Racial trauma is the term used to describe the toll that systemic racism takes on the health of people from the BIPOC community. In some people, the effects are so profound that they develop symptoms similar to PTSD. Though not a new concept, the idea of racial trauma has been in the national spotlight recently following the killing of George Floyd and resulting protests in every state and around the world.
Racial trauma most often has a cumulative effect. In her book How to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo likens racism to an abusive relationship. It’s not necessarily about one time the abuser called the survivor a name or made them feel bad. Instead, it becomes abuse as it is part of a larger pattern that keeps the survivor unsafe.
Oluo explains that systemic racism is like being in an abusive relationship with all of society, and there’s no leaving it without dismantling systemic racism. The abuse of racism often comes in the forms of microaggressions, violence, and systemic discrimination. This cycle of abuse results in racial trauma.
Microaggressions and Racial Trauma
Microaggressions are everyday ways in which white people reinforce systemic racism. In general, there are three types of microaggressions:
- Microassaults: These are individualized acts of racism within the white supremacist system. Examples include when a cashier follows a Black person around a high-end store or when someone tells a racist “joke.”
- Microinsults: Perpetrators will say that they mean these statements as compliments, but they are harmful. For example, someone may describe a Black person as “articulate” or an Indigenous person as “civilized.” These statements are damaging because they assume that most people of the same race do not possess that characteristic, i.e., articulate or civilized.
- Microinvalidations: These microaggressions invalidate the lived experiences of a person of color. Perhaps the most prominent example is when white people say they “don’t see race.” Colorblindness erases the lived experiences of anyone with a different racial identity than your own. Another example is when a white person insists that some negative experience “isn’t about race,” even when a BIPOC says that it is.
When people from the BIPOC community call out these microaggressions, white people often respond that this one incident is not that big of a deal. Sound familiar? This is gaslighting and part of the abusive nature of systemic racism. Your feelings about these microaggressions are valid.
Violence and Racial Trauma
Please skip ahead to the next section if you are triggered by descriptions of violence, particularly against people from the BIPOC community.
While it’s important to acknowledge racial trauma in any given year, 2020 is not any other year. When an officer killed George Floyd on camera in such a horrific manner, people from the BIPOC community across the country felt the pain all over again. It was not the first or the last time that a white cop killed an unarmed Black person, and it wasn’t the last. Instead, it’s part of a broader pattern that keeps people from the BIPOC community on high alert and grieving, resulting in more trauma.
Also this year, police officers killed Breonna Taylor while she slept in her home. It’s yet another open wound for people from the BIPOC community. Adding to the trauma of these killings is the fact that the police in so many cases are not brought to justice. The law enforcement officers who are responsible for Taylor’s death have yet to be held accountable, and it took nationwide protests before Floyd’s killer was arrested.
Microaggressions compound the trauma of violence against people from the BIPOC community. For example, when Black people insist that Black Lives Matter and white people respond with, “All lives matter!” it’s invalidating and derailing. It takes away from the important conversation about racism and brutality in policing. Instead, the conversation becomes all about the white person’s feelings. This not only perpetuates violence but also worsens the effects of trauma.
Systemic Racism and Trauma
From healthcare to voting, and from housing to work, racism affects most systems in American society. These systems constantly remind people from the BIPOC community that the systems are not built for them. They are built for white people’s benefit. Each interaction with racists systems can reopen wounds. When you end up going up against these racist systems day-in and day-out, you’re bound to notice negative effects on your mental health.