The Heavy Toll of Racism 

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Racist remarks by the president of the Los Angeles City Council, apparently abetted by other members of the Council and a labor leader, surfaced this week. It's the latest news item reminding us that racism is ubiquitous, not only in the streets or prisons, but in the halls of power. While racism has been no stranger to racial minority groups throughout the history of the United States, the recent rise of open expression of white supremacist ideology has precipitated violent attacks targeting Black communities in Milwaukee, Buffalo, and other cities. Paralleling the racist COVID rhetoric of former President Trump, hate crimes against Asian American surged 149% in 2020 alone, as reflected in the mass shooting of six Asian American women in Atlanta.

Health and Mental Health Effects

While these events have been covered extensively by the media, what needs to be emphasized is the heavy toll that racism exacts. Being the target of racial or ethnic discrimination is a distinct type of stress that causes harm to one’s health, including high blood pressure and inflammation, which are major pathways to a myriad of maladies. Unlike other stressful events that are one-time only, racism is a constant, ongoing experience, a continuous unpredictable and uncontrollable stressor for minoritized individuals, and chronic exposure appears to have cumulative effects over time. Indeed, studies have described the phenomenon of “weathering” among African Americans, in which chronic stress appears to shorten the telomeres in the DNA, one indicator of a shortened lifespan. The psychological effects of racism are legion: anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms, including hypervigilance, dissociation, irritability, and shame, not to mention school problems and academic declines among children who experience it.

Spillover Effects in the Community

Not only does racism harm the individual, entire communities may be affected by a racist incident. A recent study published in journal Lancet found a “spillover” effect: When an unarmed Black citizen is killed by the police, the surrounding Black population evidenced poorer mental health in the two months following, compared to incidents in which an armed Black citizen is killed or an unarmed White citizen is killed. Community effects of racism were also found among Asian Americans; even those not directly targeted experienced more emotional distress amid a rash of hate crimes.

Social Exclusion

These harmful effects may not be surprising because of the severity of the events described — hate crimes, violence — but what about social exclusion on the basis of race or subtler messages of racism; for example, “You are so articulate and well-groomed!” directed to a Black person, or “You speak such good English!” directed to an Asian person? My colleagues and I found in a recent study that social rejection on the basis of race was more predictive of PTSD symptoms than direct threats or police mistreatment, perhaps because social rejection is more ambiguous, and ambiguity is stressful. While being called a racist name is vile, it is unambiguous and easily attributable to the perpetrator’s character. But when one perceives rejection, one may question whether and why it occurred. The primary reason, however, that social rejection causes such ill effects may simply be this: Humans have a strong need to belong, and social ostracism is painful.

Going back to the racial remarks by the Los Angeles City Council members, ultimately it may be less important that racial name-calling and mocking — vile though it clearly is — took place than the fact that racial exclusion still exists and thrives in the highest corridors of power, in the form of casual back-room deals and formal structures and laws that limit equal participation in our communities. If we are to address the heavy toll of racism, this is where our efforts will make a difference.