand how racism causes trauma. Many psychologists use the term “race based traumatic stress" to understand racial trauma, because the term “stress” implies that racism as a source of trauma is ongoing. It can be a one-time event (e.g. specific violent incident or hate crime), but usually, it is not. It is rather a threat and stressor that constantly looms over BIPOC individuals in the US.
How does this affect therapy? This means that it is doubly important that you feel validated by the reality of racism as a constant, potentially traumatic stressor in your life, in therapy. Otherwise, therapists risk blaming our patients for trauma symptoms that are a result of real, external factors like racism.
It can also be helpful to work with your therapist to identify and make explicit the oftentimes implicit ways that racism sneaks up in our lives and affects our mental health. Here are some posts that explain various trauma symptoms, such as somatic effects, dissociation, and the four trauma responses.
So how does racism show up in our bodies, thoughts, and emotions? Here is an overview:
Body: Hypervigilance and hyperarousal from racism can look like never being able to relax, constantly feeling wound up, and constantly scanning our environment for danger. Once again, the threat of violence is very much real, especially for Black individuals in our country. However, NEVER being able to relax, even in safe environments, can be extremely detrimental to our physical and mental health.
Thoughts: Racial trauma can affect our thoughts as evident by pervasive, black-and-white negative thoughts against ourselves, others, and the world. Of course, the acknowledgment of the injustice of racism is valid and accurate. However, it is when these thoughts become exaggerated (e.g. no one is safe) that they can become harmful and maladaptive.
Emotions: Pervasive, negative mood such as fear, sadness, anxiety, anger, and shame. When racism affects our emotions, it can be difficult to experience positive emotions like happiness, enjoyment, hope, and love. While negative emotional reactions to injustice and racism are valid, it is when these emotions become pervasive and overwhelming in your life that it may be a good time to consider therapy for racial trauma.
What do I do now?
If you feel that you are needing support healing from racial trauma, there are many steps you can take to start. You can book a free consultation with our therapist matchmaker to explore online individual (CA residents only) therapy for racial trauma. You can also educate yourself through psychoeducational books and seek social support through BIPOC or allied communities.
These blogs talk more about the basics of EMDR:
You can read more about Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy here: