Acknowledging Race-based Trauma

As advocates working with diverse populations, it has become more important to develop an awareness of the additional trauma that survivors may experience due to their ethnic or racial backgrounds.  According to Robert Carter PhD in his 2006 article Race Based Traumatic Stress (http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/51536), race-based traumatic stress injury can be a consequence of emotional pain that a person may feel after encounters with racism.  These can be understood in terms of specific types of acts such as racial harassment or hostility, racial discrimination or avoidance and/or discriminatory harassment, and aversive hostility. How encounters with racism are experienced depends on many factors associated with an individual's background, health, and cognitive processing. Thus, the person who interprets and appraises his racial encounter as extremely negative (emotionally painful), sudden, and uncontrollable, may exhibit signs and symptoms associated with the stress and possible trauma of racism.

I worked at a shelter program in Norfolk, Virginia for many years and, having grown up in northern Wisconsin, I was admittedly unaware of how generations of racism could affect people of color. I had an encounter with a young woman of color who was bright and doing extremely well in school in spite of being relocated from her home due to domestic violence.  We were having a discussion regarding her possible educational and career options.  I mentioned to her that I thought she could be anything that she wanted to be.  She looked at me with disgust and said “no, I can’t.  I’m black and I’m a girl.”  At twelve years old she had experienced enough sexism and racism for her to develop a limited viewpoint of her options even though her abilities were far above average.  I regret that I don’t know where she is now, but I hope that she found someone to nurture her strengths and resiliency in the face of diversity and that she was able to create dreams in spite of real and perceived limitations. 

There was a woman of color in the shelter around that same time who was about my age and had a son the same age as mine.  I remember thinking one night about our similarities when it suddenly struck me.  Even though we were both women and had teenage sons, our experiences of motherhood were completely different.  Yes, both of our sons were getting into all sorts of trouble and were sometimes engaging in risky behaviors.  However, the consequences for a young black man were much greater than what could possibly happen to my son just because of the differences in the color of their skin.  Her worries were greater and more real than mine. 

I also eventually grew to realize that even though we were both women, I could walk through a shopping mall without being followed by store clerks who were checking to make sure that I wasn’t stealing.  I could apply for a job without worry that my resume would be removed from a pile because my name sounded too ethnic or because I had attended a school that had a high black student population.  I also realized that if I did well or if I did badly, my race would not be considered a factor. 

As white advocates working with women of color it is very important that we be aware of their difference of experience and the effects of insidious and implicit and explicit racism.  In the same way that domestic and sexual assault, childhood abuse, and other forms of violence create a trauma response in the brain, exposure to racism can also create lack of trust, poor self-esteem, hyper-vigilance for fear of further abuse, a sense of despair over one’s future, and a fear of re-victimization.

In the same way that we believe and validate the traumatic experiences of the assaults on survivors, it is important that we validate and believe the experiences of racism and understand the effects this could have on their ability to engage and move forward.  Also, in the same way that we focus on strength, resiliency and empowerment to help victims of gender-based trauma, we can also assist survivors of race-based trauma in finding their great strength and resiliency by acknowledging and honoring their experiences rather than being afraid to address the underlying effects of racism.