Racial trauma

Key takeaways

Racial trauma belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Racial trauma to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Racial trauma from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress, is the cumulative effects of racism on an individual’s mental and physical health. It has been observed in numerous BIPOC communities and people of all ages, including young children. Racial trauma can be experienced vicariously or directly. It has been linked to feelings of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, as well as other physical health issues.

Causes of Racial Trauma When an individual experiences racism, they can develop racial trauma. Racial trauma can be caused by racial discrimination and/or racial harassment. Racial discrimination is a term used to describe attitudes, actions, or policies that function to (1) keep physical distance between racially privileged groups and racially underprivileged groups (e.g., a white person crossing the road when they see a person of color walking in their direction at night) and/or (2) ensure that people with minoritized racial identities remain in the less privileged margins of society (e.g., education redlining excluding students of color from better-funded public schools). Racial harassment is a term used to describe attitudes, actions, or policies that function to forcibly subjugate people with marginalized racial identities to positions of inferiority; racial harassment often (either explicitly or implicitly) communicates antagonism and/or violence against people with marginalized racial identities (e.g., racially motivated hate crimes). Racial trauma can be caused by one acute experience of racism (e.g., sexual and racial harassment in the workplace) or by numerous, more subtle forms of racism that accumulate over time (e.g., racial microaggressions). Racial trauma can also be caused by both experiences of overt racism and covert racism. Overt racism describes instances of racism that occur on a person-to-person basis; it is the form of racism that people are more used to labeling as “racist” (e.g., one person yells racial slurs at another person). Covert racism occurs on a policy, institution, and/or society level; it is often more difficult for people to identify covert racism (e.g., high school students only being taught a European account of history in a history class). Racial trauma responses are also evoked by vicarious racism. Vicarious racism occurs when a person from a marginalized racial group somehow witnesses other people of their race experience and/or become negatively impacted by racism (e.g., a person witnessing their mother being called racial slurs). It can also be caused by racial intergenerational trauma, which is defined as trauma resulting from racism that is passed from one generation of the family to the next generation (e.g., the trauma a parent experiences because of racism negatively impacts the parent’s quality of parenting).

Consequences of and Outcomes Associated with Racial Trauma People experiencing racial trauma may suffer from a wide variety of psychological and/or physiological symptoms. Psychological symptoms include intrusive thoughts, social withdrawal, hypervigilance, low self-worth, worry, and depression. Physical and somatic symptoms include headaches and sleep disturbances. Symptoms of racial trauma can arise at any age, but the symptoms of racial trauma seem to differ across the lifespan. A 2020 study by Saleem and colleagues have created a model which suggests that children experience different symptoms of racial trauma depending on their stage of development. Preschool and elementary school children experience fear for the safety of themselves and their caregivers. Middle school children can begin to develop negative beliefs about their racial groups and start to feel hopeless and/or numb when they witness racially motivated violence in the media. Teenagers may experience symptoms like adults, but the magnitude of the symptoms are likely greater in teens; this greater intensity may be due to the importance of social inclusion during this developmental stage.

Arguments for Conceptualizing Racial Trauma as PTSD Racial trauma is not included in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), since it does not meet the current criteria. However, researchers such as Robert T. Carter, Thema Bryant-Davis, and Carlota Ocampo have lobbied for its addition. According to them, racial trauma evokes symptoms similar to that of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hence the push for its recognition as a viable mental health concern. The effects race-based traumatic stress have on individuals depend on their experiences, and the ways in which it can manifest itself can vary significantly as well. Individuals who are exposed to race-based trauma or stress may experience dissociative symptoms following the event. Dissociative symptoms include depersonalization, in which an individual feels disconnected from their body or mind, and derealization, in which an individual has unreal or distorted sense of experiences.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Racial trauma

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Racial trauma claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Racial trauma before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Racial trauma ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Racial trauma

In research: Racial trauma appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Racial trauma in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Racial trauma is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Majority–minority relations, Race and health, Racism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Racial trauma outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Racial trauma in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Racial trauma means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Racial trauma out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Racial trauma in simple terms?

Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress, is the cumulative effects of racism on an individual’s mental and physical health. It has been observed in numerous BIPOC communities and people of all ages, including young children.

Why does Racial trauma matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Racial trauma?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Racial trauma.